Wing Luke Museum

On October 28 Tuesday, I went to the Wing Luke Museum. Mapquesting the place, I realized that it was in the heart of Chinatown. I got there a little late for the tour but made it. In the group was Justin, Mya and her sister. Mya happened to be in the same group as me and we went through the tour all together with this nice lady from the staff that wanted to help us with this assignment as much as possible. The tour started out in this old store called Yick Fung. The location of this store was couple blocks down the streets but Mr. Fung had donated his store to the museum . The store was a whole sale company that supplied to everybody in the chinatown community. It had preserved sugared sweets, packaged rice noodles, canned mushrooms and bamboo, and alot of other stuff. Up above, there would be beds laid out for asian immigrants to sleep on at night.

After the store, we went next door to check out a hotel where all the Asian that had just arrived to America to start a new life stay at. The hotel was very old and the museum build the hotel around the hotel and made it part of the museum. The tour guide showed us each room, from small rooms costing only a quarter to bigger rooms costing fifty cents a night. The chinese were not the only nationality of asian that lived there. There were the Japanese and Filipinos. Upstairs would be a gambling room where people would play a game called Mah Jong, and also a small room where high stake gambling would take. As we were going through the tour the tour guide told us about the family societies that would take care of the chinatown community. They were kind of like the higher ups of the chinese people. Some of the last names of these people in the chinatown community were the Lucs, Woos, and Yuen.

We past by a picture of a doctor by the name of Dr. Sun Yet Sen. He was the doctor that would bound feet of women to make them small. As a boy growing up in a chinese household, even my parents and family would say something about how pretty a persons feet would be if they were small. So knowing that, I thought it was very interesting seeing a picture of a doctor that actually specialized in that. Another picture of a man by the name of Chiang Kai-shek. He was a soldier who tried to fight back against communism but had failed. Then he moved to Taiwan and became the president of the republic of China.

The tour ended with letters floating across the ceiling. These letters were letters of all the Asian that had came to america to start a new life. (picture shown above) This museum gave me a clearer understanding of the life style the Asians went through and lived in the new world. They were very creative. During one part of the tour it the tour guide lady showed us fire hazard door that looked like it was made of steel metal. But when she asked us what it was, Justin from our group said it looks like tin cans. The chinese would use the tin cans flatten them and stick them on the door to make fireproof doors just in case there would be fires. I had a wonderful time at this tour and it taught me alot. I might even come back and learn a little more about the cultures of the other nationalities because I had to rush to work.