Aging Out of Place: Chinatown Elderly

Aging Out of Place is a participatory mahjong-inspired installation first selected for Data Through Design during NYC Open Data Week, later featured in Next City News, NYCxDesign Week, and presented in lectures at Northwestern. Using mahjong tiles—a symbol of connection but also a gateway into the gambling addiction among Chinatown elderly— this piece reconstructs a portrait of immigration, isolation, and the challenges of aging in a city amid the new digital age.

Interactive tiles are laser-etched with hand-sketches of Chinatown elders and stacked into historic eateries. Visitors shuffle and re-place tiles atop fixed NYC Open Data maps of senior-care access and gambling arrests. A storytelling zine guides participants through topics of mental health, housing, etc., as they reimagine Chinatown via participatory planning, cultural memory, and civic data.

We are excited for this project to be part of the NYC PIT Pop Up because the piece aims to drive deeper community reflection towards how we can care for elders in an ever-digitalizing society. In an era of intensifying anti-immigrant rhetoric and rapid erasure of ethnic enclaves, showcasing this work among civic technologists and public-interest innovators provides an opportunity to spark new dialogues around designing with, and for, those who are aging out of societal purview.

Read more about Aging Out of Place, here.

Aging Out of Place is a project by Michelle Hui, Cornell Tech.

About Michelle Hui:

Michelle Hui is pursuing a Master’s in Urban Technology at Cornell Tech and has worked on bringing new mobility solutions to market at Alphabet and the United Nations. She is a technologist, researcher, and artist whose projects span low-cost medical hardware, urban air quality algorithms, and participatory art. Driven by her Cantonese American identity and passion for urban and climate tech, Michelle uses data storytelling and design to reimagine cities and elevate marginalized voices.