Wing Luke Museum (Out of Many, One display)

Yick Fung Co. Import-Export Store

The Yick Fung Co., a fully preserved Chinese American import-export shop, is housed in a store space in the historic 1910 East Kong Yick Building of the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle. It was previously located in the neighboring building and moved over piece-by-piece. Owned and operated by the Mar Family from 1910-2008, the Yick Fung Co. supplied goods to local residents and restaurants, while also functioning as an unofficial social service agency to new Chinese immigrants. Everything from woks and ceramic bowls to imported salted plums, tea, and Chinese canned goods were offered in the store. The Yick Fung Co. also served as an agent for the Blue Funnel Line, a steamship company that brought Chinese laborers into Washington State. In 2008, the contents of the mercantile were donated to the museum.

How it represents the community’s American experience:

The Yick Fung Co. store helps tell the stories of Seattle’s immigrants and the typically American experience of a small business helping new immigrants thrive. The shop connects to the stories of the Chinese, Filipino, and Japanese laborers who may have slept temporarily on cots in the store when they first arrived, and who eventually rented rooms in the rest of the East Kong Yick Building, which served as a single-room occupancy hotel like many of the other buildings in the neighborhood. Today, visitors can walk through the recreated Yick Fung Co. shop and our historic hotel spaces as part of our daily guided tours which are included with Museum admission.

On display at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, Thursday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.