Pandas and zodiac animals in pediatric spaces
Panda and zodiac paintings hang in children’s areas at Massachusetts General Hospital — something for young patients and their families to look for, name and talk about while they wait.
Since March 2025
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Chinese art for children and families
Xiang Li paints pandas, the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac and the empresses of Chinese history, by hand. This page is an overview for children’s museums and family venues: what the work is, where children have already met it, and the ways it has been shown.
A mother’s brush, a daughter’s stories
Xiang Li 李湘 trained for thirty-seven years in the Forbidden City’s painting studio. Her pandas and zodiac animals are the playful side of that training: quick, bright watercolors full of small jokes — a dove on a rat’s head, a book held upside down — that children find before adults do.
Her daughter, Fei Wu, produces every program and leads it: she sets up the tables, tells the story of each animal and translates for her mother, who is there to meet the families.
- 12
- Zodiac animals, each painted by hand
- 39
- Panda paintings
- 3,000
- Visitors at the MFA’s 2026 Lunar New Year festival
Two collections children respond to
Each has its own page with every painting and the story behind it.
A hospital, a library, a making table
The panda and zodiac paintings have met children in a pediatric waiting area, a public library hall and hands-on workshops.
All twelve zodiac animals in the Main Hall
Voices of Strength hung the twelve zodiac paintings beside the empresses for a month. Children walked the hall looking for their own year.
July 2026 Read the story →
Art you can see, smell, make and wear
Activity bags with stencils and drawing pads, painted bear keychains and tea scents — children and parents making side by side in front of the original paintings.
May & June 2026 Read the story →
A recurring program
Lunar New Year festivals
Every winter the studio sets up a zodiac table at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Worcester Art Museum. Children look for their own animal among the twelve paintings; parents ask about the empress behind them. In 2026 Worcester’s visitor clicker passed 800.
- 2027
- Worcester Art Museum Upcoming · January 31, 2027
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Upcoming · February 7, 2027
- 2026
- Worcester Art Museum February 16, 2026
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston February 19, 2026
- 2025
- Worcester Art Museum January 26, 2025
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston January 30, 2025
- 2024
- Harvard Museums February 2024
Four program formats
Venues have used one of these or combined them, adapted to the space and the age of the visitors.
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A pop-up exhibition
Original paintings or framed prints, from a single panel to a scroll four meters long. Prints suit spaces without climate control or security.
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A hands-on making table
A drop-in table with stencils, drawing pads and painted keychains, using the paintings as models. Works for ages three and up with a grown-up.
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Artist talk and storytelling
Fei Wu leads: the story behind a painting and how it was made — mineral pigments, silk, brushes — translating for Xiang Li, who is there to meet the families.
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Seasonal celebrations
Lunar New Year and AAPI Heritage Month are the moments these programs have most often been part of.
Venues that have hosted the work
- Thomas Crane Public Library · May 22, 2027
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston · February 7, 2027
- Worcester Art Museum · January 31, 2027
- Newton Free Library
- Wellesley Free Library
- Jean McDonough Arts Center (JMAC)
- Creative Hub Worcester
- LabCentral
- Tatnuck Bookseller
- Gutman Library, Harvard Graduate School of Education
- Happy Lamb Hot Pot, Boston Chinatown
- New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill
- Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)
- Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery, Worcester State University
- UMass Memorial Health
- College of the Holy Cross
- Denholm Building
- Cambridge Public Library
- Kathryn Schultz Gallery, Cambridge Art Association
- Blackstone Valley Art Association
- ValleyCAST
- Harvard Museums
Questions
For loan details, image files, program logistics or anything this page does not answer, write to the studio. Fei Wu produces and presents the studio’s programs and will answer.
Contact the studio Fei Wu · Producer and speaker · Xiang Li’s daughter
xiangliart@gmail.com