The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (Wing Luke Museum) 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 American/Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander experience, it’s one of the few places that can truly give you a new perspective on what it means to be American. Wing Luke Museum is a Smithsonian Affiliate 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.
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, Wing Luke Museum’s Governor Gary Locke Library and Community Heritage Center is accessible 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 Wing Luke Museum’s permanent collection. An online database can be found at: db.wingluke.org.
Wing Luke Museum is located in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District at:
719 South King Street Seattle, WA 98104
Wednesday-Monday, 10am-5pm
The museum is closed for New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.
Phone: 206.623.5124
From downtown Seattle by bus: Wing Luke Museum is walking distance from the International District-Chinatown Bus Tunnel and Light Rail Station and bus routes 7, 14, 36, and 99 Waterfront Streetcar Line.
The closest airport is Sea-Tac International. The distance from the airport to the museum is approximately 13 miles.