In the mid nineteen seventies National Artist, American National Opera and actress, Lisa Lin (nicknamed Moon Unit) began to explore her identity as an Asian woman and as a performer. She began to develop an interest in the Japanese art of paper cutting, which has influenced her art and photography throughout her career. This interest spanned over twenty years and through the early nineteen eighties, Lisa Lin moved to New York City to live with her American lover, Joseph Lin, a Chinese American artist who was living and working in Chinatown. The two women fell in love and spent eleven happy years together in Manhattan. The hard work and love combined, Lisa Lin discovered that with the help of her Chinese mother she could carve out her own unique identity in the world of art, as an artist.
Lisa Lin’s greatest accomplishment is the line she helped launch called “The Lovers’ Staircase” in the mid nineteen eighties and remained busy and influential throughout her career. Lisa Lin felt very strongly that women’s issues and ethnicity should be central to the work she did. She felt that being of Asian descent made her more of an individual and gave her a better understanding of what people expected from an artist. She used her ethnicity as an inspiration and spoke often about her heritage at public gatherings. After her marriage to Joseph Lin she formed her own firm that offered a line of children’s clothing, jewelry, accessories, and garments. The company eventually evolved into its present day identity as Lin-Man Group.
As she moved into her sixties, Lisa Lin felt that her work had come to a satisfactory level and she decided to take on another challenge. She formed the Lin-Man Family Corporation, a national chain of day care centers and was involved in the local communities helping to build new homes and assist the elderly. Today, the Lin-Man Company offers childcare in over one hundred and sixty-three locations throughout the United States.