Seattle Asian Museum reopens its doors two week ago. The institution used to be housed in an old garage and now is really fantastic home for Seattle’s Chinatown district. This museum is unique from its a self-created tribute to a hyphenated existence.

As well as the museum is called after Wing Luke, a Seattle city councilman who died in a plane crash in 1965. The museum will be a cultural home for local Asian-Americans, paying homage to their accomplishments and recounting how they overcame the many obstacles once thrown in their way.

Like many other identity museums, this one proudly presents some mainstream accomplishments: a shaving brush, a suitcase, an iron, a waiter’s uniform. But one of the museum’s most attractive artifacts is a 15-by-30-foot theatrical curtain on which is painted an array of advertisements for local Japanese businesses. The Yick Fung Company, are also here, moved from a block away when the store closed. In the store’s prime the bottles of bean paste that might have made their way to the Chinese restaurants of the Northwest would have been accompanied by offers of taxi services, haircuts and steamship tickets to China.

The museum also has a balconied room on a top floor where traditional Chinese family associations would meet. The room is decorated with tin ceiling and original paintings and Chinese landscapes mixing with American scenes.

There’re a theater for small events, a library and a community hall with a catering kitchen and multimedia system. Even the exhibitions are “community based,” as the museum puts it. In coming months a series of small galleries will provide exhibitions about Filipino, Vietnamese and Cambodian cultures.

The Wing Luke Asian Museum is at 719 South King Street, Seattle