Michael Shum

Dr. Matt Noonan

ENGW 1111

15 January 2019

In his article “A Sociologist’s Look at Graffiti”, Sewell Chan discusses the work of

Baruch College sociologist Gregory J. Snyder. Snyder, Chan explains, spent years interviewing

and spending time with graffiti artists in order to try to understand their motivations. What

Snyder discovered was an entire culture and community revolving around the mode of

expression. Artists use graffiti as a tool to express themselves and what they see around them.

By choosing locations likely to receive the most traffic, artists can share with others insight into

the culture that helped define them.

While out for dinner in Boston’s Chinatown with some friends, I came across a piece of

graffiti that I found particularly interesting. On the back wall of a restaurant there was a large

mural displayed. What stood out to me the most, at least at first glance, was the variety vibrant

colors used in the pieces. Seeing such a large colorful mural in the middle of a grey city

definitely is definitely what made this piece stand out for me. Features such as a girl wearing

traditional a kimono, the pink bunny-like creature I later recognized as Totoro from Hayao

Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro (1988), and also the large koi fish made it abundantly clear that

the artist chose to draw from Japanese culture during the creation of this mural. The entire mural

was centered around these characters meeting together to share a meal with one another. When I

recognized the meal to be shabu-shabu, due to the plates of assorted meats and vegetables

surrounding a cooking pot, I immediately made connections to Chan’s article and my own
experiences. Growing up, my family would often cook shabu-shabu during winters and

whenever family members were coming over to visit. The reasoning for this is because shabu-

shabu, also known as hotpot, is a very intimate and involved kind of meal by its own nature.

With preparations only comprising of a boiling pot of hot water and raw meat and vegetables laid

across the table, family members and friends bond and connect taking turns cooking food for one

another. The significance of the artist choosing shabu-shabu as the meal they wanted to depict in

their mural informs the audience that the artist means to convey a sense of community and

belonging with this piece. Combined with the aforementioned Japanese cultural references, I

couldn’t help but see a connection between this artists work, namely depicting scenes with

personal cultural significance, and the work of other artists described by Snyder in Chan’s

article. Furthermore, the mural’s location in Chinatown only makes the piece that much more

compelling. All ethnic enclaves are filled with rich histories and cultural blending, and Boston’s

Chinatown is no exception. By locating this mural in the heart of Boston’s Chinatown, the artist

is tapping into the sense of community already established in the area. This mural personally

resonated with me because of my own memories and experiences growing up, and I am glad I

encountered it that night by chance.

 Work Cited

Chan, Sewell. “A Sociologist's Look at Graffiti.” The New York Times, The New York Times,

17 Feb. 2009, cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/a-new-look-at-graffiti-writers-

lives/.