MOCA
A few weeks ago, I visited the Museum of Chinese in America, located in Chinatown. The museum itself was only one room but will in the very near future, be expanding to a bigger location. I appreciated such a collection of artifacts because it’s not often that one encounters something like that. You can go to the Met and see the traditional Chinese art and culture but Chinese American? It doesn’t receive as much attention as it deserves.
The museum was a pretty modern collection, with many different items such as a U.S. soldier uniform and other things belonging to someone who fought in the army in one of the World Wars. Much of the exhibit included personal belongings such as this. There were also many pictures. One was a family portrait. It portrayed the extended family but was made from several different cut-outs; because of the Chinese Exclusion Act and other immigration limitations, it was rare for an entire family to come over together. Also, it was mostly men who came first, to find jobs and establish a home. I had never known this; probably more than 95% of the first Chinese immigrants were men.
It seems so sad because as we learn about history, we’re always learning of different peoples who come to American cities in search of something better, only to receive a slap in the face from prejudices and discrimination.
In many ways, I understood what was said about the Whitney exhibits we saw. Seeing and learning about these things from the past can make a person angry enough just reliving it in their minds or simply imagining what their ancestors have had to endure and the advances that we must continue to make.
There were also articles from magazines and newspapers talking of the Chinese women’s movement in America or Asian protests for equality. Unlike the exhibit we just saw last week at the Whitney, this exhibit was very straightfoward. It wasn’t interpreted for you but left the onlooker to draw his or her own conclusions. I liked this museum because it said so much about the first Chinese American culture that I haven’t really encountered before.