Wing Luke Museum — Attraction in Seattle

The Wing Luke offered one of the best museum experiences for me. I left in an extremely emotional state. Being half-Japanese, I have always been deeply fascinated with my culture, yet perpetually estranged from it. I can visit all the museums I like or even Japan itself, but being American often divided me from Japan. However, the purpose of this museum was to provide the Asian American experience, and it offers an extremely educated approach. The museum offers information about and/or cultural artifacts from American immigrants from East, South, and Central Asia, as well as the Middle East. It is hard to ignore the message that no matter how broad Asia is geographically, we have all been viewed or treated in the same way in America: as outsiders. What made this so apparent to me was the fake Hunting Licenses, that used the same terminology for hunting and killing Japanese during WWII and Muslim immigrants after 9/11. Like African and Latin American descendants, so too were Asians compared to animals. Like all minorities, so too are Asians subject to mass-murders and genocide in their hometowns, and must often flee to places such as North America for refuge. Immigrants come here to escape horror, but they experience it right when they land, though verbal and visual assault may be more muted forms of violence. However, the museum did not sulk in depravity, but empowered its Asian American visitors with cultural artifacts and exhibits of their success here. This took the form of a section dedicated to coffee and tea, and how Taiwanese, Japanese, and Indian shop owners to name a few made a living here. It even features the owner of Seattle Best Tea, a shop just down the street from a restaurant. We went and visited the woman after and she was a friendly and funny person who definitely knew her herbs and tea. Finally, there was a Bruce Lee exhibit, a figure that we all may recognize but few understand. Lee was extremely philosophical, and that shows in his poetry and martial arts. He was a deep person with purpose and an interesting background, but also maybe the only hero that Asians in the past could...

The Wing Luke Museum is, in and of itself, representative of the AAPI Experience: Seemingly small in stature and outwardly unassuming, it carries an underlying sense of well-warranted, soft-spoken pride and honor, and it leaves you with an overwhelming (for me, at least) understanding of the "super-hero origin stories" of the AAPI community's first-generation immigrants - those whose super-hero status I had quite frankly taken for granted for years before our visit to this museum.

Don Wong led a tour that was uniquely intertwined with first-hand accounts that not only complemented the tour but made it personal and relatable - and that resonated deeply for me as a 2nd-gen immigrant. His lived experiences and time-wisened reflections of his own past were an inextricable part of this experience, so unique that I felt "present," for once - removed from the myriad of worries of "life" and, instead, transported happily back to an age when stories were powerful, moving, and impactful. I left with not only a greater sense of my own roots but a greater sense of purpose - and a deeper sense of community.

Personally, I came for the Bruce Lee exhibits, which alone were worth the price of admission, with accounts I had never before heard or seen - and I thought I was a "Bruce Lee fan." But I left with so much more...

Highly...

Came here for the Bruce Lee Exhibit, left with a good sense of how Seattle's Asian-American community have come together throughout all the challenges of racism, and how they uniquely dealt with it. Unlike other communities, with higher Chinese populations like San Francisco, LA, or New York, all Asian-Americans came together here. It's really interesting! Some things to highlight: When talking about music and pop, I thought Wing Luke Museum did a better job of highlighting local indie groups than the Museum of Pop did. Also, compared to San Fran's Bruce Lee exhibit, which really didn't say much that you didn't already know, and really featured a lot of items that were imported from Los Angeles, Seattle's Bruce Lee exhibit was much more personable, featuring Bruce's notes written in Chinese. I sent a picture to my friend, and she said his Chinese writing was actually very beautiful. There are lots of hand-notes Bruce wrote in English, but it's much rare to find his notes written in Chinese. And of course, I HIGHLY recommend taking the tours that bring you into the Kong Yick building. It really helps put everything in the exhibit into a much fuller context. The guides are wonderful &...