Hai Ying Wu (also known as Jason Wu) is a

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

best known for his

firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

s. and his memorial commemorating the

Auto-Lite Strike The Toledo Auto-Lite strike was a strike by a federal labor union of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) against the Electric Auto-Lite company of Toledo, Ohio, from April 12 to June 3, 1934. The strike is notable for a five-day running ba ...

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

. A native of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Wu received his degree in sculpture from the

Sichuan Fine Arts Institute Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (SFAI) () is a public fine arts university established in 1940 in the southwest City of Chonqing, China. It is one of the four most prominent art academies in China and the only one in southwest China. History and reput ...

, and became staff sculptor for the city of

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

on the Chengdu Public Arts Commission."School Offers Art Sessions." ''The Arlington Times.'' November 9, 1994.
/ref>
/ref> He worked primarily in public art and in the "

socialist realist Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

" genre.Paynter, Susan. "Artist Tributes to Firefighters Cause Sparks." ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer.'' May 17, 1996.
/ref> A large number of his public art works can be seen in Chengdu. He participated in the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

, and was caught in the square when the Chinese military attacked the demonstrators. He emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

later that same year, and in time became a U.S. citizen. He worked in construction and as a dishwasher before enrolling in the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

School of Art. He graduated with a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

degree. For his master's thesis, he designed a memorial to 19th-century

Chinese railroad workers The history of Chinese Americans or the history of Overseas Chinese, ethnic Chinese in the United States includes three major waves of Chinese emigration, Chinese immigration to the United States, beginning in the 19th century. Chinese immigrant ...

which was later installed in a park in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

. As of 2007, he divided his time between his home in

Everett, Washington Everett is the county seat and largest city of Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett is the seventh-largest city in the ...

, and China. Wu is best known for sculpting the Seattle Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial in Seattle's

Pioneer Square Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...

. A design competition was held among all interested students in the UW School of Arts, and Wu's design was chosen. He has erected similar memorials throughout the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. He also created the Auto-Lite Strike Memorial in Toledo, which commemorates the violent

United Auto Workers The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico ...

strike of 1934. His work for Compass Health in

, was his first sculpture to focus on children.

Public works

Among Wu's public works are:
"Crane and Turtle" located at North Shore Health Center, Bothell, Washington

"Emerging" in Renton, Washington

"The First Pitch" in Redmond, Washington

"Hide and Seek"
at Imagine Children's Museum Collection, Everett, Washington :*"Children Crossing a Stream" at Luther Children's Crisis Facility at Compass Health, Everett, Washington
"Migration" in Bend, Oregon

"Northglenn Veterans Memorial" in Northglenn, Colorado
ref>"Northglenn Chooses Sculptor." ''Rocky Mountain News.'' October 5, 2001.

:* ttps://www.glendaleaz.com/arts/InteractiveArtTour_1.cfm "Team Work" in Glendale, Arizona

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Hai Ying People from Everett, Washington Artists from Chengdu American sculptors Socialist realist artists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Chinese emigrants to the United States Sichuan Fine Arts Institute alumni University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design alumni Chinese sculptors American people of Chinese descent