In 2016, the oldest continuously run business in Manhattan’s Chinatown was up for sale: Wing on Wo and Co, established in 1890. The building was worth around $10 million, including six stories and a store front, one of the only buildings left of its kind in the area. Mei Lum, a grandchild of the original owner, stepped in before the sale, deciding to take over the business and preserve its history and position within the neighborhood, to "regenerate, encourage and protect" Chinatown's culture. Lum started the "W.O.W. Project", which hopes to "preserve Chinatown’s creative scene through art and activism". Events such as Open Mic nights and exhibitions would start conversations about this neighborhood's past and the people that have lived there. For example, in February 2020, the W.O.W. Project exhibited ethnographic research and oral history interviews that highlighted stories of migration, displacement, and everyday resilience in Chinatowns all over the world. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, the W.O.W. Project started a project called Love Letters to Chinatown.