Twenty-five years ago today, the Lin Zexu Statue in Chinatown's Chatham Square was unveiled for the first time. It's depicted here, along with the Kimlau War Memorial, in @sammynycart's beautifully rendered illustration as part of his exhibition at Pearl River, DRAWN TOGETHER: STORIES OF RESILIENCE AND RENEWAL IN NYC CHINATOWN. Born in Fujian Province, Lin Zexu was a Chinese scholar and official known for sparking the First Opium War in 1839 by seizing and dumping British opium into the Guangzhou Harbor. The statue was erected in 1997 as a way to represent the heritage of a new wave of Fujianese immigrants to NYC. Nearby is the Kimlau War Memorial, completed in 1962 and recently designated as a historic landmark. Designed by Poy Gum Lee, a renowned Chinese American architect, the memorial honors Chinese American veterans and is named for Lieutenant Benjamin Ralph Kimlau, a Chinese American pilot who sacrificed his life during World War II. You can see this and Sammy's other illustrations of historic businesses and landmarks in Chinatown in our SoHo gallery through Dec. 28. Free and open to the public every day (except Thanksgiving) during business hours.