Exploring the rich history of Chinese immigration in America at MOCA
NEW YORK (PIX11) – New York City has one of the largest Asian American communities in the United States, greater than the combined totals of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
But how well do you know the story of the Chinese in America?
More Local News
During AAPI Heritage Month, PIX11 News visited a fascinating museum in Chinatown to learn more.
On the northern edge of Chinatown, in a renovated building at 215 Centre Street, lies the Museum of Chinese in America, otherwise known as MoCA. At 50,000 square feet, it is the largest institution dedicated to the Chinese American experience in this country.
PIX11 News was given a private tour by MOCA President Michael Lee.
For this third-generation Chinese American, the first room in the museum is personal as it chronicles the earliest waves of Chinese Immigrants.
'One grandfather who bought papers from a man named Lee, and that was already his name, so he got to keep his name,' Michael Lee, MOCA President, told PIX11 News.
A wall features how the Chinese helped build the railroads across this country from West to East. Also, the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and racist posters from the last century.
There's a wall of innovators, including the creator of Bing cherries, AhBing, and a room devoted to Chinese American influences in movies, such as Anna Mae Wong, considered the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood.
'She was picked to be in a film in Canada, and she had a hard time getting back into the country,' Lee told PIX11 News.
One of the newest exhibits here at the Museum Of Chinese In America is called Heaven and Earth, the blue map of China.
'The land was tied to the heavens,' Lee told PIX11 News. 'The Chinese felt strong national pride in their land's connection to the stars,' he added.
The last room on the tour is called Magazine Fever, Gen X, Asian American periodicals in the 1980s and 90s, when Asian American identity was finally recognized as a demographic.
So, who should visit this museum?
'Everybody interested in Asian culture, everybody interested in learning about the history of our people here should come to this museum,' Lee told PIX11 News.
MOCA is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Lee Soo Man: King of K-Pop' Director and Subject Talk New Prime Video Documentary
One of Prime Video's latest documentaries, Lee Soo Man: King of K-pop, follows the career of Korean music executive Lee Soo Man, founder of SM Entertainment. Spanning several years, the documentary chronicles some of his time at the company he built, featuring artists from the labels, leading to his eventual not-so-friendly exit from SM and the founding of his new A2O Entertainment. More from The Hollywood Reporter Jimmy Buffett's $275 Million Estate Sparks Sprawling Margaritaville Legal Battle Jessie J Reveals Early Breast Cancer Diagnosis Aging CEOs, Ambitious Nepo Babies and a Tech Revolution: Succession in the Music Biz Ahead of the film's premiere last month, Lee and an assortment of guests, including his new company's girl group A2O May, and former and current SM Entertainment talent such as SHINee's Taemin, Super Junior's Choi Siwon and Girls Generation's Tiffany, Sunny and Hyoyeon gathered to screen the film. Lee told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the screening that he was approached and met the film's director, Ting Poo, and thought he could do the project. 'I'm so worried right now to see the film,' he said, standing amongst the gathered artists for a photo at the screening's red carpet. 'Maybe they'll be scared,' Lee said when asked how he thought people would react. He added he wasn't sure and that he had to see the film. A2O May, the first Chinese girl group from Lee's new endeavor, had just days before the screening performed at Wango Tango. The group said they were both 'nervous' and 'excited' about the experience to play at the U.S. festival. The group, along with young trainees from A2O, performed at the screening following the film. The five-member group also gushed about getting to meet members of K-pop group Girls Generation, saying they listened to the group growing up and meeting them was 'magical.' Poo, director of Val Kilmer documentary Val, spoke with THR about the film, including about the backlash to the film's decision to include video from the funeral of late SHINee member Jonghyun in the trailer. The director, who explained she was attracted to the story because she didn't know much about the world of K-pop prior to taking on the film, said she can 'understand why people were triggered by that footage' when asked about the trailer. 'It was a tragedy for the whole community. My intention of using [the footage] in the trailer was not anything salacious or to cause any harm, but merely to point out that the film tackles not just the good parts, but also the more difficult topics,' Poo said. 'I hope that when people see the actual film, they'll see that we dealt with it with the gravity and seriousness that it deserves.'Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Frank Gehry, Theaster Gates and Wendy Schmidt Earn 'Legend' Status at Star-Studded MOCA Gala
