A Timeless Experience

Founded and named after the original singing cowboy of film, television and radio fame, the Autry Museum of Western Heritage started with a collection of personal memorabilia and Western artifacts from its namesake’s Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita. But the family and friends of Gene Autry, who died in 1998, saw the Griffith Park museum as having a broader mission when they opened it 12 years ago this month.

The museum has been true to their vision. It has earned a reputation for presenting both the myths of the American West and the often more startling realities. This broad and inclusive interpretation can be seen in the exhibit on display now, “On Gold Mountain: A Chinese American Experience.”

Curated by writer Lisa See and her cousin Leslee Leong, the exhibit personalizes the history of Chinese immigration to America by weaving in the story of six generations of the women’s prominent Los Angeles family, as told in See’s best-selling book, “On Gold Mountain: The 100-Year-Odyssey of My Chinese American Family.”

Fleeing political upheavals and poverty and seeking riches--Gum Saan, or Gold Mountain was their name for America--tens of thousands of Chinese traveled to the United States in the late 19th century. The exhibit recreates the cramped steerage section of transpacific ships--passage could take up to three months--and the few possessions passengers could fit in a small steamer trunk.

Museum visitors encounter the more familiar history of the Chinese immigrants who were hired to build the transcontinental railroad. They also see a less well-known side of life in what See calls the bachelor’s society, the largely male turn-of-the-century Chinese American communities where See and Leong’s great-grandfather Fong See sewed undergarments for prostitutes before going on to become a successful trader in Chinese antiquities.

One gallery explores the artistic and cultural milieu of the Dragon’s Den, a See family-run restaurant that attracted such luminaries as Peter Lorre and the Marx Brothers. The final gallery of the seven-room exhibit highlights how in the late 20th century Chinese Americans have become known for contributions to science, medicine and the arts--and saddled with a new stereotype as the model minority.

The exhibit touches on universal themes, from the challenge of maintaining traditions while adapting to a new culture to the prejudice that kept three out of four Chinese emigrants from entering the country and forced those who did to settle in Chinatowns because they weren’t allowed to live anywhere else. It’s a story that’s as relevant to today’s American West as to the 19th century’s, and the kind of exhibit that is sure to keep the Autry relevant as it enters a new century.

To Attend: “On Gold Mountain: A Chinese American Experience,” will be at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, 4700 Western Heritage Way, until Jan. 1. For information, call (323) 667-2000.