Ever wonder what it would be like to step inside a Chinese lantern? That’s what architect Billie Tsien was thinking when she designed the exhibit space for this museum’s permanent exhibit, “Where is Home?” It examines the lives of Chinese in the Americas, focusing on their transition from China to the United States and their struggle to find a place for themselves between the culture they leave behind and the one they find here. The exhibit includes artifacts that immigrants brought with them from mainland China, Taiwan, and from stops on their way to the United States, as well as objects documenting their everyday life in America.

Not much text accompanies each individual piece. But together, the artifacts tell an amazing story about Chinese immigrants and their descendants as they search for a new identity that includes both Chinese and American cultures. Their stories show you history from the bottom up rather than from the top down. Here the history you learn in school and in books comes alive through the individuals who lived it.

Though the gallery is small and concentrates on the history of Chinese people in New York, it offers a great variety. Walk inside the lantern and find, for example, the story of Mrs. Chu Fat and the embroidered silk slippers she made for herself but

didn’t wear once she came to the U.S. You’ll see a chun kahm (a four-string guitar), a picture of a 1924 semipro Chinese baseball team, Cantonese opera headdresses, advertising type cuts with both English letters and Chinese symbols, letters from a wife to her husband while he was fighting for the United States in World War II, and a business license from the City of New York.

There is even a ten-cent Chinatown newspaper from 1971 with headlines that read “Red China Enters UN,” “Pat May Crowned NY ‘Miss Chinatown,’” and “1950 Concentration Security Act Repealed” (the act that justified internment of minorities). Other objects include pictures of a Chinatown in Cuba and perhaps the most poignant piece in the exhibit, a series of photos that have been cut and pasted together to produce a complete family portrait. Most likely the family members could not all get together as the creator of the photo collage probably wished.

The permanent exhibit, entitled “Where is Home? Chinese in the Americas” [http://www.moca-nyc.org/MoCA/where/where.asp], employs personal and domestic artifacts to explore the Chinese experience in the Western Hemisphere. The gallery is divided into areas exploring issues of migration, women, faith, youth, and home. The exhibition actively involves visitors in questions of personal identity and public perception, as well as individual stories and common beliefs.

Another ongoing installation is “Many True Stories: Life in Chinatown On and After September 11th.” In collaboration with the museum, students from local Middle School 131’s Oral History Club set out to candidly capture the September 11th events and its effects on the Chinatown community. The students present a poignant collection of first-hand narratives, photographs and artifacts that retrace the events from the perspective of those who work and live in Chinatown. Additional interviews are included in themed-memory books, offering visitors a forum to share their own stories.

On view in the museum entryway through April is the exhibition “Yellow Pearl.” Yellow Pearl, created in 1972, was a compilation of artwork, poems, stories, and song lyrics contributed by members of Basement Workshop. Founded in 1970, Basement Workshop was a community grassroots organization comprised of artists, musicians, and community residents working to bring art, culture, and political activism to the Lower East Side community. Yellow Pearl was Basement’s first major project incorporating many of the unique talents of its members. Many of the works deal with themes of identity, race, and discrimination in an era of intense political activism.

Also on view until June 30, 2005, is “Have You Eaten Yet?: The Chinese Restaurant in America.” This exhibit takes a historical look at an influential site of Chinese American life – the Chinese restaurant. Often the first introduction to Chinese culture for many Americans, the Chinese restaurant has functioned since the nineteenth century as a place cultural exchange. Featuring Harley Spiller’s extensive collection of Chinese restaurant menus and related ephemera, the exhibit traces the Chinese restaurant’s origins and growth in America, and explores how it has helped broaden the definition of American culture through the introduction of new foods.

A wonderful research tool available to you at the museum is the CD-ROM called “Transitions: The Evolution of New York Chinatown.” It chronicles the development of Manhattan’s Chinatown from the time the land was home to Werpoes Hill, a Native American village, to the present. The history is extensive. The CD-ROM traces all of the immigrant groups that have lived in what is now Chinatown, even those who inhabited the area before the arrival of Chinese immigrants and those groups who later lived alongside the Chinese.

Another wonderful interactive tool is the “Mapping Our Heritage Project,” This fully interactive virtual kiosk can potentially provide people with access to a range of information on Chinatown - statistical and biographical data, historical photos, documents, individual oral histories, and artifacts. Visitors engage with an 8-block area of New York known as historic “Old Chinatown” by clicking on or “visiting” an address to not only see artifacts, photos, documents, and oral histories connected to that place, but also submit their own personal accounts and memories of Chinatown. This format provides a new way of exploring and writing the history of Chinese Americans in New York and expands the public’s participation in the ongoing process of reclaiming and interpreting the community’s diverse cultures and histories.

The museum staff is very knowledgeable and helpful, supplying much additional information. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. In fact, ask questions even if you think they may not be necessary. You never know what kind of wonderfully unexpected answer you might get. The exhibit also offers an interesting feature: visitors’ responses to the question “Where Is Home?”

The museum also hosts a whole variety of school programs, including workshops, lectures and even tours of Chinatown. For the most current information on programs, check the museum’s website, [http://www.moca-nyc.org/MoCA/content.asp?cid=14]. You should also be aware that the museum has an extensive archive, which is mentioned on the website.

Though this museum is relatively small and relatively new, if you are doing a project on anything related to the history of the Chinese in the Americas, race relations, immigration, discrimination, or the history of New York City, the history of any ethnic group in New York City―including Native Americans, African Americans, Jews, Eastern Europeans, the Irish, or Germans―definitely stop at the museum. MoCA has a lot to offer you.