Lifestyle

'Lunar New Year Love Story' celebrates true love, honors immigrant struggles

Published

2 years ago

January 11, 2024

Press Room

'Lunar New Year Love Story' celebrates true love, honors immigrant struggles

A panel from Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham’s Lunar New Year Love Story.

Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham /First Second

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Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham /First Second

Since the Lunar New Year generally falls between Jan. 21 and Feb. 20, at times this holiday closely precedes or coincides with Valentine’s Day. (This year — the Year of the Dragon — begins on Feb. 10).

Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham /First Second

By its very title, Lunar New Year Love Story, gorgeously rendered in graphic novel form by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham, deftly grafts the symbolism of these two holidays to create a rich tapestry of complimentary worldviews. Celebrating true love but also acknowledging the dark forces that haunt refugee and immigrant lives in transition, this YA graphic novel attains epic dimensions in capturing the complex, bittersweet journeys of its fully-realized characters.

Specifically, the lion dance, an important Asian ritual featured in every auspicious occasion — including New Years, weddings, and business openings — serves as a counterpoint to Valentina’s unscripted yet ultimately illuminating quest into her own heart. Unsure if she is fated to repeat her ancestors’ romantic mistakes, this young Vietnamese American high school student is accompanied throughout her hero’s journey by various manifestations of St. Valentine (apparently her parents had named her after this saint’s holiday to commemorate her conception). Valentina’s supernatural companion appears first as Cupid, then as a malevolent spirit who constantly tries to finagle Valentina into a Faustian bargain, and finally as the historical saint of third-century Rome who ministered to persecuted Christians and whose martyrdom has been commemorated world-wide on Feb. 14.

Panels from a Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham.

Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham /First Second

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Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham /First Second

Panels from a Lunar New Year Love Story, by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham.

Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham /First Second

In equal measure, Lunar New Year Love Story explores the lion symbol associated with the yin/yang life forces in Asian culture, as well as its embodiment of both “majesty and misery” in Christianity — the Western lion is Christ’s avatar and also the death sentence that befell Christian martyrs in ancient Rome. This dual, transcontinental symbol of life and death, truth and mystery, reason and emotion, male and female, gracefully captures the complicated heritage of characters impacted by their parents’ diasporic experiences.

In creating a fluid balance of opposing forces, the graphic novel illustrates sentimentality as an infantile approach employed by Valentina’s father to protect his daughter and his own wounded heart. Initially, Valentina’s rosy-hued perception of her father’s love for her presumed dead mother takes the form of Cupid — but this idealization morphs shockingly into a dead ringer for Francis Bacon’s Study After Velásquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X once she discovers the truth.

From Lunar New Year Love Story.

Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham /First Second

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Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham /First Second

From Lunar New Year Love Story.

Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham /First Second

Feeling betrayed, Valentina, who has a background in ballet, finds respite at Liu’s Kung Fu Dance Studio, where she focuses her energy into becoming an exemplary lion dancer. At this venue she meets two potential suitors/dance partners: Leslie, the extrovert son of a successful Chinese-American businessman, and Jae, Leslie’s taciturn half Korean cousin. Like Valentina, Jae immerses himself in lion dancing to liberate himself from the grief caused by his father’s untimely death.

In capturing the complex truths that these young people must face in their convergent paths, Lunar New Year Love Story expands cultural awareness via dynamic red-tone, borderless panels. Despite their specific ethnic backgrounds, Valentina, Jae, and their high school friends wholeheartedly embrace diverse aspects of their Oakland, Calif. milieu. Like the shapeshifting manifestations of St. Valentine, the lion dance that literally and metaphorically winds its way throughout the story features both the imperious lion-dragon or “foo dog” of Chinese tradition, and the Korean mop-head creature of the Bukcheong lion dance that resembles either a Hungarian Puli or a russet Cookie Monster — these are specific and transcultural symbols of strength and courage invoked in communal festivities to banish evil spirits. To have lion essence, Valentina and Jae must learn to dance together as one forthright entity divested of fears — defined as blue-tinged images trapped within darkly-etched frames. Embracing their nature as exuberant mongrels, they must reject the illusory idea of authenticity that has created barriers between groups. In one pivotal scene, Valentina emphatically refuses to be shamed when a pompous community leader berates her for losing her Vietnamese roots.

