Now Place is an art space and independent publisher in San Francisco, championing emerging Asian diaspora artists and writers.
We showcase culturally rooted works that blend tradition, innovation, and personal expression, offering a window into shared identities in an interconnected world.
Language is central to our storytelling—bridging generations, preserving histories, and embracing linguistic fluidity.
Through our zines and books, we also seek to expand the definition of "Eastern" aesthetics, moving beyond conventional representations to explore expressions shaped by migration, hybridity, and personal narratives. By challenging static notions of "tradition", we create space for evolving, diverse voices that redefine what it means to be part of the Asian cultural landscape today.
Something Spring 春的
Spring has always symbolized renewal and hope, yet its arrival is often imperceptible. Through poetry and imagery, this issue explores the ambiguous nature of spring—its quiet emergence, its fleeting presence, and its symbolic weight in a world fraught with conflict. The zine weaves together familiar characters from childhood imagination—Pikachu, Moomin, Garfield, Psyduck, and Winnie the Pooh—as witnesses to the cyclical yet uncertain return of spring.
Comes in two size: 2x5'' and 2.5x7’
Mar 2025
She exists among a thansands pain
她存在于万千痛苦中
She exists amidst thousands of pain is a illustration/poem zine, part of the serie Three things about love 爱三则.
This zine is a self, intimate reflection of resilience, emotions, and the quiet strength within moments of struggles. Akaa wrote and illustrated 7 poems to explore a fragmented story of love, marriage, and being women.
Hand-bound zine, 28 pages, 5 x 8 inch, Jan 2025
“Hey, please listen to me" Earring zine
“喂，请听我说”
This Earring Zine was a part of the series <Three things about love> 爱三则. It is designed and produced by Akaa as an exploration of the fluidity of the book format.
It features a love poem, whispering love alongside your ear, with pages intentionally designed in length to reflect the meaning of the content.
Hand-bound zine, 42 pages, 12 pages, 4.5 x 2 inch,
Jan 2025
A love letter 一封情书
This "Love letter" consists of a square poem book and a illustration book by Akaa. As the last one of the series 爱三则, Akaa explores the fluidity of language—not only in translation and the way words shift between English and Chinese, but also in the materiality of the book itself. Through layered paper, blurred text, and shifting forms, the work dissolves the boundaries between meaning and medium.
Much like love, language is never fixed. It transcends direct translation, existing in the spaces between words, between what is seen and what is felt. This zine reflects that transient nature, allowing words to merge, fade, and transform—echoing how love moves beyond language, beyond definition, and into something fluid and ineffable.
Hand-bound zine, 42 pages, 5 x 8 inch,
Feb 2025
Three things about love - Intro 爱三则 - 引言
The introduction to this series arrives as a small, letter-like package—an intimate gesture mirroring the fluidity of love itself. Unbound by language, form, or definition, these three zines by Akaa explore love’s shifting nature through text, material, and composition.
Each zine within the series offers a different perspective: love as a quiet intimacy, an unanswered question, a fleeting feeling that lingers beyond words. Blurring the boundaries between English and Chinese, text and image, material and meaning, these works embody love’s contradictions—its clarity and ambiguity, tenderness and uncertainty. Through layered paper, dissolving words, and the interplay of space and touch, this series invites the reader not just to read, but to experience love in all its ephemeral forms.
‘twenty something’ 二十好几
''twenty something' 二十好几 is a collection of poetry and photography from Chen's twenty-sixth year documenting feelings of joy, confusion, pain, and cultural questioning throughout the year - a progression of growing older and letting go.
Jul 2024
Hand-bound zine, risograph printed
'i love you' 我爱你
"I love you" is a phrase both overused and underexplored. This zine unpacks its weight, its absence, and its echoes across relationships, time, and memory. Through text and image, Chen traces love’s transformations—its declarations, hesitations, and distortions—revealing how meaning shifts with context and intent. Words can be tender, hollow, liberating, or suffocating. Here, love is examined not as a fixed state but as a living, evolving force shaped by language, perception, and the spaces between us.
Hand-bound zine, risograph printed
Star-gazing syndrome
观星症
Star-Gazing Syndrome is a bilingual collection of poems and illustrations by artist Yaoting Wang. This evocative work delves into the intimate and universal act of daily life, exploring themes of longing, introspection, and connection to each other. Through a harmonious blend of poetic language and visual artistry, Star-Gazing Syndrome invites readers to reflect on the vastness of the universe and their place within it.
Risograph printed
'AIYA' 哎呀
Aiyaa, aiyah, aiyoh, aiya, or 哎呀 is a word used to express disappointment, surprise, annoyance, pain, frustration, sarcasm, etc. In this zine you'll find five illustrations of aiya moments as an artist by Faith Cao.
Hand-bound zine, risograph printed, 4.25" x 5.5"
A Personal Bible: Han Yong’s Painted Scripture
一个的圣经
Han Yong boldly paints over the Bible, not as an act of defacement but as a deeply personal reinterpretation—his own visual scripture.
Artist: Han Yong
Design: Yida
Hand-bounded, published by Yan shu
Moonnight party
Xiangyata’s art book is a quiet meditation on memory and perception, told through delicate pencil-drawn narratives. Each scene—whether an intimate gathering under power lines or a luminous encounter with fire—unfolds with cinematic softness, blurring the line between nostalgia and dream. Through intricate detail and subtle storytelling, the book invites viewers into a world both distant and deeply personal, where the passage of time feels fluid and meaning lingers in the spaces between.
Artist: Xiangyata, Published by Yan shu
Zhen 鴆
A photography book
鹤 (Zhen) is a photographic exploration of the mythical and surreal, where nature’s timeless essence meets the shifting modern landscape.
Directed by Lin Shu, the book moves through haunting and atmospheric locations—Huangshan, Wudangshan, Zhangjiajie—capturing an ethereal balance of stillness and motion.
With dreamlike compositions, it weaves a quiet yet powerful narrative that blurs reality and legend, evoking a sense of otherworldly presence within the everyday.
Artist: Lin Shu, Published by Yan shu
