I first visited the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle’s Chinatown when I was invited to the opening of a temporary exhibit highlighting Asian science fiction and fantasy writers. The exhibit was on the main floor; it was so absorbing, and so many interesting people were there (I had a long conversation with the renowned author Ted Chiang) that I didn’t have much opportunity to explore the rest of the museum. This time, with the science fiction and fantasy section gone, I was able to focus on the museum’s core message.

On its three floors, the museum celebrates the history and art of the Pacific Northwest’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community. The native son Bruce Lee is prominent, of course, in several exhibits, but there is so much more. Various rooms are dedicated to the historical experiences of South Asians, Cambodians, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, and others as they immigrated to the United States and attempted to adapt to their new homeland. Fleeing for their lives and to make a better future for their children, they were often met with racism, denigration, oppression, stereotyping, and denial of access to good jobs and housing. Despite these obstacles, the new arrivals were determined to make it in this new land and opened businesses, often restaurants and laundries, raised their families, and even served in the United States armed forces.

As I perused the exhibits, it was easy for me to sense the hope that gave these people the impetus to keep struggling, despite the obstacles, to build their new lives. However, it was also easy to feel the all-but-overwhelming grief of being treated as members of a lower-class, relegated to poorer housing and infrastructure, and regarded with suspicion. For a long time the laws of the land forbade Asian immigrants from obtaining citizenship. During World War II, many Pacific Northwest Japanese Americans were interred in concentration camps. Even nowadays, Asian Americans are sometimes harassed on the streets and denied opportunities. Despite the animosity, though, the AANHPI community has persevered and even prospered.

When I first arrived at the museum, shortly after it opened, I was alone. I was able to explore the upper levels in peace and silence, for which I was thankful, but at the same time I wished that more people would become aware of and visit this amazing place. After all, apart from Native Americans, we here in the United States are all immigrants. Our parents or grandparents or great grandparents all came from other countries with similar dreams: to find a new land where they could build lives and raise their children in peace and prosperity. It is to our shame that we relegate any groups of our fellow immigrants to lower-class status; it is to their honor that they managed to succeed in spite of the irrational bad attitudes of many. Visiting Wing Luke Museum is a cultural experience, but it is also a moral and spiritual experience. It helps us realize the inestimable value of the AANHPI community to the totality of what comprises the USA.

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