Chinese-American museums in US grow in number as community gains in prominence – but how to tell those stories?

Institutions grappling with how best to tell the story of Chinese in the United States, especially amid rising tensions between Beijing and Washington

‘We realised there was no such museum in DC, this land of museums,’ says executive director of new opening in US capital

Reading Time:6 minutes

The new Chinese American Museum in Washington is having soft openings before it formally launches. Photo: Chinese American Museum

Published: 3:01am, 8 Jan 2020Updated: 8:26pm, 17 Feb 2020

A gravestone. Massive rocks. A mouldy qipao that has been sitting in an attic for 80 years.

Among the challenges for America’s hundred or so private museums devoted to showcasing Chinese culture is how to turn down beloved donations from the public.

This is just one of the hurdles Chinese-American museums face as they increase in number and prominence in line with the community.

Even as the soon-to-officially-open Chinese American Museum in Washington scrambles for artefacts to fill out its collection, established museums routinely turn away old postcards, souvenirs from some recent holiday in China or dusty statues of obscure deities – without hurting prospective donors’ feelings.

“Someone’s garbage is someone else’s treasure,” said Nancy Yao Maasbach, president of New York’s Museum of Chinese in America, or MOCA, the nation’s largest Chinese-American museum, with some 85,000 artefacts.

It traces its roots to the 1970s, and two “dumpster diver” founders who started grabbing valuable heirlooms that were being tossed out by Chinatown residents.