The Museum of Chinese in the Americas. New York, NY.Reviewed by Gabrielle BerlingerWith
the close of Chinese year of the pig (2007), the Museum of Chinese in
the Americas (MoCA) will also close its exhibition galleries on the 2nd
floor of a retired, century-old school building. It will open new doors
in 2008 at 147-151 Lafayette Street on the west side of New York City’s
Chinatown. Although architect Maya Lin, renowned for Washington’s
Vietnam Memorial, is presently at work designing the new space, MoCA’s
past will remain present on Mulberry Street for one more year. I
recently visited the Museum to grasp this past and imagine its future.
While not grounded in its physical space, MoCA remains grounded in
meaning and mission.Founded
in 1980 by John Kuo Wei Tchen and Charles Lai as a two-year venture
called the New York Chinatown History Project, this 26-year old
project-turned-museum (in 1992) makes up for its modest appearance and
size with extensive collections and vibrant public programming. Upon my
last visit, I discovered that the Museum affirms its founding mission
to reclaim, preserve, and interpret the history and culture of Chinese
in the Western Hemisphere by moving forward with dynamic material and
interactive technology that increasingly involve the curious public.MoCA's
main, ongoing exhibit entitled “Where is Home? Chinese in the Americas"
welcomes visitors into a small space designed by architect Billie Tsien
to resemble the inside of a Chinese lantern, though his intention is
not initially obvious. The round, wooden structure supports a panoply
of objects and is backed by thin rice paper onto which panel
descriptions are printed. Among the objects, a worn “Chinese Laundry”
sign hangs next to a vintage Chinese baseball team photograph, an
ancestor worship shrine with incense and oranges, and three Chinese
dragonhead costumes. The core aspects of Chinese-American life are
divided into framed areas that define but also box in each section. The
presentation feels crowded and over-stimulating but conveys a sense of
the progression of Chinese cultures across continents and over time.As
you begin a clockwise tour of the room, the introduction on the wall
asks, “When Does an Object Become an Artifact?,” beginning a passage
that is unfortunately obscured by the very artifacts that it goes on to
describe. For those who succeed in reading between the legs of a wooden
stool, however, a series of questions challenge their understanding of
everyday objects: “Why are certain objects selected and labeled as
meaningful? What do the objects say about their owners, their
abandoners, their salvagers? Do they merely fulfill a useful function
or do they also contain our longings, our identities, our imagination?”
These rhetorical questions linger in viewers’ minds as they begin their
round.English,
Chinese and Spanish texts vary throughout the exhibit, but even more
interesting than the language in which material is communicated is the
form that it takes: repeated questions, poetic expression, personal
account and historic data. The diverse tones created by these creative
modes effectively evoke the individual, communal and global
perspectives of the Chinese diasporic story.In
the first section of the exhibit marked “Abandonments and
Reclamations,” you come upon family portraits, Chinese restaurant
matchbooks Chinese film reels and other common home objects. A poetic
description acknowledges theseBelongings
left behind In cramped apartments, discarded in dumpsters Buried on a
mining hillside in Montana Under a field in Idaho Behind the summer
furniture in the garage …
These
words contextualize the artifacts by offering a personal sense of the
physical loss and gain that characterizes diasporic movement. Though
the text represents the generic immigrant experience more than the
specific Chinese experience, its emotional evocation still affects
visitors by making clear the tangible reality of the journey.The
second half of “Abandonments and Reclamations” poses the “Museum’s
Dilemma: a Drama in Two Acts,” addressing the problem of respect for
cultural heritage in its documentation and presentation. The passage
reads:Act
One: the museum receives an artifact passed down four generations from
great-grandfather to grandfather to uncle to nephew. The family kept
the artifact safe for over half a century. Act Two: to document the
artifact, the museum asks the donor to interview his uncle. The uncle
tells the rich story of the family and then warns his nephew not to
tell anyone outside the family.
