Six bronze life-size figures are separated by a 14-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture of an “X” on which the scales of justice hang from a beam composed of firearms. Three of them are Chinese laborers. The other three are mob members, the unbalanced scale tipped toward them and hovering them and hovering above their heads.

Titled “Exclusion, Expulsion, Expunge,” the sculpture, by Seattle artist Stewart Wong, is the realization of the Wing Luke Museum’s Chinese American Legacy Art Project (CALAP) and is scheduled to be erected in Pioneer Square next year. This public art installation will commemorate an anti-Chinese riot that took place in Seattle’s original Chinatown in the late 19th century. A $50,000 donation from the Seattle FIFA World Cup 2026 local organizing committee is helping bring the sculpture to fruition.

Feb. 7, 1886, anti-Chinese hostility reached a peak in Seattle when 350 Chinese immigrants were rounded up by an angry mob of rioters, who forcibly removed them from their homes and expelled them from the city. This was part of a larger movement that sought to expel Chinese immigrants from the United States, a prejudice that was fueled by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States and prevented Chinese immigrants already in the country from becoming citizens.

“The event sheds light on the mistreatment endured by early Chinese immigrants, and unfortunately, subsequent immigrants,” Dylan Hartono, member of the CALAP governing committee, said at a Nov. 6 press conference. “It draws parallels towards what is happening today, and we don’t want that in Seattle.”

This project has been years in the making. The idea was conceived over 20 years ago by Doug Chin, a local historian and activist. He then formed the CALAP with others, including Bettie Luke, a community organizer and sister of the late Wing Luke, to honor a piece of Seattle’s history that has gone underacknowledged. 

Wong, a Cornish alum and longtime Seattle resident, was commissioned by the CALAP in 2020. However, Luke clued him in to keep an eye out for the art call as far back as 2004, when he accompanied her on a road trip to Eugene, Ore., to support one of her artist friends. 

In the work, the Chinese figures are made of brown-colored bronze, two of them wearing field worker hats and the other wearing a more Western-style hat, a nod to the forced assimilation of Chinese people in the United States. They are contrasted by the black bronze of the mob figures, who wear cowboy hats. 

Dividing the figures is an “X” that emphasizes the separation between the two groups. The figures are positioned to mimic the placement of chess pieces, arranged to convey opposing sides. Although it represents specific figures (the mob and Chinese laborers), Wong intentionally created the figures in an abstract design, allowing viewers to make associations that align with contemporary struggles.

“The biggest challenge for me is to create an impactful art installation, considering the importance of this historical event that still resonates with what is happening politically today, [and] to create an installation that provides a visual narrative to a forgotten, overlooked historical Seattle event,” Wong said at the press conference. 

The donation from the Seattle FIFA World Cup 2026 local organizing committee will help expedite the work ahead of the World Cup. Nearly 60% of the necessary funds have been raised of the $500,000 goal. According to a press release from the museum and Seattle FWC26, a bulk of the funds has been contributed by the city of Seattle and members of the local Chinese American community. A community match challenge was simultaneously announced with the donation, urging people to donate what they can. 

“It has been a struggle to obtain the needed funds to complete this project, but we are very close to obtaining the needed funds to realize it,” Wren Wheeler, civic engagement specialist at the Wing Luke Museum, said in a press release. 

Initially, the statue was intended to be installed on the waterfront along Alaskan Way, between South Washington Street and South Main Street, an area where rioters gathered Chinese immigrants for deportation. However, the CALAP now supports relocating the statue a few blocks away to Occidental Square, pending approval from the city and the neighborhood, where Chinese immigrants were removed from their homes.

FIFA is hosting six matches for the World Cup between June and July of 2026, which is expected to bring in 750,000 visitors, whom the CALAP hopes to greet with Wong’s installation.

“Hosting the World Cup gives us a platform to share Seattle’s full story with the world–including the chapters that are painful to confront,” Peter Tomozawa, CEO of Seattle FWC26, said in a press release. “When visitors come to Seattle next summer, we want them to see more than just great soccer–we want them to see a city that faces its history honestly and honors the communities who built it.”