Museum of Chinese in America to Present Outdoor Performance Program Celebrating Chinatown's History and Culture

The Museum of Chinese in America will present a unique outdoor interactive performance program, "MOCA Performs - Passage: A Walk of Chinatown Stories," to bring oral histories and personal stories to life in the streets of Chinatown this summer. Each performance will welcome a total of 25 audience members to have a walk along Mott Street with a selection of intimate, local stories from both MOCA's oral history archive and performer's personal experiences shared through a series of interactive performances. Along this walk, the audience will get to experience the stories about nostalgia, resilience, loneliness, dreams and celebration - the cultural tapestry of Chinatown. The performance runs from Thursday to Saturday, July 20th to July 29th at 6:30pm. For more information, please visit: www.mocanyc.org/event/moca-performs-passage-a-walk-of-chinatown-stories/

"What makes Chinatown unique is its cultural significance and its impact to waves of immigrants of Chinese and Asian descent in their day-to-day life since the 1880s," said Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li, Director of Performance, Storytelling & Community at the Museum of Chinese in America. "We want to offer a way for the audience to live through these people's stories beyond your favorite Chinese restaurants and dishes, and what could be better than a series of interactive performances that welcome you to do an improvisational dance, practice some martial art moves, or march in a festival parade?"

"MOCA Performs - Passage: A Walk of Chinatown Stories" is a new theatrical work devised by a collective of participating performers. It will highlight stories about the housing and 1982's garment factory workers' strike from MOCA's oral history archive. Performers will also be sharing their experiences on the search for identity and the sense of belonging through telling personal stories about job hunting, practicing martial arts as a teenager, interactions with Chinatown gangs, and their day-to-day joy in Chinatown. "MOCA Performs - Passage: A Walk of Chinatown Stories" is directed by MOCA's Director of Performance, Storytelling & Community, Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li, and co-directed by Nina Zoie Lam. It features an ensemble of performers of Chinese descent, including Shan Y. Chuang, Philippe Leong, Kristi Donna Ng, Charles Pang, Louis So, and Miguel Sutedjo.

The Museum of Chinese in America has preserved, presented and celebrated the 200-year history, heritage, culture, and diverse experiences of American communities of Chinese descent, since its founding in 1980. Through exhibitions, education, public programs and community partnerships, 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.