During the COVID pandemic, anti-Asian racism and attacks on Asian American and Asian Canadian women and elders have escalated to alarming levels. This embroidered banner is an expression of gratitude to and a celebration of Xiao Zhen Xie’s spirit and actions when she fought off her attacker in San Francisco’s Chinatown in March 2021. The 76-year-old grandmother was waiting to cross the street when a man punched her. She instinctively picked up a wooden stick and hit him back repeatedly. Xiao and her family decided to donate the nearly $1 million raised in a crowdfunding campaign to support her medical expenses back to the Asian American community to combat racism, saying “We must not submit to racism and we must fight to the death if necessary.”

Xiao Zhen Xie

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