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 photographer Corky Lee (no relation), whose portraits of protests capture a different, radical side of Chinatown. More than anything else, I learned about the successful architect behind many of the neighborhood’s newest buildings. His name? Peter Poon.

“I was in those meetings,” the younger Poon said of the wheeling and dealing that brokered the construction of the luxury hotel at 50 Bowery, where we made a pit stop. It became clear that the afternoon’s itinerary revolved around designs by his father, who, Poon noted, had declined an invitation to join us. Oedipal struggle doesn’t typically feature in a walking tour. Then again, “Sign Language” is more akin to an art project, one with an overt bias against the gentrifying agents whose handiwork alienates communities and caters to tastemakers and tourists. (In 2017, the hospitality operator of 50 Bowery’s since-closed basement bar caught flak from Chinatown activists for promoting the lounge’s “opium den–themed” décor.) “I obviously have a complicated relationship with this,” Poon acknowledged.

I, too, find that a stroll through New York City helps me work through personal turmoil. But it had never occurred to me to bring a throng of bemused strangers along for the ride. To tell you the truth, I’m jealous I hadn’t thought of it first.