Thank You Enjoy: July 27 to August 24
Thank You Enjoy: July 27 to August 24
July 27, 2019
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Lisa Derrick Fine Arts
961 Chung King Rod, Los Angeles CA 90012

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Lisa Derrick Fine Arts is honored to present “Thank You Enjoy” by Katie Salisbury. “Thank You Enjoy” is a collection of photographs and stories highlighting the lives of Chinese restaurant workers. Salisbury, a fourth-generation Chinese-American, was sparked by a simple question: If Chinese takeout is so popular in America, why do we know so little about the people who work in the industry?

With “Thank You Enjoy,” Salisbury tells the stories of Chinese restaurant industry workers: cooks, delivery people, waiters, and community organizers. “Thank You Enjoy” challenges us to examine the working conditions and personal sacrifices of Chinese immigrants while considering what it truly means to be American.

Salisbury documented Chinese restaurant workers in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. What began as a straightforward photo essay has since grown into a TED Talk and an exhibition traveling the U.S.since 2018. The exhibition has expanded to include oral stories from second and third generation Chinese Americans who grew up in and around the Chinese restaurant business. Salisbury has deep ties to Los Angeles Chinatown. Her great grandfather, Gee Kee Ward, owned and operated a Chinese restaurant across the street from Union Station in Los Angeles during the 1940s. Salisbury’s great aunt Lilian Wong, then fourteen-years old, played an important role in helping to run the restaurant—buying meat from the black market, prepping vegetables in the kitchen, waitressing and seating customers while her older brothers were away serving in the United States military during World War II.

“Thank You Enjoy” opens July 27 with a reception from 6pm to 9pm, and runs through August 24. A complimentary group show of immigrant and first generation artists will hang in downstairs grotto.


961 Chung King Rod, Los Angeles CA 90012

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