Wing Luke's Birthday

Today our lion dance team performed at the Wing Luke Museum to celebrate Wing's birthday. While we were waiting I looked around a bit, reading about Wing Luke. He was the first Asian City Counselman of Seattle, and had served in WWII for the U.S. army and recieved 6 medals. One day he found a pair of Chinese shoes from the early 1900s and was inspired to create a museum to preserve Chinese culture and artifacts. In May of 1965 he died in a plane crash coming back to Seattle, but the plane was not found until October that year.

I also watched "Lost Boyz," a presentation on the Cambodian diaspora. Many Cambodian children immigrated to the U.S. as refugees with their family, not knowing they were illegal aliens. A lot of them grew up in poor neighborhoods so they became involved with gangs. Although they grew up as Americans, they were detained and deported to Cambodia. I felt transported to another place, getting glimpses of a place I would never otherwise know about, or would truly understand. But I felt moved by what I saw and heard. You can view most of the presentation (a quicktime video) here. The photographs are by Stuart Isett, and music by PraCh Ly.