Q&A Preview of The Wing Luke Museum's Food Exhibit: "From Fields To Family: Asian Pacific Americans And Food"
Photo by Barry Wong. Courtesy of Wing Luke Museum.
Given our love of exploring teriyaki history and beyond, we've been salivating (sorry) just at the thought of the Wing Luke Museum's upcoming exhibit, "From Fields To Family: Asian Pacific Americans and Food." which opens to the public on October 13th and runs through July 15th, 2012. Since it's Third Thursday, admission for the October opening night will be free. Cassie Chinn, the museum's Deputy Executive Director, answered a few questions about the exhibit for us.
1. The Wing Luke's approach to curating exhibits is a little different than other museums, using community focus groups in order to help determine exhibit content. How did that approach work in this case? Can you give us some examples of who was included in these groups, and why they were chosen?
The exhibition comes directly from the passions, expertise and stories of individuals and families personally connected with the experience of Asian Pacific Americans and food. Our core group included individuals such as John and Tom Hom, brothers whose family operated the Montana Café, a Chinese American family restaurant; Maxine Chan, a food cultural specialist, who also comes from a family restaurant background and has intensely studied foodways among early Asian Pacific American laborers; and Rahul Gupta, a chef who connects with relatives overseas in Indian through Skype to share recipes and refine techniques.
2. Who chose the theme, "From Fields to Family", or how did the theme arise? Do you see this theme fitting in with the Seattle food community's emphasis on "farm to table" eating?
The group began meeting over a year ago to determine the main messages, themes, storyline, content and design of the exhibition. The theme “From Fields to Family” reflects their desire for people to know the deep, longstanding contributions of Asian Pacific Americans within the food industry but also to showcase how integral food is to our families, cultures and identities.
Beyond being rooted in Asian traditions and foods, the exhibition also is distinctly Pacific Northwest, and issues related to food sustainability and access also are brought into the exhibition.
3. How does the exhibit work with this theme? What kinds of things can visitors expect to see or experience at the exhibit itself?
The exhibition is structured around 4 main areas:
The exhibition includes historic and family photographs, intimate oral history profiles, along with farming tools and industry equipment. Behind-the-scene videos bring visitors into the Tsue Chong Company to see how noodles are made and take visitors on a day-in-the-life of the Marination Station food truck. Restaurant menus from many eras line the walls and table top of an old Chinatown restaurant booth where visitors can sit and see what they would have ordered (and how much the dishes would have cost!). Hands-on activities engage all the senses - including taste!
Photo by Joysha Fajardo. Courtesy of Wing Luke Asian Museum.
4. What do you hope visitors will take away from the exhibit, or what do you hope it will achieve?
We hope to celebrate the rich contributions from the diverse Asian Pacific American community to food in the Pacific Northwest. We also hope visitors are totally immersed in that experience, getting an insider perspective, connecting with those personal stories, and perhaps motivated to try something new - visiting a new restaurant, trying a new food or inspired to cook with a new ingredient or technique at home.
5. Anything else you'd like to add for our readers?
The exhibition includes several exciting public programs, including Combination Plate Dinner, a guided meal to eat and learn how distinctly Chinese American dishes came about and have evolved (October 20, 5:30-8:30), and a book reading, sushi demonstration and tasting with Shiro Kashiba, known as the godfather of Seattle’s sushi scene (November 19, 4:30). Tickets are available for purchase now. Also, we offer tours of the Chinatown-International District, including a dim sum lunch. Reservations can be made through our Tour Coordinator (206-623-5124 x.133, tours@wingluke.org).
(We're also grateful to Phillip Lee of Readers to Eaters and Hsiao-Ching Chou, two members of the community focus groups, for assistance with this piece.)
