Dover Publications

Lum was encouraged early on by the late paper doll promoters Deanna Williams, Agnes Garr, and Gene Maiden. Soon she met Marjorie Sarnat, a commercial and fine artist who designs paper dolls, at an ephemera show. Years later, paper doll convention organizer Linda Ocasio created an opportunity to submit to Dover Publications, an international company headquartered in Mineola, New York.

“Dover gave me a huge break when they bought my Day of the Dead Paper Dolls and made supplementary postcards from my artwork, but it was the scariest thing to happen to me! Even scarier than getting cancer and losing a beloved family member! Living up to that wormhole experience is still my driving force today,” Lum said.

“I have always loved antique scientific illustrations,” she continued, “with objects arranged on a page and blank spac­es between. Paper dolls live in that same space of flattened three-dimensional experiences with spread-out parts. I grew as an artist because important paper doll groups provided an audience for my first work. Wonderful friend­ships emerged that still endure today.”

Growing Up in Honolulu

Lum’s artistic Chinese American family com­bined old-school values with modern life. “My extroverted father owned a printing company and my mother owned a retail store in Waikiki — an outlet for my father’s greeting card line,” she said. “Mother instilled the value of judging good taste. My large extended family taught les­sons in Asian American identity.

Chinatown is set against a striking lunar New Year parade. A bustling enclave unfolds inside the pa­per doll book with Lum Mun Kong’s General Store backdrop, five paper dolls, everyday clothing, and accessories. History’s fashion sweep includes a 19th century male working-class city dweller and a vegetable ven­dor; a prosperous businessman and his wife with tiny, bound feet; parents with children; elderly Cantonese shopkeep­ers; a sophisticated couple toasting with champagne; a dramatic Fu Man­chu “evil genius” stereotype; a night­club showgirl; and a warrior woman in a Chinese opera. Lum’s 20th century Western-style fashions depict a seamstress from the garment industry, a woman burn­ing incense in the Buddhist temple, a 1940s woman selling war bonds, a butcher with a roasted duck, a 1960s Miss Chinatown, a 1970s protester, and a 1990s wedding. Additionally, Lum depicts a 21st century shopper buying worldwide products, a young career woman, and a contemporary woman working out at the gym before work. Chinatown deftly returns to the jubilant New Year celebration with a lion costume.