Mickey Mouse backpack

Not all artifacts are ancient! The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis has a long history of presenting how people from different cultures live in the present day. The Take Me There® gallery opened in 2009 with an exhibit that transported visitors to Egypt to learn how contemporary families and children live. Take Me There: Egypt was followed by Take Me There: China in 2014, Take Me There: Greece in 2019, and Take Me There: Peru in 2025. In exhibits like these, our visitors become aware of the similarities and differences between cultures. While planning these exhibits, staff teams traveled to each country to take photos, collect artifacts, and forge relationships so the stories that the exhibits tell are personal and authentic.

 

Eleven-year-old Wang Yijie, who goes by the nickname Jackie, donated this Mickey Mouse backpack, along with his school uniform, when museum staff visited his home in Quan Zhou, China.

 

Children’s Museum Director of Digital Communications Jenny Holland had the privilege of interviewing Jackie in his home.

 

“I was only there three days,” says Holland, “but I was completely immersed in their day-to-day life. This family was one of the kindest, most generous, most hardworking families I’ve ever met.”