A Lunar New Year Scroll
The unrolled scroll created by Erika Taketa using the Castro Pride flag materials and my short story “New Year”
Happy (belated) Lunar New Year! A couple of weeks ago, we entered the Year of the Horse, and specifically the year of the Fire Horse, which means 2026 is going to be intense—but you already know that.
Many of you also know that Last Night at the Telegraph Club began as a short story called "New Year," set during the Lunar New Year in 1955. That story was first published in the anthology All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages, in 2018. (Incidentally, 1954 was another Year of the Horse; 1955 was a Year of the Sheep.)
Last year, I was contacted by Erika Taketa, a book binding artist, who asked permission to turn "New Year" into a book object using some very special cloth: a Pride flag that has flown in San Francisco's Castro District.
If you've been to the Castro, you know there's a giant Pride flag flying over the neighborhood's main intersection. This flag is replaced every three to four months by the Castro Merchants Association, depending on wear and tear. A few years ago, they launched a program in which organizations can apply to repurpose the Pride flags and give them a new life.
Erika is part of the Hand Bookbinders of California, who received a Pride flag that flew in the Castro for about six months from 2023 to 2024. When Erika asked permission to use my story for this project, of course I immediately said yes, but I had no idea how beautiful the book object would be. Erika used a dragon scale binding technique to transform the Pride flag into a scroll, on which all the text of the story is printed. I asked her to tell me a more about the process:
ML: Can you tell me more about the project it was part of?
ET: This was part of the Pride Flag Project, which was organized by the Hand Bookbinders of California and exhibited at the American Bookbinders Museum in San Francisco during the summer of 2025. The Pride Flag Project repurposed a rainbow pride flag that had flown in San Francisco’s Castro District. Each participant received a 10 inch by 20 foot strip of the flag with all colors included and were tasked with making a book object out of the material.
ML: How long have you been doing book binding?
ET: I’ve been bookbinding for about three years and this was my first time making a dragon scale binding. It’s a short-lived technique from the Tang Dynasty in China (7th-10th century CE), during the transition from single sheet scrolls to paginated books, and I’ve been fascinated by them for a long time. There’s a lovely video about Zhang Xiaodong and his revival of this bookmaking style."
ML: How long did it take you to make this particular piece?
ET: Your short story was the perfect fit for making a dragon scale binding out of the pride flag material, with its combination of Chinese traditions and modern Western queerness. It took me about four months on and off to make, and involved a number of techniques new to me (including traditional wall scroll making!).
After the book was displayed in 2025, Erika sent it to me. Still photos really don't do it justice, so I made a short video showing off the scroll and explaining the story behind it.
You can follow Erika on instagram at @nuthatchbindery. Happy new year! 新年快乐！