A page from Lunar New Year Love Story.

Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham /First Second

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Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham /First Second

While unwilling to relive their parents’ pasts, the characters’ acceptance of uncomfortable truths reflects a desire to take ownership of their legacy. By the same token, Lunar New Year Love Story acknowledges the struggles faced by Valentina’s predecessors who are first-generation refugees and immigrants.

A fitting book to inaugurate 2024, Lunar New Year Love Story uncannily evokes W.B. Yeats’ poignant poem, “Among School Children” in weighing our timeless hopes against life’s treacherous undertow. The famous poet, like the artist-authors of this dazzling graphic novel, urges us to embrace both romance and reality, “O body swayed to music, O brightening glance / How can we know the dancer from the dance?”

Thúy Đinh is a freelance critic and literary translator. Her work can be found at thuydinhwriter.com. She tweets @ThuyTBDinh.

Lifestyle

Street Style Look of the Week: Airy Beachy Clothes

Published

2 hours ago

April 22, 2026

Press Room

Street Style Look of the Week: Airy Beachy Clothes

“She’s like a female Willy Wonka,” Sakief Baron, 36, said about Kendra Austin, 32, after she explained that her personal style had a playful and cartoonish spirit.

Dressed in loose, oversize layers in blue and neutral shades, the couple were walking on the Upper East Side of Manhattan when I noticed them on a Saturday in April. There was a symmetry to their ensembles, so it wasn’t too surprising when she noted that he had influenced her fashion sense.

Before they met, she said, she was “less sure” about her wardrobe choices. “I also have lost 100 pounds in the time we’ve been together,” she added, which she said had helped her to recalibrate her relationship with clothes.

His style has been influenced by hip-hop culture, basketball players like Allen Iverson and his mother’s Finnish background. “I just take all these pieces and then it kind of comes together,” he said.

Both described themselves as multidisciplinary artists; he also has a job at a youth center, mentoring children. “I want to make sure that I look like someone they want to aspire to be every time they see me,” he said.

Lifestyle

What are Angelenos giving away in one Buy Nothing group? All this treasured stuff

Published

3 hours ago

April 22, 2026

Press Room

What are Angelenos giving away in one Buy Nothing group? All this treasured stuff

In my L.A. Buy Nothing group, I started noticing how some objects, given for free from neighbor to neighbor, carry emotional weight. An item was more than it appeared. It was a piece of personal history, perhaps one with generational memories.

From one person’s hands to another’s, objects find new life through the free gift economy on Facebook or the Buy Nothing app. Buy Nothing Project, a public benefit corporation, reports having 14 million members across more than 50 countries who give away 2.6 million items a month. There are more than 100 groups in Los Angeles alone.

Buy Nothing reduces waste by keeping items out of landfills. It also builds community. When our lives are increasingly online, Buy Nothing encourages us to get out of our cars and make connections with neighbors, even if the interaction is no more than a wave when picking something up left by a doorstep. Researchers have found that even small social interactions can foster a sense of belonging.

Still, Buy Nothing has its challenges. For years, some have complained that the groups shouldn’t be limited to neighborhoods, but rather have more open borders. Last year, many longtime members complained about the project enforcing its trademark, leading Facebook to shut down unregistered groups even if they were serving people under economic strain. Critics saw the tattling as a shift from mutual aid toward control and branding. For its part, Buy Nothing says its decisions are based on building community, trust and safety.

Despite those disagreements, Buy Nothing offers a platform for special connections. As much as there are jokes about people offering half-eaten cake, many have passed along treasured items. Buy Nothing items may feel too valuable for the trash or too personal for Goodwill. The interaction between giver and receiver becomes just as meaningful as the object itself.

I set out to document these quiet exchanges in my Buy Nothing group, drawn to the question of why people choose to pass their belongings from one neighbor to another.

Tiny builders, big exchange

Lidia Butcher gives a toolbox and worktable her two sons used to Chelsea Ward for her 17-month-old son.

