Museum of Chinese in America

The story of the Chinese immigrant experience in the U.S. is wholly different from that of any other ethnic group that came here. Arguably, these Chinese-Americans, and the African Americans who came here as slaves, had it worst, and the tales of what they endured—thanks to the limited work they were allowed to do and the “Chinese Exclusion Act,” a federal law barring further Chinese immigration (that separated countless families)— give this museum true power. For a preview, take a look at Maya Lin’s video tour of the museum (she’s the museum’s designer and creator of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, D.C.), which is found at www.mocanyc.org/visit.