The challenge

In the early 1900s, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and African-American immigrants settled the ethnically diverse area now known as Seattle's Chinatown-International District, in the southern section of the city's core. Today, most of the approximately 2,000 residents in the 26-square-block zone are Asian-American. The neighborhood struggles to remain intact in the face of deteriorating buildings, poverty, severe limited parking, pollution problems, crime and a high rate of small-business failure. The median household annual income is only $13,000.

Two sports stadiums recently built along the neighborhood's western edge are bringing gentrification to the neighborhood, diminishing an already inadequate stock of affordable housing. Because many policy-makers believe the stereotype that Asian-Pacific Americans are "model minorities" and naturally successful, not enough public money has been invested to address the community's pressing needs. Meanwhile, the residents' contributions to greater Seattle are largely unacknowledged, further undermining local cohesiveness.

Seeds of commitment

Growing up in the Chinatown district, Ron Chew saw firsthand how difficult it could be for hard-working people to make ends meet, especially when they lacked a high-school education or didn't speak English. His parents, newcomers from China, worked grueling hours to achieve a dignified life. Chew came to see their experiences as part of a larger story, seldom told, of the Pacific Northwest’s immigrants, past and present, who have toiled in the canneries, sewing factories, laundries and hotels. Often, the immigrants’ lives touched his own, in unexpected ways. For example, when Chew was a teenager, he worked as a busboy. His father’s fellow waiters regularly shared their tips to augment Ron’s salary, and helped finance his college education.

After studying journalism at the University of Washington, he went to work for the International Examiner, a newspaper in the Chinatown-International District, where he served as editor. During his two decades at the newspaper, he developed many contacts in Chinatown – and a passion for oral history – which drew him to his involvement with the Wing Luke Asian Museum (named for the first Asian-American elected official in the Pacific Northwest, a young leader who fought for civil rights and social justice and died in a plane crash in 1965).

Accomplishments

Chew serves as the Wing Luke Asian Museum's third director and its first Asian-American leader. When he was recruited to be executive director in 1991, the organization had a $130,000 annual budget and a $50,000 deficit. Today, the museum has an operating budget of more than $1 million – and no deficit. During his tenure, Chew has built a reputation for combining cutting-edge presentations with a locally oriented emphasis on social justice. In 1993, for example, Chew and his staff organized "Executive Order 9066: 50 Years Before and 50 Years After," the first of more than a dozen oral-history exhibitions. He favored a people-centered, story-centered approach. He brought together more than 100 volunteers — four generations of Japanese-Americans — and encouraged them to suggest their own vision for the exhibit. Working together, the staff and the volunteers built a replica of World War II-era internment barracks, similar to the ones that held Japanese-Americans in Washington State, and filled it with artifacts and stories from that time.

Chew also spearheaded the creation of "If Tired Hands Could Talk: Stories of Asian Pacific American Garment Workers," a 2001 project. Rather than hiring a scholarly museum curator for this exhibit, he set up a committee of 15 women garment workers, both past and present, and their children. The committee collected oral histories, gathered display materials, and designed an exhibit to illuminate the untold story of Seattle's hidden past, the legacy of its immigrant garment workers. The result: 35 first-person oral histories, presented in English, Chinese and Vietnamese, documenting the long hours, low wages and nearly forgotten details of daily life in a garment factory. People who normally would not have been attracted to a museum were drawn to Wing Luke to learn history as their neighbors had lived it. In 2002, the Western Museums Association honored "Tired Hands" as the region's best exhibition. Another recent exhibit showcased the fusion of African-American and Asian-American youth cultures. Chew also organized a series of post-9/11 programs that focused on civil liberties, including a multi-racial forum for Japanese-Americans, Arab-Americans and South Asians to discuss the dangers of stereotyping and racial profiling.

Leadership style

"Fundamentally, we are all leaders and followers," says Chew. Leonard Garfield, executive director of the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, describes Chew as "a hero in the national museum community" for his innovation of the team approach to exhibition design, a process that involves local people. The bedrock of his leadership style is his belief in personal and collective stories as the building blocks of social justice. "Oral histories can and should embrace stories of all stages of life," Chew explains. "Oral stories can look forward into people's dreams, aspirations and hopes." Chew’s low-key personality, respectful tone and quiet strength encouraged a generation of volunteers and student interns. He is also determined to nurture a new generation of leaders. "Many volunteers and student interns have now become permanent employees at the Museum," he says. "Others first nurtured at our museum have moved on to positions of responsibility at other organizations. There is a seasoned generation of individuals – now in their early 30s – emerging as leaders."

The future

Chew hopes to achieve a multimillion-dollar goal: the restoration of the historic East Kong Yick building in the Chinatown-International District that will serve as the museum's new home. The restoration will honor the building's history. It was built a century ago by over 170 pioneer Asian laborers, who pooled their money to build a community gathering place. The building will once again serve as a cultural magnet, a place where the community can tell the story of its future.

More about Ron Chew and Wing Luke Asian Museum

"Ultimately, Ron's goal is to stimulate social change through inter-ethnic and inter-generational dialogue, breaking down stereotypes through concrete examples and instilling new pride in the children and grandchildren. Ron's grassroots community organizing and journalistic strategies are resulting in a redefinition of American arts and culture..."
— Marjorie Schwarzer, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Museum Studies, John F. Kennedy University