Museum of Chinese in America

Jack Tchen along with Charlie Lai are founders of the Chinatown History Project, which has gone on to become the Museum of Chinese in America. In this multiple part interview Tchen discusses growing up in Wisconsin and his family’s ties to China. He then recounts his time at Madison college and how he got more involved in activism and Asian American studies. Next he discusses his time working at Basement workshop, how he met Charlie and working on exhibitions. He left Basement workshop with Charlie and they created the eight pound livelihood exhibition. After, Tchen left the Chinatown history project he started teaching at Queen college and NYU and started the Asian Studies program at NYU. Over the years Tchen often went back to help MOCA especially when the museum expanded and created the core exhibition. He discusses his personal life and his family, the interview ends with a discussion of the challenges of change in museums and MOCA.