New US museum’s goal: show how Chinese-Americans are woven into the nation’s fabric
- Chinese-Americans have contributed to the United States’ construction, fought in its wars and built communities from coast to coast
- ‘Chinese are not recent arrivals. We see ourselves as an American history museum,’ says executive director
Walking into the yet unopened Chinese-American Museum in Washington, visitors are greeted with a simple message on the wall: “The Chinese-American story is an American story.”
Located in a five-storey Beaux Arts mansion four blocks north of the White House, the museum hopes to tell the story of the Chinese-American “experience”, beginning with the first four recorded Chinese visitors who sailed to the port of Baltimore aboard a merchant ship from Guangzhou in 1785.
“Chinese are not recent arrivals,” said the museum’s executive director David Uy, himself a first-generation Chinese-American. “We see ourselves as an American history museum. That’s one of the main points we’re trying to get across.”
In the 235 years since those first arrivals set foot in the nascent United States, Chinese-Americans had been, in Uy’s words, an “indelible part” of US history, contributing to the country’s construction, fighting in its wars and becoming bedrocks of communities from New York City and San Francisco to Glenwillow, Ohio, and many places in between.
According to the Pew Research Centre, as of 2015 about 24 per cent of Asian-Americans were of Chinese origin, totalling about 4.9 million people. Many have risen to prominence, such as US Representatives Judy Chu and Grace Meng, entrepreneur and former Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang and Zoom Video Communications founder Eric Yuan.
These days, however, the Chinese-American experience is one that is sometimes marred by a rising tide of discrimination, driven by both the Trump administration’s combative relationship with China and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Between March 19 and August 5, the Los Angeles-based Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council registered over 2,500 incidents of discrimination against Asian-Americans, ranging from verbal and physical assaults to workplace discrimination – which the organisation said was just “the tip of the iceberg”.
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Hundreds of incidents were recorded on the West Coast, including in San Francisco on May 6 when an Asian-American man was attacked by an assailant who accused him of “bringing that Chinese virus over here”.
In Los Angeles’ Carson area, fake fliers bearing the logo of the World Health Organization were distributed, telling residents to avoid Asian-owned businesses because of Covid-19.
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This environment, Uy said, made the mission of the Chinese-American Museum all the more urgent, even if it did not necessarily plan to address America’s most recent wave of Sinophobia head on.
“Special exhibits and events where we can host a panel of speakers that can talk about that topic is probably more feasible to us,” he said.
“We’re here to present histories and facts. We could be the host for some of these conversations, but it’s not us having these conversations. It’s the people we bring in.”
The museum and the panel discussions will not shy away from dark chapters of Chinese-American history, such as the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the only US law that barred the entry of all members of a specific national or ethnic group of immigrants. The blanket ban was eased slightly in 1943 and not lifted until 1952.
“We are only bettered by increasing people’s understanding and familiarity with the real people that they’re talking about, so that it’s not just some kind of stereotype or aggregated idea of what someone is, looks like, acts like or behaves,” Uy said.
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His comments were echoed by Louisa Sorkness, an intern at the museum and one of a number of non-Chinese-Americans who are forming part of its growing team.
“We’re all Americans, and we all have different ancestry. Mine is mostly European, but nobody says that we are responsible for World War II,” Sorkness said, referring to the notion held by some that the Chinese are responsible for the coronavirus.
“We’re at a point in our history where it’s time to rise above discrimination and just move forward as one group of people.”
For the museum, combating stereotypes also means carefully distancing itself from China amid a difficult geopolitical situation that has seen some Chinese-backed institutions – most notably Confucius Institutes – painted as hubs of industrial and military espionage.
“It’s focused strictly on the Chinese-American story. That’s Chinese in America. We’re not a Chinese museum talking about the Tang dynasty or Chinese politics,” Uy said.
“The only times we touch on things more from the Chinese perspective are when we’re talking about how those things have culturally or historically affected the Chinese in America, such as historical reasons why people were coming, opportunities here, civil war or famine.”
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As an example Uy pointed to a pre-pandemic exhibit – on display during one the museum’s limited soft openings – that revolved around Jewish refugees who found safe haven in Shanghai during World War II.
“Some of them came as immigrants and settled in the US and brought the culture with them,” he said. “Those are the kinds of stories we want to tell.”
Initial funding has come from the museum’s founding board members and individual donors, although officials declined to disclose the amount spent to date.
Unlike many of the museums in the US capital, it is relatively compact, totalling about 836 square metres (9,000 square feet). For comparison’s sake, the nearby National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016 and is part of the Smithsonian Institution, covers more than 37,000 square metres.
Its space constraints mean that curators must prioritise exhibits that emphasise broader aspects of Chinese-American history and life. Entrance will be free.
One section, for example, will focus on Chinese-American “service to country” in the military, political office or civil services.
Another, titled “Building America”, will focus on Chinese contributions to the nation’s development, such as their participation in the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. An estimated 20,000 Chinese immigrants helped build the railway in the 1860s, and hundreds died from accidents, landslides or disease.
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A third section delves into “American communities” – rather than large-scale urban Chinatowns – that modern Chinese-Americans call home. For that section, Uy said, the museum was considering the use of virtual reality equipment that would allow visitors to “walk through” and experience various Chinese communities across the US.
“Chinatowns are just one part of the story,” Uy said. “They were formed to help protect groups of people and businesses and help people that didn’t speak English.”
“Now, today, a lot of Chinatowns have moved into suburbia,” he said. “They all have their own characteristics, and they all are in different stages of their life cycle. Some are growing, some are shrinking, and we want to talk about that.”
Uy and other members of the museum’s team are quick to point out that the exhibits are directed at all Americans, whether of Chinese origin or not.
But that is not to say that Chinese immigrants or Chinese-Americans are not expected to benefit from them.
“It’s a chance for me to learn as well,” said museum assistant Xin Ren. “I came here when I was 10 years old. Going through junior high school and high school, I really didn’t learn much about Chinese-American history and how important that it was to the United States. I just didn’t get the chance.”
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Before the coronavirus pandemic, the museum held soft openings for school groups, social clubs and other organisations, as well as the general public during “sneak peek” hours. Its official opening has been pushed back to at least March.
Even then, the opening gala may be held virtually, with the participation of its founders, which include the Hong Kong, Shanghai and LA-based real estate developer Philip Qiu, as well as honorary board members such as television journalist Connie Chung and producer and screenwriter Adele Lim, best known for the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians.
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“Covid-19 has definitely prevented us from bringing people to the museum, but it hasn’t slowed us down too much. A lot of what we’re doing is behind the scenes,” Uy said.
“From the fundraising side, we’ve definitely slowed down,” he said. “A lot of our potential funders are kind of in a holding pattern as well. But I think we’re seeing these conversations pick up again.”
With a building ready, exhibits planned and additional funding conversations gathering steam, Uy said he was confident of the museum’s success.
This begs the question: how will the Chinese-American Museum gauge success?
“We felt it’s really important to insert the Chinese-American story on the DC stage,” he said. “We feel that we’ll be successful when people see this story as not an adjunct to American history but an indelible part of what’s America.”
