Oedipus Treks

Philip Poon is an architectural designer and artist, both by profession and demeanor. He doesn’t cut the figure of a typical New York City neighborhood guide, which he also technically is. Tagging along on an iteration of his “Sign Language” tour series, I got the sense he would rather be someplace else—or at least talking to more fabulous people than the eager dozen or so locals and out-of-towners who had turned up. His explanation for why new restaurants and shops, particularly those in Dimes Square, mimic the patina of Chinatown storefronts in that insipid neoluncheonette kind of way was vague. Moreover, the focus on Dimes Square’s buzzy, Substacker-riddled turf felt like a bait-and-switch. When asked about this choice, Poon explained that it was a way to get people to sign up. Duh.

Not that the tour, which is funded by a grant by the Asian American Arts Alliance, was uninformative. I learned about the ties between residents and popular spots like Nom Wah and about the suffragette Mabel Lee, after whom the Doyers Street post office is named, and about the late pho…