The Beauty of Four Life Essentials

Chenlin Cai 蔡陈林

Beautifying the Park Row Connection to Chinatown Project

In traditional Chinese culture, "Clothing, Food, Housing, and Transportation" are considered the four essentials of life. Since streets represent "transportation ("行")," I have chosen traditional Chinese patterns from clothing ("衣"), porcelain ("食"), and architecture ("住") to design the mural. These include the "Baoxiang" floral motif derived from the ancient Dunhuang murals, the “Scrolling Vine” pattern from blue-and-white porcelain, the "Twining Flower" design from cloisonné, and the "Ruyi" and "Auspicious Cloud" motifs commonly found in architecture. For the color scheme, red, yellow and blue are used for grouping. The three primary colors are mixed in pairs to derive green, orange and purple, symbolizing continuous growth and development. The patterns prominently feature plants and geometric forms, representing sensibility and rationality, and are also structures that can be infinitely derived.

These murals are distributed across nine corners at three intersections. In traditional Chinese culture, it is believed that "the Dao generates one, one generates two, two generates three, and three generates everything." The number nine also symbolizes the supremacy and infinity. In Western color theory, the three primary colors of red, yellow and blue are mixed to produce a variety of colors, which are the origin of all natural colors. Historically, Chinese immigrants who came to the United States faced many hardships but remained resilient and deeply rooted here. They began by settling in Chinatown and then spread across the country. The hope for the renewed prosperity of the Chinatown community is a shared aspiration.

Assist by Xingzi Liang 梁杏紫, Sean Bryant, Changliang Cao 曹长靓
Presented by New York City Department of Transportation Art (NYC DOT Art).