“We’ve had the toolbox and worktable for the last 10 years, it’s been very special. When I told my youngest son we were going to give it away, he was a little sad. He said he was still playing with it, but then I explained that it’s been sitting untouched for a year and that if we gave it to someone else, maybe someone else would be happy about it. So he felt joy about giving it to another child who would want to play with it. I have this little emotional feeling letting it go, but at the same time, it’s a good feeling. Like a new beginning.”

— Lidia Butcher, 35, joined the group several years ago when someone told her a person in the group once asked for a cup of sugar.

“We’re getting a worktable. Benji is now old enough to be interested in playing with tools. I’m going to move my drafting table out of his room. His bedroom is my office. So that will go into storage or the Buy Nothing group and the worktable will go in its place. We live in an apartment, and as he’s growing, his needs change but our space doesn’t. Buy Nothing is really helpful to be able to cycle out of stuff.”

— Chelsea Ward, 38, has found the Buy Nothing group extremely helpful since becoming a mom.

Something borrowed

Abby Rodriguez lends Sophie Janinet a veil for her wedding.

“Sophie had asked for a wedding veil on our Buy Nothing group and I’m lending it to her because I wanted it to have a second life. I hate the idea that precious things just sit there and never get touched. My wedding day was one of the best days of my life. At one point the power went out and now we have this amazing picture with my husband and I and everyone using their phone to light up the dance floor.”

— Abby Rodriguez, 40, discovered Buy Nothing when she moved to her northeast L.A. neighborhood in 2020.

“I moved to Los Angeles from France four years ago. The day I joined Buy Nothing was the first time I felt connected to the community. It played a huge role in my adapting to life here. I’m receiving a veil because I want my wedding to look and feel like my values. I thrifted my dress, I chose a local seamstress to alter the dress but when I tried it on, I felt something was missing. I wanted a veil but I didn’t want to buy new because I didn’t want to add anything to the landfill. So I posted a request for the veil on Buy Nothing.”

— Sophie Janinet, 37, is recreating the low-waste, slower-paced values she once lived by in France through her local Buy Nothing community.

2 Two women sit on steps with a fake owl.

1. Abby Rodriguez, left, holds her wedding veil that she is lending Sophie Janinet, right, for her upcoming wedding. 2. Michele Sawers, left stands with Beth Penn, right, while giving her a decorative owl.

A pigeon-spooking owl gets a second life

Michele Sawers gives Beth Penn a decorative owl.

“Coming from a place of luck, now I have plenty to give. The owl has been with me for 26 years. I bought the owl soon after I bought this house. The owl was purchased because I had a pigeon problem, they would camp out under my eves and I would have bird poop everywhere. The owl must have worked because they’re gone and they haven’t come back.”

— Michele Sawers, 58, uses Buy Nothing regularly to connect with her community and support her low-consumption values.

“There are things I don’t want to own. So borrowing those things on Buy Nothing is really nice. There is a person who I borrowed their cooler twice and their ladder twice so I feel like they are my neighbor even though they are not [right next door]. We get these birds that poop on the deck and the recommendation online was to get a fake owl. When it was posted on Buy Nothing, I thought, ‘I have to have that owl!’ It’s going to have a good home with me on the deck with some cats, a dog and some kids.”

— Beth Penn, 47, once helped build her local Buy Nothing group and now experiences it from the other side, as a member.

Stuffed toys find a new purpose

Two women stand in front of a green plant holding stuffed dolls and a bag of ball pit balls.

Magaly Leyva gives stuffed toys and plastic play balls to Tatiana Lonny.

“My mother-in-law gave the dolls and plastic play balls to my daughter, but she has so much. My daughter is not going to play with them with the same intent that another kid would, because she’s really little. I’d rather another kid use these things.”

— Magaly Leyva, 35, joined Buy Nothing nearly four years ago to find clothes for her nephew.

“I’m taking these new items to a township called Langa in South Africa. I know the kids there will be so happy. They have so little there. I’m doing this all by myself, I’m just collecting a GoFundMe for the suitcase fee at the airport.”

