Laogai Museum

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The Laogai Museum was a small museum in Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. that opened on November 12, 2008. It focused on human rights in China, especially the laogai, the country’s prison labor system. The museum was started by Harry Wu, a Chinese dissident who spent 19 years in laogai camps, with support from the Yahoo! Human Rights Fund. Wu’s goal was to educate visitors about the laogai and to honor its victims.

The museum was located at 1901 18th Street NW, after moving from earlier addresses. It displayed uniforms, photographs, government documents, and products made by prisoners—things like Christmas lights, tea bags, and plastic flowers. Many items came from laogai survivors or from Wu’s archives.

Funding included support from Yahoo! and Jerry Yang as part of Yahoo!’s apology for past actions related to dissidents. A Chinese embassy spokesman criticized the museum as an attack on China’s reputation, while Wu defended his work, saying it exposed the realities of the legal system.

The museum’s life had ups and downs. It closed briefly in 2017 after Wu’s death in 2016 and criticism about spending. It reopened in October 2018, but it has since closed permanently.