On a sunny Saturday afternoon, a group of 20 NNY Mandarin speaking students went to visit Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) with Nung-Hsin Hu,  Min Ha Kim & I.

As we walked into MOCA’s building, the first thing we noticed is the architecture itself, which is designed by architect Maya Lin. We talked about her ideas of renovating a former machine shop into a functional museum. The students were very interested in all the different kinds of historical displays telling the stories of Chinese Americans from the 1850’s to the present day. Sometimes they would feel sympathy for the early Chinese immigrants because their lives were so hard at that time. It resonated with them, as they are also immigrants. We visited the two exhibitions at the museum, showing the current work of Chinese American fashion designers work as well as old fashions from Shanghai in 20s-40s. The two shows made them feel proud of their rich cultural background.

This trip to MOCA really brought the students some sense of finding their own roots in the US. As New New Yorkers, it’s never easy to come to US and stay here. But it is part of being an immigrant: to be here and be part of the history.