An evocative exhibit at the Tacoma Art Museum explores the lives, labors, and erasures of Chinese immigrants in the American West, on view through September 5, 2027
Running through the end of summer 2027 at the Tacoma Art Museum, guest curator Lele Barnett has brought together a series of contemporary works that honor the experiences of Chinese immigrants in the 18th and 19th centuries—immigrants who contributed deeply to the American West, often at great personal cost. The exhibit highlights the intersection of migration, labor, violence, and resilience, urging visitors to reckon with histories that are still unfolding today.
In the 1850s, political instability, economic hardship, and famine—particularly in Guangdong province—drove many Chinese people to seek opportunity abroad. Lured by the promise of gold, work on the transcontinental railroad, and jobs in the mines, thousands made the arduous journey across the Pacific.
One featured artist, Monyee Chau explores the spiritual dimension of this migration, illustrating the prayers offered to goddesses during the long voyage, and the backbreaking labor that followed.
A fine art painter originally from Southern China, Mian Situ draws inspiration from historic photographs and impressionist depictions of the era. His work centers on forgotten or overlooked narratives, giving voice to Chinese immigrants whose stories were rarely recorded. In one striking painting, a Chinese cook prepares a meal for cowboys—highlighting a lesser-known aspect of Chinese immigrant labor in the American West. Outside of working on the railroad, or in mines, Chinese laborers were often associated with service work like laundries and restaurants, especially in urban areas. However, their presence in more “mythic” Western settings, like cattle drives and cowboy culture, is less widely recognized.
Violence and discrimination against Chinese immigrants intensified throughout the 19th century, culminating in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. One of the most haunting sections of the exhibit features two works by Zhi Lin that document the November 3, 1885, expulsion of Chinese residents from Tacoma by an armed mob.
In one piece, Lin uses a reproduction of the 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance map, overlaying it with pink post-it notes to mark Chinese-owned businesses listed in the Tacoma city directory. This mapping of economic presence onto city space makes the targeted nature of the violence unmistakable.
Pink post-it notes identify Chinese-owned businesses from the 1885 Tacoma city directory.
In a second, more narrative piece, Lin creates a traditional Chinese paper scroll that traces the forced march of Chinese residents through the city blocks along Pacific Avenue. The scroll is richly illustrated with drawings of fleeing families, violent mobs, and tense encounters—each moment rooted in meticulous historical research and survivor testimony.
Together, these works reclaim both geographic and human dimensions of a history that too often goes unremembered.
To view this history now—at a moment when our current administration engages in large-scale, unconstitutional deportations, without due process—is both difficult and essential. It raises uncomfortable questions: Who will tell today’s stories years from now? Who will document the lives of those forcibly removed—families taken while walking children home from school, or arrested at the hospitals where they work after a visa is quietly revoked? Will these moments be mapped, as history was here, traced across neighborhoods and cities, with names and stories attached? Will we remember them, as we should—not only for how they were wronged, but for the legitimacy of the lives they lived?
