The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience unveiled a mural on Monday which they hope gives an uplifting chapter in what started as a bad story. In September, a white man allegedly smashed the windows of the Wing Luke Museum, shouting racial slurs and that "the Chinese" had ruined his life.
He was charged with a hate crime. Multiple reports say Seattle police took 45 to 50 minutes to respond to the scene, which happened during an event at the museum.
The mural stretches across the nine windows he smashed in Canton Alley. The nine panels depict an aquamarine, green and blue pheasant – a symbol of strength, grit, and beauty, according to the museum director Joël Barraquiel Tan.
"The colors, the form, really speaks to the divine grace that we're trying to call back into the alley," Barraquiel Tan said, gesturing to the mural. Standing beside him were Gov. Jay Inslee and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell; the mural and repairs were funded by $100,000 from state and local government.
Harrell is the first Seattle mayor of Asian descent; he said the attack came as Seattle’s Chinatown and others around the country are “eroding.”
"It went beyond just brick and mortar. It went beyond just property destruction. It sort of cut to the soul of many people," Harrell said. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Seattle’s Chinatown one of its most endangered historic places last year.
There will be a public blessing during the Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
