It’s a good thing you’ve got until October 28 to see Flying Tigers: Chinese American Aviators in Oregon, 1918-1945, an exhibit sponsored by the Northwest China Council, the Portland State University (PSU) Institute for Asian Studies, the PSU Department of History, and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, and on display at the Multnomah County Central Library in the Collins Gallery, because this exhibit is packed with information. You will want to take your time absorbing it all, and maybe even visit more than once.

Flying Tigers is organized into three parts: a history of aviation in Oregon, artifacts bringing to life four Chinese-American aviators from Portland (two of whom were women), and a timeline that places the history of Oregon aviation and the biographies of the four aviators in a larger perspective.

Let’s begin with history. If you take the elevators or bear right on your way up the stairs, the first collection you encounter will familiarize you with aviation in Oregon between 1900 and 1920, distinguished by the earliest-known Chinese-American aviator in Oregon, Henry Wong, who didn’t just fly, but built a plane.

The next collection describes 1920 to 1930, when Portland’s first airport was located on Swan Island and the aviation industry and several aircraft schools and workshops were going strong. You’ll have to pass in front of the wonderful timeline on your way to the other side of the gallery, where the collection details the years 1930 to 1940, including anOregonian article from 1931 about Chinese youth studying aviation in Portland schools.

The last collection is devoted to the years following 1940 and boasts, among other artifacts, a comic book open to "China’s Warhawk."

Turn right and you’ll continue with an introduction to four Chinese-American aviators from Portland. Their biographies are with the timeline, so here there is a more personal look at them.

First, get to know Arthur Chin through his medals, sunglasses, headphones, insignia, hat, and flight map. Next come Pak On Lee’s diary, a steamship ticket from San Francisco to Rangoon, and camera, which he decorated with emblems of military units he served in and a friendly face for his children. Photographs and articles from The Oregonian provide insight into Hazel Ying Lee and Leah Hing.

Now, cross to the timeline where you can read the biographies of the four aviators whose artifacts you have just been musing on, juxtaposed with local and global events. Near the beginning of the timeline, you learn that in 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law, and near the end of the timeline, in 1943, the legislation was repealed.

"Prior to World War II, Chinese Americans were not treated well, and lived under the burden of the Chinese Exclusion Act," said John Wong, officer manager at the Northwest China Council, exhibit committee member, and son of Paul Wong, a World War II veteran who served in North Africa, Italy, and France and told his son that the war made a better life for him and his family. "This exhibition is a reminder of how the war brought Chinese into the mainstream as they enthusiastically joined white America in a common cause against the Axis powers," he said.

You may be surprised to learn that the striking and informative timeline is the work of St. Mary’s Academy senior Claire Yuan Flynn, and that it took her just over a month, during her summer vacation, to design. "Being able to be a part of something so special, so unique, is an honor," she said, adding that she was "surprised by the extensiveness of Chinese-American aviator influence in Oregon."

"It has been a privilege to work on a project that brings attention to an important part of Chinese-American history that is so meaningful and that perhaps otherwise would have been lost," said exhibit curator Ann Wetherell, who teaches art history and international studies at PSU and is on the board of the Northwest China Council. She is "very proud of the fact that the exhibit is bilingual and very grateful to the translators, Jingwei Qian and Guoliang Chen, from the PSU Confucius Institute."

Keith Lee, son of aviator Pak On Lee, expressed satisfaction with the exhibit: "I really didn’t know what to expect, because it’s never been done before." The information was "bits and pieces until the Northwest China Council put it together."

On a more personal note, he spoke of his mother, who attended the reception for the exhibit, and his late father as "pretty special people. They were born and raised in China, obscure people, and got involved in a significant bit of history but never once sought recognition for it."

It was only after Pak On Lee died that his son realized that his father, who "took the pictures, kept the documents, had a wife who joined him on the battlefield, left us something quite significant historically."

Flying Tigers: Chinese American Aviators in Oregon, 1918-1945 is on view through October 28 in the Collins Gallery at the Multnomah County Central Library, located at 801 S.W. 10th Avenue in Portland. Gallery hours are 11:00am to 8:00pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00am to 5:00pm Thursday through Saturday, and noon to 5:00pm on Sunday. To learn more, call (503) 988-5123 or (503) 973-5451, or visit <www.multcolib.org/events/collins> or <www.nwchina.org>.