Thread by @NBCNews

Hundreds of Chinese immigrants contributed to the growth and development of Yosemite National Park, and advocates have launched efforts to raise awareness about their role.

#NBCNewsThreads (1/7) nbcnews.com/news/asian-ame…

One of those efforts is the restoration of a Chinese laundry building that opened to the public Friday. The building tells the story of Chinese immigrant workers in the park, including the stories of those who built park roads. (2/7)

Sabrina Diaz, the former chief of interpretation and education at Yosemite, said that it is the last remaining laundry building from Yosemite’s early days: "I felt like we were not preserving their part of our shared history in a way that would make them or us proud." (3/7)

The building will showcase Yosemite’s Chinese history through text and photos projected onto walls.

In addition, Jack Shu, who oversaw the information that will be presented, hopes the building will be able to exhibit some of the 4-pound irons used by Chinese workers. (4/7)

“That’s how people remember things, and that’s what having a facility like this helps provide,” Shu says of the tools used by Chinese laborers. “So when you hear of the Chinese working in the service industry and helping in the hotel, it sticks because your arm got sore.” (5/7)

Beth Lew-Williams, an associate history professor at Princeton, said there's been a pattern of Chinese immigrants being forgotten in the history of the American West.

The surge of anti-Asian hate during Covid has drawn broader American attention to this history, she says. (6/7)

Shu said he hopes the laundry building can serve as part of a solution to anti-Asian hate.

“I hope we can contribute in that way, that when someone knows some of this history, they know that the Chinese are not foreign — that they are part of the American history.” (7/7)