Jia Lin is an 18 year old multi-media artist born in New York City and raised in the Greater Philadelphia Area. They find joy in experimental photography, composing music, film, and sculpture. She’s a first year student at Stanford University, where she is an Art + Justice Grant and Fellowship recipient at the Stanford Arts Institute. 

Jia’s recognitions include being a Scholastic Art & Writing Awards National Medalist in photography, a 2022 Congressional Art Competition Award winner, an International Piano Composition Contest winner, an alumna of the Tufts University SFMA Studio Art Intensive, attending as a Scholastic Awards Summer Scholarship recipient, and an alumna of the Sunset Chamberfest Young Composer’s Workshop. 

As a descendant of the Fuzhounese diaspora, Jia grew up in a community of Fuzhounese immigrants that live predominantly in New York City; along Little Fuzhou in Manhattan, Flushing in Queens, and Fuzhou Town in Brooklyn. Through oral storytelling, film photography, sound art, Jia’s work focuses on documenting the lived experiences of low-income and undocumented Fuzhounese immigrants that work as under-recognized manual laborers and service workers across the United States.

Fuzhounese Americans are Chinese American people of Fuzhou descent. Fuzhounese American immigration peaked in the 1990s, with around 8,000 Fuzhounese immigrants arriving in the U.S. every month, predominantly concentrated in New York City. Many early Fuzhounese immigrants were originally agricultural workers in rural Fuzhou that relied on gang operated smuggling trades and endured subhuman treatment aboard cargo ships for a chance to immigrate to the United States, and arrived as undocumented immigrants in search of better opportunities. In order to pay off the passage debt, many worked as low wage laborers in the city’s restaurant and garment industry and were left vulnerable to exploitation. Due to lack of resources and fear from their immigration status, Fuzhounese workers were exploited by employers and traveled state to state to work in affiliate restaurants. This desperate financial reliance leads to a cycle of abuse and forced migrant labor. These unique immigration circumstances lead to negative stereotypes and discrimination towards Fuzhounese Americans, leaving them isolated from other Chinese Americans groups. Despite discrimination and harsh living conditions, Fuzhounese immigrants were able to slowly create their own neighborhoods and unofficial Chinatown’s in New York City along East Broadway in Manhattan, Flushing in Queens, and Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Although, these neighborhoods are currently facing housing shortages and are vulnerable to gentrification. Data on the reality of the Fuzhounese community is limited as the population remains largely invisible due to immigration status. My project, Opportunity, focuses on recording the untold stories of these people. As a descendant of the Fuzhounese diaspora, I created this project to record the lived experiences of low-income and undocumented Fuzhounese immigrants that work as under-recognized manual laborers and service workers across the United States. Through oral storytelling, journalism, film photography, and sound art, Opportunity is an ongoing project I plan to use to record the stories of my people.