FAITH LAPIDUS: One room in the museum is called the General Store. It includes thrown away objects collected from old stores in Chinatowns across the United States. Chinese-Americans formed strong communities in Chinatown neighborhoods within many cities. These include San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago. The exhibit shows the importance of such stores in these communities. Chinese-Americans could buy goods, mail letters and money home, get news about the community and meet with friends. Here is a nineteen eighty-eight recording of a man’s memories of his local general store.
LUNG CHIN: “The workers would come into this store at seven o’clock in the morning and work until twelve o’clock at night. Eighteen hours a day was nothing. And they slept there, they ate there, they had their lunch there. Their whole life was in that store, making money: saving it to go home, giving up money to send it back annually.”
BOB DOUGHTY: Many areas of the museum celebrate the successes of individuals.
TING-CHI WANG: “And on the inner wall close to the courtyard actually what you see are some glittering tiles, that’s what we call the luminary wall.”
BOB DOUGHTY: Each lit rectangle tells about a Chinese-American who has been important in American or world history. For example, you can learn about Ah Bing. This plant expert helped develop a new version of a fruit that now carries his name, the Bing cherry. Or, you can learn about Chien-Shiung Wu. She was a top nuclear physicist who made many important discoveries. She won the National Science Medal in nineteen seventy-five.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25