More to story on Huntington

Is The Times erasing Asian Americans anew, making them again an “invisible minority” in American society? It seems so.

Carolina Miranda’s column about the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens [“Facing a History of Deep Inequity,” April 4] and its fraught history with communities of color failed to recognize the institution’s biggest and most successful initiative in diversifying itself, its audiences and its offerings.

The opening of the Chinese garden in 2008 was a bold choice for an institution that historically skewed white. The project has radically changed the Huntington’s community, making it far more inclusive of a major part of the region’s people. In pre-COVID surveys, about 28% of visitors self-identified as

Asian; roughly 30% of members are Asian now; and hundreds of Asians are among its major donors.

In keeping with the Huntington’s mission to educate, the Chinese garden, with its older Japanese counterpart, promotes Asian culture via concerts, exhibitions, festival celebrations and a site-specific play.

Of course, the Huntington knows it has much, much more to do about diversity, equity and inclusion. But it came to that realization 20-plus years before George Floyd’s death and it acted.

Simon K.C. Li Pasadena

Editor’s note: The letter writer, an assistant managing editor at The Times until 2007, is a Huntington trustee but says he is not writing on behalf of the institution. Li and the role of his wife, June Li, as curator of the Chinese garden were mentioned in the story but not expanded upon.