On Saturday night, over 600 power players from the worlds of entertainment, art and philanthropy thronged The Geffen Contemporary for the 2025 MOCA Gala, raising $3.1 million for LA's Museum of Contemporary Art. The swirl of notable guests and presenters included House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, Mayor Karen Bass, Ava DuVernay, Jane Fonda, Sarah Paulson, Candy Spelling, Lisa Edelstein, David Alan Grier, Barbara Kruger, Catherine Opie, Tim Disney, Julie Wainwright, Edythe Broad, Jeffery Dietch, Michael Govan and Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot. More from The Hollywood Reporter Keanu Reeves Applauds Ana de Armas' "Joy for the Action" as She Joins 'John Wick' Universe Tom Hiddleston Breaks Down His Dance Moves in 'The Life of Chuck' and If He'd Ever Do a Musical 'Andor' Team Breaks Down Their Favorite Series Moments, Including That Mon Mothma Speech The gala, co-sponsored by Bvlgari (which showcased covetable jewels during cocktail hour), honored inaugural MOCA Legends Theaster Gates, Frank Gehry and Wendy Schmidt. Johanna Burton, director of MOCA, said the new awards are a way to recognize people 'who have helped write the stories of MOCA past, present, and future.' 'It's a frame that will allow people to celebrate the institution,' Burton said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter before the event. 'But also to really celebrate these people who make our work possible every day.' Embracing the importance of community and collaboration between multiple fields in the face of oppression was clearly on top of everyone's minds throughout the evening. 'Something that's special about MOCA, its always actually pushed the limits of what art making is and who defines it and what it looks like,' Burton said. 'It began as a very multidisciplinary experimental, risk-taking space. And I think we're really encouraging and thinking about that now.' Glittering guests mingled during cocktail hour and took selfies in ballgowns in front of monumental mirrored sculptures while exploring the MOCA Geffen's current exhibition Olafur Eliasson: OPEN. They were then led into the gala by the TAIKOPROJECT Japanese drum ensemble. Inside the Frank Gehry designed event space, decked out with multicolored globes of light and black tablescapes, guests enjoyed dinner as the program began. MOCA board chair Maria Seferian kicked off the event, sounding a battle cry for the arts. 'Museums are collections of stuff with people and places, but at their heart, museums are really just an idea, creativity, possibility, imagination. In other words, freedom,' Seferian said. 'Freedom. We need that now, freedom to imagine and to act outside the different confines of circumstance. Art has the ability to change how we see and understand something past or present or future. It's a language that connects feeling to knowledge, to activate action, to spark a paradigm shift, to interrogate and create identity.' Johanna Burton echoed this sentiment in her remarks. 'I've always believed deeply that culture is crucial to a civic society,' she said, 'There is no greater time to embrace that idea.' Ava DuVernay presented the first MOCA Legends Award to multidisciplinary artist Theaster Gates, whose first major solo show on the West Coast was at MOCA in 2001. Gates was celebrated as a modern-day Renaissance man whose practice incorporates sculpture, conceptual formalism, music, performance, land art and space theory to create community. 'Theaster Gates is the whole band,' an effusive DuVernay said. 'He's the lead singer calling out to something eternal. He's the bassist, holding down the bottom, grounding it all. He's the drummer, beating out time, creating momentum. He's the guitarist bending strings into something never heard before. He's the saxophone, swirling through the soul of the thing, mournful and ecstatic all at once.' DuVernay also celebrated Gates' work preserving and uplifting Black history and culture. 'He's a builder, but not just of buildings, of legacies, of spaces for joy and resistance, for worship and imagination and reimagination,' she said. He's a bridge between what was and what can be, between the Black archive and the Black future. What's in between? Theaster.' Gates graciously accepted his honor, noting the importance of supporting creatives. 'It's about living a life where you take your talent and you multiply it, and you do the very, very, very best you can to create inspiration by taking those talents and watching them multiply,' he said. 'I feel like I'm constantly looking at black and brown talent in my neighborhood and no one's invested in them,' he said. 'And in fact, they are burying black talent all the fucking time. And is it possible that we would just take a moment to imagine that the talent around us has the capacity to do greater than it does? So when the queen comes home, the talent is producing beautiful things. My job is to make talent, to be talented, to multiply talents. And really all I want is for the world to say, 'Well done thy good and faithful servant. Well done.'' Jane Fonda, passionate and witty as always, introduced another MOCA Legends Award recipient, the philanthropist and investor Wendy Schmidt. Schmidt has spent decades creating innovative non-profit organizations working with communities to build healthy oceans, renewable energy, sustainable food systems and human rights. Along with her husband, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, she funded MOCA's Wendy and Eric Schmidt Environment and Art Prize which honors and funds artists whose practices address critical intersections in art, design, conservation, suitability and environmental justice. 