— Tatiana Lonny, 51, began using Buy Nothing in hopes of finding resources to support the animals she rescues.

A second helping

Laura Cherkas gives Aurora Sanchez a cast iron pan.

“Buy Nothing gives me the freedom to let go of things because I know that they will stay in the community and the neighborhood. I’m giving a couple of cast iron items that my husband and I got when we were on a cast iron kick, probably during COVID. We determined that we don’t actually use these particular pans and they were just making our drawers heavy. So we decided to let someone else get some use out of them.

“I hate throwing things away. I want to see things have another life. Sometimes I take things to a donation center, but I like the personal connection with Buy Nothing and that you know that there is someone who definitely wants your item.”

— Laura Cherkas, 40, has built connections with other moms through Buy Nothing and values it as a way to cycle toys in and out for her child.

Two women stand by a gate at night holding cast iron pans.

“I wanted a cast iron pan because I cook a lot of grilled meat. I’m excited to try this style of cooking out and it will help me when I cook for only one or two people. I got lucky because I was chosen to receive it.”

— Aurora Sanchez, 54, has spent the past two years engaging with Buy Nothing, finding in it a sense of neighborly support that makes her feel valued while strengthening her connection to the community.

Next player up

A man poses next to a basketball hoop in front of his garage.

Joe Zeni first offered a basketball hoop on Buy Nothing in 2023, where it remains unclaimed.

“I’m giving away a Huffy basketball freestanding hoop because it’s just taking up space. We used to play horse and shoot baskets together. My son is now 35, he doesn’t live here anymore.”

— Joe Zeni, 70, uses Buy Nothing often to give items away, believing many of the things he no longer needs still have purpose.

Lifestyle

Armani Goes Back to the Archive

Published

14 hours ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

In the year since his death, there has been no hard pivot at Armani. The shadow of the founder has stayed in place over the Milan HQ, where the brand seems happy to leave it. Armani is not just plumbing the past for continued inspiration, it’s reselling it.

Today, Giorgio Armani is announcing Archivio, a grouping of 13 men’s and women’s looks, plucked from the brand’s back catalog and remade for today. (And, yes, at today’s prices.) There’s a jacket in pinstriped alpaca of 1979 vintage; a buttery one-and-a-half breasted jacket with a maitre d’s flair that first appeared in 1987; and an unstructured silk-linen suit that will activate ’90s flashbacks for die-hard Armani clients and those who want to capture that era’s nostalgia. The advertising campaign was shot and styled by Eli Russell Linnetz, who has his own label, ERL, but always seems to be the first call brands make when they want sultry photos with the aura of Details magazine circa 1995. (He did a similar thing for Guess recently.)

Linnetz’s images are a reminder of how Armani’s work still reverberates decades later.

Archivio is also a canny recognition of what shoppers crave now. On the resale market, Armani wares are as coveted as can be. Every week it seems as if I get an email from Ndwc0, a British vintage store, announcing a new drop of meaty-shouldered ’90s Armani power suits. They sell for less than $500. At Sorbara’s in Brooklyn, you can buy a tan Giorgio Armani vest for $225.

That vintage-mad audience is in Armani’s sights: To introduce the collection, it’s staging an installation, opening today, at Giorgio Armani’s Milan boutique. It will feature the hosts of “Throwing Fits,” a New York-based podcast whose hosts wear vintage Armani button-ups and shout out stores like Sorbara’s.

It’s prudent, if a bit disconnected. Part of the charm of old Armani is that it can be found on the cheap. I’m wearing a pair of vintage Giorgio Armani corduroys as I write this. I bought them for $76 on eBay. Archivio is reverent, but its prices, which range from $1,025 to $12,000, may scare off shoppers willing to do the searching themselves.

If you ask me, the next frontier of this archive fixation is that a brand — and a big one — will release a mountain of genuine vintage pieces. J. Crew and Banana Republic have tried this at a small scale, but a luxury house like Armani hasn’t gone there. Yet. Eventually, Armani (or a brand like it) is going to grab hold of the market that exists around its brand, but through which it gets no cut.