Celebrate Lunar New Year At The Museum Of Chinese In America’s

MOCA FEST  2018

Celebration Combines Festivities, History and Culture to Support MOCA’s Education Programs on Chinese American heritage

[New York, NY] January 23, 2018 – The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) announces the launch of MOCA FEST 2018 to welcome the Year of the Dog and the start of year 4716 on the Chinese calendar. From now until March 3, MOCA will feature special Lunar New Year programs, speakers, exhibits, children’s activities, a Family Festival, walking tours of historic Chinatown, exclusive access to MOCA’s Collections, and the return of MOCA’s popular Night Market showcasing cuisine from famed Chinese American chefs.

All proceeds go towards supporting the Museum of Chinese in America, the only national museum in the U.S. dedicated to preserving and honoring the history and achievements of Chinese people in America, and teaching future generations about Chinese American heritage through its educational and outreach programs.

“For anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural foundations behind Lunar New Year, MOCA is the natural destination for finding these answers.

We created MOCA FEST 2018 so that visitors of all ages can better appreciate the

Lunar New Year holiday and what it means to New York City’s Chinatown, the

Chinese American community and the Chinese diaspora as a whole,” said Nancy Yao

Maasbach, president of Museum of Chinese in America. “The funds raised by MOCA FEST 2018 are critically important to sustaining the Museum and its continued efforts to educate the public about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, its aftermath and its effect on contemporary American society today.”

At MOCA, visitors can experience how food and Lunar New Year tradition converge as Auntie Tina Yao, cooking author and founder of DIY Lucky Dumplings, teaches how to make your own dumplings on Saturday Jan. 27. MOCA’s Tastes of Lunar New Year walking tours will take visitors to culinary hotspots in Chinatown on Sunday Feb. 11 and Saturday Feb. 24.

MOCA’s popular Night Market returns on Thursday Feb. 1 and will be hosted by Kian Lam Kho, founder of the Red Cook blog on Chinese home style cooking, and cocurator of MOCA’s critically acclaimed exhibition Sour, Sweet, Bitter, Spicy: Stories of Chinese Food and Identity in America. From 7pm to 10pm, the Museum will be transformed into a night market, with food, drinks, live music and performances. Guests will have the opportunity to meet the chefs and taste special culinary creations from restaurants including Nom Wah, East Wind Snack Shop, Red Egg, Taiwan Bear House and Mr Bing. Individual tickets to the Night Market are $100 general admission and $88 for MOCA members. To purchase tickets, visit www.mocanyc.org or contact Gee-Wey Yue at 917.484.4152.

MOCA FEST 2018 also marks the official kickoff of MOCA’s Mission Possible speaker series for the year, with:

• Acclaimed author Gish Jen discussing her latest book The Girl at the Baggage Claim (book signing afterward) on Wednesday Jan. 24;
• Betty Wong Ortiz sharing her experience as the first female editor in chief of Runner’s World magazine on Wednesday Jan. 31; and
• David Liu and Carley Roney, co-founders of NYSE-listed wedding, home and family media company XO Group (formerly The Knot) sharing the joys and challenges of being husband-and-wife entrepreneurs on Thursday Feb. 22.

MOCA’s Collections and Research Center at 70 Mulberry Street invites the public to an exclusive behind-the-scenes Open House from 6:30pm to 8:30pm on Thursday Jan. 25. The evening will include a look at artifacts not available to the public and a Letters Alive performance reading in Mandarin and English of historical letters in our archive written to Chinese American immigrants by their loved ones left behind in China.

Families can enjoy a special exhibit The Lions of Lunar New Year showcasing the history and craftsmanship behind traditional Chinese lion heads, and liven up MOCA in our annual Museum Makeover on Saturday Feb. 3, when they can make their own handmade decorations that will be displayed until our Lunar New Year Family Festival on Saturday Feb. 17.

MOCA’s celebration of the Lunar New Year will culminate with a Lunar New Year

Ball, one of the Museum’s most important and intimate fundraisers of the year, at China Blue in Tribeca. On Wednesday Feb. 28, guests will enjoy an authentic

Shanghainese banquet served in a vintage 1930s Shanghai setting with live music. Tickets to the ball are: Jade Table of 12 guests is $12,000.00; Gold Table of 6 guests is $6,000.00; and Ruby Ticket for 1 person is $1,000. To purchase tickets, visit www.mocanyc.org or contact Gee-Wey Yue at 917.484.4152.

All event ticket prices include admission to MOCA and its critically acclaimed exhibition Fold: Golden Venture Paper Sculptures, which tells the story of the passengers of the Golden Venture, a ship carrying 286 undocumented Chinese immigrants that ran aground in New York City in 1993. Selected from MOCA’s collection, over 40 sculptures collectively created by the immigrants during their multiyear detention in prison is on display until March 25, 2018.

About the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)

The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) aims to engage audiences in an ongoing and historical dialogue, in which people of all backgrounds are able to see American history through a critical perspective, to reflect on their own experiences, and to make meaningful connections between: the past and the present, the global and the local, themselves and others.

Hours:

Monday – Closed

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday – 11am-6pm

Thursday – 11am-9pm

MOCA First Free Thursdays: Free gallery admission on the first Thursday of each month

Admission:

General Admission: $10.00

MOCA Members: Free

Seniors (65+ with ID), Students (with school ID), Children 2 and up: $5 Cool Culture Families: Free