By Teniola Ayoola
This article was originally published in The DC Line here.
At most art museums, visitors typically view and admire the final product, with few opportunities to witness the creative process or the heavy lifting that occurs behind the scenes. However, Sightlines: Chinatown and Beyond, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s first museum exhibition in 10 years, invites viewers on a journey that peels back and examines the multilayered impact Asian Americans have had on the District over many generations. This exploration unfolds through murals, archival documents and martial arts. One leaves with the understanding that while DC’s Chinatown, as it once existed, may have been fleeting, its spirit — the Asian American zeitgeist — remains vibrant.
The exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum consists of three sections: Making Place, Transforming Tradition, and Visualizing Identity. Each section emphasizes “the vital role Asian Americans have played in shaping the communities, landscapes, and cultures in Washington, DC,” according to the Smithsonian. With over 120 artifacts on display, the collection could benefit from some thoughtful curation, trimming down the selection to allow guests to fully engage with the pieces. Despite the overwhelming number of artifacts, a few standout pieces effectively convey the exhibit’s message.
A highlight is the depiction of first-generation Indonesian-American muralist Cita Sadeli, known as “Miss CheLove.” The tools she used to create several murals around the city — painting shoes, aerosol nozzles and crates of spray paint — are more than mere artifacts: They create intimacy and connection with her artistic journey, inviting the viewer to join in her creative process. An especially poignant image, Julian Peterson’s photograph The Artist Working on She Got We (2022) shows Miss CheLove precariously balanced on an aerial lift, painting the word “Enny” onto a design board. This four-letter tribute to her late mother, who emigrated from Indonesia as a Fulbright scholar, serves as a touching reminder of the sacrifices and stories that have shaped Asian American immigrant identity.
Through murals such as Every Day I See Something New (2011), Miss CheLove successfully transforms the streets into a canvas for collective memory, celebrating the richness of diverse voices and reflecting on social movements while incorporating elements of the city’s cultural essence. However, in DC Stands United Against Hate (2020), created in response to George Floyd’s murder, her decision to render this mural in black and white — rather than the vibrant colors typical of graffiti or other street art — raises questions. While the monochromatic palette may convey the solemnity of the subject, it could also allude to the philosophy of colorblindness, which seeks to overlook race but often perpetuates racial inequity.
The bulk of the exhibit focuses primarily on the repeated — but decidedly uneven — “historical efforts to heighten Chinatown’s visibility” even at times of tremendous change and disruption. Due to beautification projects in the National Mall and Federal Triangle areas in the early 1930s, Chinese residents were forcibly relocated from their original neighborhood along Pennsylvania Avenue NW, creating what has long considered DC’s Chinatown, specifically the area along H Street between 5th and 7th streets NW. Later, the construction of Capital One Arena in the 1990s fueled gentrification and led to further displacement of many Chinese residents. In the 2000s, some local business groups unsuccessfully sought to rebrand the area from “Chinatown” to “East End.”
The anchor piece of the exhibition, Terrence Nicholson’s Safety Jacket: A Mourning in Chinatown (2018), reflects the ongoing changes in Chinatown. In this mixed-media work, the African American artist expressed his grief over the eviction of the Wah Sing Kung Fu School by creating a kung fu jacket from martial arts sashes. The jacket’s resemblance to a scarecrow — usually used to keep birds away from crops — invites speculation: Is it meant as a deliberate symbol of protection, loss and deterrence, or is it just a coincidence? The ambiguity adds depth to the narrative of displacement and cultural erosion.
Archival materials, such as a March 1977 document titled “The Chinatown Program — A Progress Report,” and Washington Post clippings published a decade later, highlight the community’s proactive efforts — not merely protests and discussions, but organized meetings with clear agendas and participants invested in Chinatown’s future.
Unfortunately, while exploring a connection that does exist, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s exhibit crams the topics of Chinatown’s long, hard-fought history and the influence of Asian Americans like Miss CheLove into an unbalanced whole. These two significant topics would benefit from separate explorations, allowing visitors to learn about the impact of Asian Americans in modern times and delve into Chinatown’s past, present and future independently.
That said, the audio-visual elements of the exhibit are truly captivating. The rhythmic drumming of a Chinatown festival band reverberates throughout the space, instilling a sense of urgency and vitality that complements the images of karate chops, kicks and precision movements. These visuals depict the lineage of martial arts practices in Chinatown from the 1930s to today. Rows of trophies from the DC martial arts group Simba Dojang (founded by an African American) illustrate the impact of Chinese martial arts not only within the community but also across different racial groups.
In the end, this exhibition compels us to reflect on the duality of progress and preservation. It reminds us not only of Chinatown’s history but also of the vibrant contributions of Asian Americans like Miss CheLove. Although these topics might better be explored separately, the dynamic interplay of art, history and identity serves as a powerful reminder that the voices and experiences of Asian Americans are not just footnotes in DC history; they are integral to the ongoing shaping and reshaping of the area’s cultural identity.
The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s exhibition Sightlines: Chinatown and Beyond opened Sept. 7, 2024, and continues through Nov. 25, 2025, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum at 8th and G streets NW.
