Wing Luke Museum installs mural to revitalize vandalized Canton Alley

The Wing Luke Museum offered a first glimpse Monday of a newly-installed mural spread across nine boarded-up windows and doors that had been damaged in September by a man allegedly wielding a sledgehammer and shouting anti-Chinese sentiments.

The mural by artists Sami Hilario and Shea Dailey depict a green-and-blue pheasant with bright red plumage and purple beak, set against what the artists call a “dreamscape” of more vivid colors.

Their inspiration came from a Chinese platter found in Sun May Company, a historic gift shop that lies directly across from the museum’s vandalized property in the Chinatown International District’s Canton Alley South.

Pheasants traditionally represent beauty, divinity, power and good fortune, according to an artists’ statement, and its many feathers are a symbol that “individuals are part of the collective, and with that comes strength.”

Wing Luke executive director Joël Barraquiel Tan, speaking at a news conference also attended by Gov. Jay Inslee, Mayor Bruce Harrell and Commerce Director Mike Fong, said he hopes the mural will bring healing and “change the energy and stories in that space.”

Prosecutors have charged Craig Milne with a hate crime in connection with the attack. As he was bashing in the windows and doors while patrons toured the museum, he said Chinese people “ruined my life,” according to charging papers.

When police arrived, he told them that Chinese people “have tortured and tormented me for 14 years. I don’t regret anything I did here,” the charging papers say.

Milne, 76, was initially found incompetent to stand trial due to mental health issues, but received treatment by court order and was later found competent. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial in February.

The attack escalated concerns about anti-Asian hate and violence, which spiked early in the pandemic as some scapegoated China for the rise of COVID-19. A series of armed home-invasion robberies targeting Asian residents in South Seattle last summer further heightened fears.

“We have to understand that hatred still exists across the United States,” Inslee said Monday.

The Wing Luke Museum, founded in 1967, showcases the art, culture and history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The blow the museum suffered in September, Harrell added, “cuts to the soul of many people in a country where we are seeing Chinatowns and international districts somewhat eroding. I think at last count there might be less than 50 in the country.”

Yet, there’s an untold story to Seattle’s Chinatown International District, Barraquiel Tan said in an interview. While the pandemic was hard on the neighborhood, not only because of anti-Asian attacks but a proliferation of crime and disorder, the area is now experiencing a renaissance, according to the museum’s executive director.

He noted that along with longtime businesses that stayed the course, including Jade Garden and Tai Tung restaurants, new businesses have sprung up. Mam’s Books, offering works by Asian American authors, is one. Another is Kilig, a Filipino restaurant from acclaimed chef Melissa Miranda of Musang.

Barraquiel Tan said he sees the mural as part of an effort to get people to return to the Chinatown International District — or as he put it, “come home.” Nearly 23% of King County residents are Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders (not including people of two or more races), according to the U.S. Census.

The mural installation is also just in time for the museum’s Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday.

The artwork won’t permanently sit in the alley but will be moved to a to-be-determined location when the museum repairs the damaged windows and doors. It’s a time-consuming and expensive process because of the historic structure. The city of Seattle and the state’s Commerce Department chipped in $50,000 apiece to help the museum make repairs and beef up security.

“It isn’t like you can go to Home Depot and get a new window,” Barraquiel Tan said. There are preservation guidelines the museum needs to follow, making sure architecture elements, like wood framing around the windows and doors, stay consistent.

The mural was originally supposed to be part of broader project examining racial and ethnic bigotry. Wing Luke, the Washington State Jewish Historical Society and the Block Heritage Society of Washington State are partnering to bring to Seattle a portion of a national exhibit, called Confronting Hate 1937-1952. The local project will also explore the region’s history, with activities Feb. 24 at the Museum of History & Industry and a May pop-up exhibit at Wing Luke.

After the September attack, the museum decided to use the mural to revitalize Canton Alley. Repairs to the alley won’t be ready by the time of the pop up exhibit, so the mural will stay where it is at least until then.

Reflecting that cross-community work, the same artists who painted the Canton Alley mural also plan to put their stamp on art covering up antisemitic graffiti spray painted last spring onto Capitol Hill’s Temple De Hirsch Sinai.

Middle and high school students from Bush School and The Seattle Academy painted two vibrant, arboreal scenes on the vandalized temple wall in December. Hilario and Dailey, both of whom who participated in a Wing Luke youth program and later served for a time as museum guides, will paint their own mural and a frame that ties all the artwork together.