美國華人博物館(MOCA)大火

Happening Now - Active fire

消防官員說，大火在下午8點45分左右爆發。周四在五層樓房的高層，屋頂倒塌了。九名消防員和一名平民受傷。據報導，該平民通過梯子從屋頂被救出，並因吸入煙霧受傷住院。據信，這些傷害均無生命危險。

馬斯巴赫（Maasbach）不相信大火到達了檔案館所在的二樓，但她最大的恐懼是「肯定是水災。然後，我們等待的時間越長，黴菌越長-任何可能積聚的黴菌。這將是一個溫暖的周末。 」

該博物館於40年前開放，最初位於桑樹街（Mulberry Street）建築物中，並於2009年移至現在的中心大街215號，但保留了二樓的檔案空間。馬斯巴赫說，雖然大約40,000件檔案已被數字化，但許多實物是不可替代的。

根據馬斯巴赫（Maasbach）的說法，檔案中包括「來自手工洗衣店的舊鐵加熱金屬零件。有禮服-傳統的中國禮服，世紀之交的旗袍。只有無窮無盡的家庭相冊，唐人街的明信片1900年代初期，我的意思是，這些東西不容易獲得，我們擁有唐人街電影院的所有電影海報，這些海報已經不復存在，這些東西的票根也很早，而我們的標誌則來自早期的餐館和在唐人街的自助洗衣店，這些東西簡直是無價之寶。」

她說，博物館還收藏了大量「中美餐館菜單，講述了這個國家的早期中國企業家的故事，他們想真正迎合西方的口味，從而獲得更大的成功和被人們接受。」 「類似moo goo gai pan之類的東西，我什至都不知道它們是什麼菜-那些是美國菜。因此，如果美國敘事理解中國人將他們的味蕾發展為更具包容性，那就是為什麼我們看到那些東西。」

她補充說，這些收藏是「經過數百人和家庭40年的努力。這是唯一經過適當評估的真正正式收藏……我們表現出色，而且做得很好。」

她說，博物館工作人員確實正式保存了很多物品。 「因此，我們肯定已經使用了非常專業的方法來存放和存儲東西...但是，由於有如此多的水，這確實很難防止。我不知道有什麼東西能倖免於此類水災。」

在恢復工作中，她說：「我們有一個可以執行此操作的窗口。我們已經接觸了很多人-大都會人，保護區，恢復區，學者。所以每個人都在說，「讓我們知道我們能做什麼，」但我真的很緊張。我的意思是我們那裡有85,000件商品。而且有很多東西是無價之寶，無法替代。」

美國華人博物館的設計者，也是越戰紀念碑的設計者Maya Lin 講述設計理念

馬斯巴赫指出，建築本身也是歷史文物。它於1893年開放，過去曾是PS 23的所在地，這是一所小學，幾代孩子都曾在這裡學習過，其中包括代表該地區的議員Margaret Chin。

該建築還容納了非營利組織，包括聯合體育協會，陳之舞中心和唐人街人力資源，這是一個職業和創業援助中心，馬斯巴赫自己的母親從那裡學習職業技能。

她說：「不僅是那裡的檔案，唐人街的歷史和美國華人，而且是一所歷史悠久的城市建築，都帶有一所小學。」 「人們一直在談論PS23。我的意思是，我建議大多數人知道70桑樹是誰與這個社區有聯繫。即使是個孩子，我還是和媽媽一起去那裡在唐人街學習她的就業技能。人力–他們向新移民傳授技能。這與來紐約的中國僑民有著深厚的聯繫。」

馬斯巴赫補充說：「這不僅僅是關於這個國家的中國人。」 「這是關於美國的敘事。我們藏品中的故事講述了這種敘事。不幸的是，這仍然是未知的，而且……在所有人及其藏品和事物的支持下，博物館取得了長足的進步，這只是退後一步。」

與館長對談

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When she heard the news of a fire at the building where the Museum of Chinese in America keeps its 85,000-item archive Thursday night, the museum's president Nancy Yao Maasbach raced over to watch firefighters battling the growing blaze.

As firehoses doused the burning building at 70 Mulberry Street throughout the night, Maasbach thought of the effects of water damage and mold to the priceless items in their collections.

"We were so tempted to just try to get in there yesterday and they thought we were mad, crazy mad," Maasbach said in an interview Friday morning, as she stood outside the building where firefighters were still working to contain the last remnants of the five-alarm fire.

"But the curator was here, the head of collections was here. The educators were here. We were all just sort of like standing and waiting and hoping that they might be able to let us in," she said. "But it was a big fire."

Fire officials said the fire broke out around 8:45 p.m. Thursday in the upper floors of the five-story building, and the roof collapsed. Nine firefighters and one civilian were injured --the civilian was reportedly rescued from the roof via ladder and was hospitalized for smoke inhalation injuries. None of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening.

Maasbach does not believe the fire reached the second floor where the archives are located, but her greatest fear is "definitely water damage. Then the longer we wait, mold -- any mold that might build up. It's going to be a warm weekend."

The museum, opened 40 years ago, was originally housed in the Mulberry Street building and moved to its current location at 215 Centre Street in 2009, but retained space on the second floor for the archives. While about 40,000 pieces of the archives were digitized, many physical items are irreplaceable, Maasbach said.

According to Maasbach, the archives include "old iron heating metal components that are from hand laundries. There's dresses -- traditional Chinese dresses, cheongsams from the turn of the century. There was just an endless list of priceless family albums, postcards from Chinatown from the early 1900s. I mean, these things are not easily acquired. We have all the movie posters from the theaters that used to be in Chinatown that no longer exist, the ticket stubs from those things. And we have this signage from early restaurants and laundromats in Chinatown and these things are just priceless."

The museum also has a large collection of "Chinese American restaurant menus, which tells the story of early Chinese entrepreneurs in this country who wanted to really cater to the Western palate to be more successful and to be more accepted," she said. "Things like moo goo gai pan, things that I never even knew what dishes they were -- those are American dishes. So if the American narrative understands that the Chinese evolved their palates to be more inclusive, that's why we see such value in those things."

She added that the collections were "a 40-year effort by hundreds of people and families. And it's the only real formal collection that's properly assessed...we're this standout, and it's really well done."

The museum staff did formally conserve many items, she said. "So there are definitely very professional methods that we've used to house and store things...but with this amount of water, it's really hard to protect against. I don't know if anything survives this type of water damage."

Of the recovery effort, she said "we have a window in which we can do this. We've reached out to many, many people -- people at the Met, people at conservation places, recovery places, academics. So everyone's been saying, 'let us know what we can do,' but I'm just really nervous. I mean that we have 85,000 items there. And there are many things that are priceless and not replaceable."

The building itself is also a historical artifact, Maasbach pointed out. It opened in 1893 and used to house PS 23, an elementary school where generations of kids studied - including Councilmember Margaret Chin, who represents the district.