In the early 20th century, Doyers Street was stained red.

Chinatown gangs regularly battled along the Manhattan alley. The narrow dogleg, running from Pell Street to the Bowery, was so violent it earned a nickname: the Bloody Angle.

Now, a century later, a Chinese artist has turned the 200-foot stretch of asphalt into a mural.

Chen Dongfan created the work, called “The Song of Dragon and Flowers,” through the Department of Transportation’s seasonal street program, which creates temporary art-filled spaces for pedestrians.

“The portrait is of the past and the present of Doyers Street,” Mr. Chen, who speaks Mandarin, said through an interpreter last week. “When I paint a person’s portrait, I use the brush stroke to capture the internal spirit of that person. So as I was painting a portrait of the whole street, I wondered if I could capture the spirit of the street and Chinatown within my strokes.”