Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle

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comments 5

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  Chris K

  :: 25 April 2018 12:24:52

  At $17 a person, I felt it was overpriced. We drove all the way over, when we arrived were told they are closing 2 hours earlier, yet they were still adamant to charge $17each for remaining 30min: You a non-for-profit institution, making people feel welcome, and building cultural bridges - you are not suppose to be act like some rigid business: shameful. We did a 12 min tour of the shop, and 12 min of hotel. It's meh! And then told to leave. If price was half, better exhibits, and ticket staff hospitable: maybe, but as it stands will not being going back anytime soon.

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  G Lee

  :: 18 April 2018 21:03:14

  I had no idea there was even a museum here, and one that I could spend the better part of a day at this museum. I would recommend that you start your first museum here, then go elsewhere afterwards once your interest wanes. But we had to leave before closing due to a prior scheduled event. We had a special discount offer through the hotel we stayed at.

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  John Hanson

  :: 23 March 2018 18:13:45

  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 look up to here.

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  Latife Bulur

  :: 07 February 2018 08:35:28

  What a beautiful museum! I have to admit, when I first pulled up, I was pretty discouraged. It didn't look like much on the outside, almost like an apartment building. Come to find out that the building itself used to be an old hotel that they restored inside. The inside of the museum is gorgeous and the exhibits are very beautifully displayed. While here, we did the Bruce Lee tour and loved it! What a wonderful experience and our tour guide did a great job! We ended up spending several hours here without realizing it. The only tricky part is parking, since the museum doesn't have its own.

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  Todd F

  :: 08 January 2018 03:25:07

  Wonderful museum in the international district. Well worth the visit. I highly recommend taking the guided tour as well. It gets you into original areas of the building that are off limits to self tour folk The old store and the guest hotel upstairs are an amazing window into a past that most Americans are not aware of. The Bruce Lee exhibit was just icing on the cake and really cool to see all the items that had of his!