'She is an avid puzzler,' Fonda said of Schmidt. 'It's no accident that she acquired Jigsaw Productions earlier this year. She sees how pieces fit together, she sees the big picture, she sees how the world can be while the rest of us just see a mess.' Fonda also managed to get in a good-natured dig at her ex-husband: 'She is a competitive sailor. She was the first woman and the first American to win the world's largest sailing race. She's a petite woman, and she has captained enormous ships with all-male crews, with focus and determination and tenacity, and she leads them to victory. And so, I say, take that Ted Turner.' Taking the stage, Schmidt joked, 'It's obviously an honor and a challenge to take the mic after Jane Fonda was just here.' Schmidt went on to make an inspired and impassioned speech encouraging multi-disciplinary collaboration to benefit humanity. 'Art and science working together allows all of us to see the world and approach challenges in a far richer, nuanced and more promising way. This is why our philanthropy crosses disciplines, deliberately seeing what happens at the edges of things, where they intersect. That's where changes happen.' 'I see science and art as two sides of the same coin; each of them rests on a single necessary foundation. Freedom of thought, freedom to imagine and to create is part of human nature and is the underpinning of a free society. And that's why any talk of improper ideology in our country sits sideways with me. If you try to undermine scientific inquiry you'll also suppress artistic expression. The good news is in practice it's hard to do, because humans are curious and we like to communicate. We're also gifted with imagination and we will find a way to use it. Like water, human curiosity and human expression will always find a way.' Perhaps the most moving part of the evening was the presentation of the third and final MOCA Legends Award to renowned architect Frank Gehry, who renovated the old warehouse which houses the MOCA Geffen. 'Frank Gehry is a magician because with his architecture he enables people to see the art differently, to hear the music differently, to understand the education differently,' Nancy Pelosi said. 'He is a magician who turns whatever is happening into something that is very well understood.' Pelosi also hit on the theme of community. 'Architecture is architecture, but it's art. It's art for the community. He has listened to the community about what this structure will be. He designs it around the community. It's about culture, it's about community, it's about communication.' The 96-year-old Gehry spoke from his table in a soft voice, but his words reverberated throughout the hall. 'MOCA means a lot to me,' said Gehry, speaking on the impact of artists on his personal life and architectural practice early on in his career. 'Artists brought me into their club — it's where I wanted to be, and they opened my eyes to another world.' The night ended with a rousing performance by Grammy-nominated Tierra Whack. Donors, artists, and curators left their tables to dance and mingle, a community determined to thrive in our uncertain future. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Seeing Double? 25 Pairs of Celebrities Who Look Nearly Identical From 'Lady in the Lake' to 'It Ends With Us': 29 New and Upcoming Book Adaptations in 2024 Meet the Superstars Who Glam Up Hollywood's A-List
%3Amax_bytes(150000)%3Astrip_icc()%2FTAL-lead-image-DISNEYAACULTURE0525-5f8e6c2dcbc5427a84622118ff8efdf2.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
Travel + Leisure
4 hours ago
- Travel + Leisure
Disney Has Asian American Culture Hidden in Plain Sight—How to Find the Best Eats, Experiences, and More
While some kids grow up hearing fairy tales about faraway lands, I grew up with stories about a magical place that's about a five-hour drive from my California hometown of San José: Disneyland. We had a children's book about the 'It's a Small World" ride and my mom always likes to muse on how the attraction is 'just so peaceful,' like 'heaven on earth.' As the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, I often felt like I was jumping rope between the two sides of my Asian American identity. But our visits to Disney always felt like the prototypical all-American experience. We may not have been outwardly cognizant of it at the time, but perhaps we felt a connection since it was the one place where we saw characters that looked like us being represented. Decades later, we embarked on a multigenerational family trip to the park in 2017 with my parents and two young nieces. This trip just happened to take place days before Lunar New Year, and I was shocked to see an archway reading 'Lunar New Year' near Disney California Adventure decked out in traditional red-and-gold lanterns and tassels under an Asian-inspired, Mickey-shaped logo. Turns out, it was part of the park's annual Lunar New Year festivities, which initially started in 2012 as a week-long event, but has since expanded into a nearly month-long celebration. We saw menu items from Korean, Vietnamese, and Chinese cuisines, and there were even Mickey and Minnie characters dressed in traditional outfits. To see a park that felt so 'American' embrace Asian traditions went beyond just feeling seen, but like really being embraced and understood. It felt especially poignant during my nieces' first