![]() The Coalition also accused the museum of accepting a $35 million “bribe” from the city in exchange for support of a new jail being built in the neighborhood. “We are doing an economic boycott that will force Jonathan Chu to come to the drawing table.” “This struggle is not just focusing on MoCA,” Mahir Rahman, an organizer for Coalition member Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, said. They accused him of gentrifying the neighborhood as well as forcing the owners of Jing Fong, one of the few Chinatown restaurants with unionized staff, to shut down the business, located in his building. Protesters directed much of their ire at MoCA Board Co-Chair Jonathan Chu, a landlord who owns several properties in Chinatown. They held signs with slogans such as “Destroying Chinatown is anti-Asian violence” and “Museum of Corrupt Asians,” while participating in chants of “Chinatown is not a museum.” A crowd of protesters from the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side gathered at the entrance and loudly voiced its displeasure with the museum’s reopening throughout the event.ĭemonstrators called for a boycott of the museum due to it allegedly “promoting displacement and racism towards the community that it claims to represent,” according to a statement by the Coalition. However, the mood just outside the museum was far from cheerful. The museum’s reopening preview on Wednesday projected a celebratory atmosphere, with a musical performance by string duo ARKAI and a dance number from J CHEN Project. MoCA’s new exhibition : Asian American Voices Resisting the Tides of Racism. Museum admission will be free throughout the exhibit’s run, through September 19, thanks to a June donation from MacKenzie Scott. The multimedia collection includes a visual timeline of anti-AAPI racism, video testimonials from Asian Americans and a space for visitors to share their thoughts. ![]() The museum’s reopening features a new exhibit, titled Responses: Asian American Voices Resisting the Tides of Racism, as its centerpiece. “It’s kind of a day that we weren’t sure was going to ever come.” “I’m really pleased,” MoCA President Nancy Yao Maasbach said to AsAmNews Wednesday despite a protest held outside targeting the musuem. For a while, the future of the museum seemed uncertain. Two months later, it was forced to close due to the pandemic. The longtime Chinatown fixture has been dealt a series of blows: In January 2020, its archive building suffered a catastrophic fire, destroying 5% of its collection. More than a year after it shuttered, New York City’s Museum of Chinese in America (MoCA) reopened on Thursday - with both fanfare and controversy. ![]()
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