Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
Chinatown-International District
Seattle, Washington
The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (The Wing) immerses people in uniquely-American stories of survival, success, struggle, conflict, compassion and hope. The museum is in the heart of Seattle’s vibrant Chinatown-International District — a national historic district — and includes the very hotel where countless immigrants first found a home, a meal and refuge. As our nation’s only museum devoted to the pan-Asian Pacific American experience, it’s one of the few places that can truly give you a new perspective on what it means to be American. The Wing is a Smithsonian Affiliate, a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, and an Affiliated Area of the National Park Service.
The Wing makes its home in the 1910 historic East Kong Yick Building, created through the pooled resources of over 170 Chinese pioneers.
Letter Cloud by artists Erin Shie Palmer and Susie Kozawa hangs within the historic west lightwell of the building that once provided light and ventilation to interior apartment rooms for pioneer Asian laborers.
The advertising curtain from the historic Nippon Kan in Seattle’s Japantown is now displayed in The Wing’s Tateuchi Story Theatre.
Highlights: Admission includes an all-day pass to gallery exhibitions and a guided tour of this preserved historic 1910 Chinatown hotel, including the Yick Fung Company store, hotel manager’s office and historic family association hall. Tours are approximately 45 minutes. Also experience the Touch of Chinatown, a guided tour of the Chinatown-International District neighborhood. Learn about Seattle’s Asian community from local guides and experience Asian cultures and shops first-hand. Arrange ahead of time for a Bitter & Sweet tour, which takes you to neighborhood sites featured in the New York Times bestselling book “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” by Jamie Ford, including central character Henry’s family apartment in Canton Alley.
For students, teachers and researchers interested in furthering their study, The Wing’s Governor Gary Locke Library and Community Heritage Center is accessible Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-3pm, and by appointment, and includes literature, archival documents, videos, oral history collections and the Densho: Japanese American Legacy Project computer archive database, as well as a searchable database of The Wing’s permanent collection. An online database can be found at: db.wingluke.org.