This
panel clearly communicates the complicated issue of working with
cultural and family lore. When personal history of an artifact carries
equal or greater weight than its public meaning, one must consider what
is actually on display – the artifact or its owner. Reading this
commentary, visitors become aware of the sensitivity that cultural
institutions must employ in issues of reclamation.The
next panel, “Migrations,” displays documents of the move including
passports and death certificates, as well as family photos and
translated letters from Chinese women to their emigrated husbands in
America. These artifacts describe their stories in individual voices
but with an overview of immigration history printed on the “lantern’s”
rice paper backing for contextualization.Here,
as in the rest of the exhibit, the absence of glass cases, protective
display covers and “Do Not Touch” signs kindly offer unique up-close
viewing opportunities (you can even admire the strands of an
elaborately woven Chinese opera robe); it is, however, sometimes
difficult to identify these objects of admiration as many of their
names and explanations are printed on small cuts of paper that are
inconspicuously placed.The
third area of the exhibit takes a turn as it begins the series of
interactive displays. “Where is Home? … the most basic question”
invites visitors to contribute their own answers. Pencil and paper are
attached to the walls onto which posted notes already read, “Right now,
my home is with my wife and cat in Chicago, Illinois,” and, “Home is
inside you. Your heart is your home.” This writing exercise allows
viewers to relate to the exhibit’s subjects with relevant but
personalized questioning.Below
the notes, a laptop computer runs a video entitled, “Transitions: a
Changing Profile of New York Chinatown.” The captioned slideshow of
Chinatown’s demographic, geographic and cultural evolution allows for a
deeper look into the social history that nurtured the Chinese-American
way of life. During my visit, viewers were attracted to this station
for its advanced presentation that sharply contrasts with the other
dated physical artifacts. The transmission of information may be
two-dimensional but it offers archives of material that engage the
users in ways that the three dimensional pieces cannot. In a space as
small as MoCA’s, multi-media technology can transport the visitor
beyond the museum’s physical walls.An
even greater media display called “Mapping Our Heritage Project”
occupies the next area. This section, considered an ongoing exhibit of
its own, consists of a two-computer kiosk that contains a searchable
database of Chinatown-related information, “based on the idea that
places are made meaningful by the memories, stories and active
engagement people have with particular sites” (as noted in its
brochure). I fully recognized the impact that this technology can have
on the museum experience when a five-year old boy sat alone and
transfixed at these computers investigating familiar Chinatown
locations and repeating to himself, “This is funnn!” This medium
empowers visitors by equipping them with tools to simultaneously
entertain and educate themselves.The
next two sections, “Women’s Voices” and “A Continuum of Faiths &
Customs” bring us back into the physical world by exhibiting a variety
of female-related and spiritual artifacts: a sewing machine, The Joy
Luck Club by Amy Tan, article clippings about the feminist and
Asian-American movements, shocking statistics (including the fact that
that in 1852, only 7 of the 11,794 Chinese in California were women),
incense sticks, and a transcribed memory of a father practicing
ancestor worship. Each is a small but informative vignette.Closing
your circle around the room, you arrive at the last section, “Many True
Stories: Life In Chinatown On and After September 11th.” This area
includes video and audio interviews with residents of Chinatown, the
largest residential area affected by 9/11. Partnered with Columbia’s
Oral History Research Office (OHRO), the September 11th Digital
Archives (911 DA) at CUNY’s Graduate Center and NYU’s
Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program and Institute, this “Ground One”
project trained and enabled middle school students to collect oral
histories in the fall of 2003. Though the audio and video technology
was not without defect, most of the information could be accessed and
the participants’ contributions were evident.Overall,
despite the occasional lack of clarity in the Museum’s presentation,
its creative textual commentary and use of technology combine to
produce an enriching experience for the viewer. Many of the displays
are dated but the material is continually being updated, even by
viewers who use the database. For an exhibition area the size of a
large living room, MoCA impressively upholds its mission with a
diversity of artifacts, media and textual sources. As the exhibit’s
introductory poem remarks,
…The
mute sites, possessions, and other traces Of Chinese life in the
Americas Each has a story to tell from the winding streets of 19th
century Chinatowns to vibrant new settlements of recent Immigrants in
Vancouver, Brooklyn, Mexico City and Toronto, to the suburban homes of
thousands of Chinese families Our task is to ask, to listen, to
remember and to retell.
By
the end of 2007, the Museum will be renovated and relocated to a new
space five times its current size on the western side of Chinatown.
Until then, there is something wonderful about walking out of a second
floor of a school building through a bevy of children ready to enter
their “Chen & Dancers” dance class, then passing the office of the
Chinatown Community Young Lions located below Chinatown Manpower on the
fourth floor and The Refugee Vocational Training Program on the fifth
floor. In this setting, the Museum, in more ways than one, draws you
straight into the heart of Chinese in the Americas.Gabrielle
Berlinger is a graduate student in Indiana University's Department of
Folklore and Ethnomusicology and is the editorial assistant for Museum Anthropology. This review originally appeared on the Material World blog, December 7, 2006.