visit—knowing they'll grow up in a more inclusive society. The entrance to San Fransokyo Square in Disney's California Adventure Park. Richard Harbaugh/Disneyland Resort It wasn't until last month that I was lured back to a Disney again, visiting Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, to participate in the Run Disney Springtime Surprise Weekend's 5K run. And I I began spotting Asian American influences all over the park: first a mahjong table in the lobby of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and I later saw collectible pins of characters on Asian-style fans and boba drinks. Early this month, I visited Disneyland for its 70th Anniversary Celebration. And instead of hunting for hidden Mickeys, I went on a hunt for Asian American influences at the park. I began my search in Disney California Adventure in San Fransokyo Square, a hybrid of San Francisco and Tokyo inspired by the movie "Big Hero 6." This section used to be known as Pacific Wharf, and I was immediately blown away by the redressing. There were signs written with Japanese and Chinese characters, and tons of traditional Asian motifs, like gold coins, dragons, lucky cats, and lanterns. It was all definitive proof that Disneyland is making a meaningful investment in diversity. It especially makes sense in California, where 7.1 million people (that's about 18 percent) identify as Asian, according to data from the Pew Research Center . But nothing impressed me more than the menus. Lucky Fortune Cookery served up honey walnut shrimp wraps, potstickers, karaage-inspired chicken sandwiches, yaki udon, and its buzzed-about beef birria ramen. Aunt Cass Café had soba noodle salad, California roll sandwich, and—my obsession—San Fransokyo Clam Chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Flavored with white miso, it was all a far cry from the burgers and hot dogs I had expected as theme park fare. But the Asian American-inspired offerings weren't limited to San Fransokyo Square. While watching the Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration parade (which is returning to Disney California Adventure through next summer), I was surprised that the opening float featured Red Panda Mei, along with other characters from "Turning Red." Later, I stood with a honey lemonade with popping bubbles from Aunt Cass' at the Disneyland Celebrate Happy Cavalcade, bemused by the fact I was watching a Disney parade with a boba drink in hand, something I never could have imagined during my childhood visits. Wandering down Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A., I noticed that one of the window displays at Emporium, was dedicated to Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. But that wasn't the only homage to AAPI month. I also saw signs for special menu items around the park, including passion fruit-orange-guava punch and green tea lager at Lucky Fortune Cookery. During May, the park's Disney PhotoPass featured themed MagicShots, with images superimposed with Asian Disney characters including Russell from "Up," Panda Mei from "Turning Red," and the rings from "Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings." There was even a sketch pad prop option showcasing work by Tyrus Wong, a Chinese American animator who was the lead artist behind "Bambi." There were also special events in May including autograph signings with Asian Disney artists Stacy Aoyama and Eric Tan, drawing lessons with Russell and Mei, movie nights showings of "Moana" and "Turning Red," and dance lessons with Tahitian, Polynesian, Japanese, Indian, and Filipino instructors. But perhaps the most significant permanent Asian addition is the new Din Tai Fung, which opened July 2024 at Downtown Disney. Visiting the restaurant's original location in Taipei was always a major part of my trips to Taiwan, and it was absolutely mind-boggling that it was now the anchor restaurant at a major American theme park. As I enjoyed my favorite spicy wontons and sesame xiao long baos, I was tickled to learn the restaurant even had a limited pin set to celebrate the park's 70th anniversary. Mural in San Fransokyo Square in Disney California Adventure. Christian Thompson/Disneyland Resort Stumbling upon all these meaningful Asian American elements sprinkled throughout the part was no accident, but the work of Compass, the park's Asian American Pacific Islander employee group. Compass 'strives to educate our Cast with a greater understanding and appreciation of our AAPI culture' and 'helps advise on culture awareness for Disneyland Resort offerings,' the group's co-chair Allie Kawamoto, hotel experience integration manager at Disneyland Resort, tells Travel + Leisure . Kawamoto was born in Anaheim and has always loved Disney. But now she's paying it forward to the next generation, and was behind the Emporium's AAPI display. 'Seeing this window come to life and being able to share the window with my son was a moment I was very proud of," she says. Like my own family, she adds that she's always been a fan of 'It's a Small World,' which has been updated through the years to include "Lilo and Stitch" in its Pacific Islands section, and most recently, "Coco'"s Miguel and Dante in the Mexico portion. 'I just feel happy as I ride through and see countless cultures represented,' Kawamoto says. 'We have guests that visit from around the world, and I think just about everyone can see a reflection of their culture."
