Events

Happy Year of the Rat! Come read about the Great Race, or, how each year is named after twelve different animals. Afterwards, we’ll color and craft a zodiac wheel for you to take home!

Authors Joanna C. Lee and Ken Smith join us to translate and decode the almanac's predictions with daily listings for 2020, the Year of the Rat.  

Chinatown, Manhattan is its own destination! Uncover the history of one of New York City’s oldest neighborhoods through this 90 minute walking tour, which focuses on how everyday buildings and places of historical significance reflect and shape a community. The tour will take you through time from the neighborhood’s origins as a Native American village, to the Irish Five Points, the Italian immigrants of Little Italy, to present day as one of the fastest growing immigrant communities of New York City. Some highlighted sites include Collect Pond, Five Points, Columbus Park, Funeral Parlor Row, the Church of the Transfiguration, and the oldest street in Chinatown.

As we approach 2020, the centennial of women’s suffrage, join MOCA and the Tenement Museums as we take a look at pivotal policies that shaped the experiences of Chinese American women at different points in time. Explore MOCA's galleries to see what exclusion—de facto and de jure—looked like for Chinese American women, and how it affected ideas of gender identity, family, and community.

Join us to meet and talk with author Abigail Hing Wen about her debut novel Loveboat, Taipei. It is a young adult Crazy Rich Asians, inspired by the actual cultural exchange program in Taipei attended by many Asian American teens since the 1960s. The romp is woven through with an immigrant girl’s coming-of-age story, of navigating family complexities, discovering identity in all its facets and finding love.

Come on over to MOCA’s Year of the Rat Lunar New Year Family Festival! Enjoy zodiac arts & crafts, lively dance performances, festive snacks, and timeless tales inspired by Chinese and Chinese American New Year’s traditions. Buy your tickets for the Morning Session (10am – 1pm) or the Afternoon Session (2 – 5pm)—both sessions will have the same awesome lineup of special guests and fun activities.

Come on over to MOCA’s Year of the Rat Lunar New Year Family Festival! Enjoy zodiac arts & crafts, lively dance performances, festive snacks, and timeless tales inspired by Chinese and Chinese American New Year’s traditions. Buy your tickets for the Morning Session (10am – 1pm) or the Afternoon Session (2 – 5pm)—both sessions will have the same awesome lineup of special guests and fun activities.

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with MOCA at its annual Night Market! Join us for a night of food, drinks, and performances, mixed with arts and culture at the museum. Ring in the Year of the Rat as you sample drinks or food from our vendors!

Gong xi fa cai! Join us for some stories about New Year’s traditions, like decorating, family feasts, and dragon dances. Then, we’ll practice folding paper oranges—a fruit that means good luck!  

Keep your family and community memories for posterity! Sign up for a timeslot where the MOCA Collections team will scan and digitize your most beloved photos, paper documents, and/or 2-D mementos 11" x 17" or smaller.   为后代留下您对家庭和社区的记忆！注册一个时间段，美国华人博物馆馆藏部将数字化扫描您最喜爱的照片、文件、或者其它二维纪念品，尺寸限制在不超过11"x17"。分享您数字化物品背后的故事，并带走一份数字化的副本，发个朋友圈炫耀一下吧！

The Mai Wah Society’s Chinn family owned and operated the Mai Wah Noodle Parlor in Butte, MT for almost 40 years. Not only was it a place to share a meal, it was also an important community gathering place. If you ran a restaurant in your neighborhood, what would you serve? Using colored pencils, washi tape, and 3-D elements, dream up and draw an illustrated menu of family recipes and your own culinary creations to share with friends and family.

In honor of this year’s zodiac animal, design a mouse-inspired paper lantern and wearable mouse ears. Then, don your accessories and say cheese at MOCA’s Lunar New Year photo corner.

Dumplings bring good fortune all year long! Eating them is a traditional way to celebrate the New Year! Fill your own lucky dumplings and practice several ways of folding them. Will your dumplings impress? At home, use what you’ve learned to make dumplings for the whole family.

Gong xi fa cai! Join us for some stories about New Year’s traditions, like decorating, family feasts, and dragon dances. Then, we’ll practice folding paper oranges—a fruit that means good luck!  

Do you want to build a snowman? We’ll sing snowman songs and read about winter day activities before making little snowmen of our own! 你想堆个雪人吗？我们将一起学唱关于雪人的歌曲，阅读一些有关冬季的活动，最后动手创作一个属于你自己的雪人！

Inspired by vintage photos of old families, buildings, and Chinatowns long gone, illustrate and then “vintage-fy” beloved family memories by aging them with tea and coffee. Showcase them in a personalized scrapbook page filled with your favorite things.  

Inspired by vintage photos of old families, buildings, and Chinatowns long gone, illustrate and then “vintage-fy” beloved family memories by aging them with tea and coffee. Showcase them in a personalized scrapbook page filled with your favorite things.  

Qing Ming is a day for remembering the past. Families go to the grave sites of their ancestors and honor them by hosting elaborate picnics. Mold clay people, tea eggs, drum sticks, oranges, almond cookies, and more to create your very own Qing Ming picnic scene. Then celebrate the new beginnings of spring and let your imagination soar as you design a one-of-a-kind kite!  

In honor of Earth Day, create a mini world or add to a collaborative community that shows what earth might be like in the future. Think about how a community in the future might reduce pollution, recycle more, or grow food in a more environmentally friendly way! Use recycled materials to build your world.  

Garment workers have always been a large part of Chinatown's identity and community. Learn about their experiences as you work alongside other visitors to create a collaborative tapestry or individual weaving that reflects on your contributions to the rich fabric of MOCA and the Chinatown community.

Garment workers have always been a large part of Chinatown's identity and community. Learn about their experiences as you work alongside other visitors to create a collaborative tapestry or individual weaving that reflects on your contributions to the rich fabric of MOCA and the Chinatown community.