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Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month at the PMA

Painting of an Asian boy carrying a bat kite embellished with train mechanisms and illustrations of horses and railroad workers wearing cowboy hats lifting the railroad in a motion that mimics a traditional Chinese lion dance performance.

Every Railroad Runs West (detail), 2025, by Cynthia Zhou. Photo by Constance Mensh © Cynthia Zhou

This year for Asian American and Pacific Islander (APPI) Month, we're highlighting AAPI creatives who are sharing their artistry all around the city. Our programming throughout May celebrates fine artists, furniture designers, chefs and much more. Come see how these artists from across AAPI diasporas are in conversation with one another. See below for more information about Asian American and Pacific Islander Month 2025 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Headshot of Cynthia Zhou.

Photo by Iza Hu

Featured Artist

Cynthia Zhou is an artist, designer, and poet based in Philadelphia. Working primarily in oil paint and printmaking, her current work is concerned with the myth of the American cowboy, the legacy of Chinese railroad workers, and how historical archetypes are deliberately created.

She has exhibited at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Arch Enemy Arts in Philadelphia, Euphrat Museum in Cupertino, California, Tufts University Art Galleries in Medford, Massachusetts, and more. She is a National YoungArts Foundation Winner, an Adobe Creative Jam Finalist, and was recognized at the White House as a 2019 Presidential Scholar in the Arts. She holds a BA in Design from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently a member of the Philadelphia artist collective Vox Populi.

Artist Statement

Every Railroad Runs West uses the form of a Chinese kite to tell the story of the tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants who built the transcontinental railroad. Despite years of intense labor linking the eastern and western coasts, very little material history survives—to this day, no direct accounts (diaries, letters home, etc.) from these Chinese workers have been found. In this painting, figures carry the railroad in a motion that mimics a traditional dragon dance parade. Some of the paint is mixed from crushed old railroad spikes dug up from the Schuylkill River, embedding the history of Philadelphia into the heart of the work.

Every Railroad Runs West (detail), 2025, by Cynthia Zhou.

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