Chinatown-International District & Seattles Asiatisch-Amerikanisches Erbe
Seattles Chinatown-International District (CID) ist eine der ältesten und vielfältigsten asiatisch-amerikanischen Gemeinschaften in den USA, Heimat chinesischer, japanischer, philippinischer, vietnamesischer, koreanischer und südostasiatischer Gemeinschaften, deren Geschichte in Seattle auf die chinesischen Arbeiter zurückgeht, die in den 1860er-1880er Jahren die transkontinentale Eisenbahn bauten.
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International District — The Layered Asian Community
The International District (the neighbourhood south of downtown Seattle, historically called 'Chinatown' by Westerners, the Japanese-American term 'Nihonmachi'/Japantown by Japanese residents, and the current official name reflecting the multi-ethnic community of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, and Cambodian communities) was the site of the most significant injustice in Seattle's history — Executive Order 9066 (1942) forcibly removed 7,000 Japanese Americans from Seattle to inland internment camps; the Nisei Veterans Committee Foundation (1212 S King Street) and the Wing Luke Museum are the primary memorial sites.
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Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
Wing Luke Museum (719 S King Street, International District, 2008, Olson Kundig Architects, $17.99 adults, Thursday–Sunday 10am–5pm) is the finest Asian-American cultural museum in the US — the museum occupies the building where Wing Luke (1927–1965, the first person of color elected to Seattle City Council, killed in a plane crash, the first public official of Asian descent to hold major office in the continental US) organized community meetings; the permanent exhibitions document the Japanese internment, Filipino farm labor, and Chinatown community life from 1880 to present.
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Uwajimaya — The Largest Asian Supermarket in the Pacific Northwest
Uwajimaya (600 5th Avenue S, the International District, 1928, founded by Fujimatsu Moriguchi who arrived from Japan in 1928 and began selling fishcakes from the trunk of his car) is the flagship Asian supermarket of the Pacific Northwest — the 60,000 sq ft Seattle store sells fresh Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Thai, and Indian ingredients; the prepared food section (hot food bar with Japanese karaage, Korean japchae, Filipino lumpia, and Vietnamese bánh mì) is the most accessible multi-Asian lunch in the city; the bookshop (Kinokuniya, within Uwajimaya) is the largest Japanese-language bookstore in Seattle.
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Pho Bac and the Vietnamese Phở Scene
Seattle's International District and the 12th Avenue South corridor (the 'Little Saigon' area adjacent to the ID) is the center of Seattle's Vietnamese community (the Pacific Northwest's largest, 30,000+ Vietnamese Americans) — Pho Bac (1240 S Jackson, the first phở restaurant in Seattle, 1982, the place where many Seattleites first encountered Vietnamese cuisine) is still operating; the phở scene has expanded to 200+ restaurants across the city, but the ID concentration (Pho Cyclo, Green Leaf Vietnamese, and Jade Garden for dim sum) remains the most authentic.
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Seattle's Filipino Community — Hillman City and Beacon Hill
Seattle has the second-largest Filipino-American community on the West Coast (after Los Angeles) — the Beacon Hill neighbourhood (south of the International District, accessible by Light Rail, the neighbourhood with the highest percentage of Filipino residents in Seattle) contains the Filipino Community Center (5740 Martin Luther King Jr Way S, the hub of Filipino cultural events) and the best Filipino restaurants in the city (Kusina Filipina on Beacon Ave S); the Seafair Parade (August) includes the most elaborate Filipino-American parade float in the Pacific Northwest.
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The Chinatown Night Market — Summer Saturday Evening
The International District Night Market (Summer Saturdays, 6pm–10pm, organized by Friends of Little Saigon and Seattle Chinatown International District Business Improvement Area) transforms the ID's streets into a night market of food vendors, cultural performances, and local businesses — the market is the most concentrated expression of the ID's current community (Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipinx, Japanese, Somali — all present in the neighbourhood) and the best opportunity to eat the full spectrum of Asian food in Seattle without restaurant reservations; the summer Mural Art Project activates building facades adjacent to the market.