New York Rallies Around Chinese Museum After Fire Ravages Archive

NEW YORK CITY — The future of the Museum of Chinese in America archive hangs in the balance as firefighters excavate the ruins of a five-alarm fire and New Yorker rally to raise funds for cultural center's recovery.

In just two days, New Yorkers have raised more than raised more than $65,000 for MOCA, the museum that kept its 85,000-piece archive in 70 Mulberry St., which was ravaged by fire on Jan. 23.

"Thank you for the outpouring of support from near and far," said MOCA president Nancy Yao Maasbach. "MOCA is strengthened and determined to recover, repair, and rebuild."

But MOCA staffers will need to wait weeks to find out how its 85,000-piece archive — which includes paper fans, photographs, film reels, opera costumes, embroidered slippers and more — fared in the flames.

The New Yorker reports only about 40,000 items had been catalogued and digitized.

"The history of Chinese immigration to the United States is an American narrative," Maasbach said. "The fire at 70 Mulberry jeopardizes a vital collection of American history."

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday Department of Records and Cultural Affairs staffers will provide support, staff and expertise to the museum, and the city will provide storage space for any recovered artifacts.

“70 Mulberry Street is a pillar of Chinatown, and I stand with the entire community as recovery efforts continue,” de Blasio said. “We will do everything in our power to help these incredible organizations rebuild and bring this historic building back to life.”

City Hall will also provide temporary homes for the Chinatown Senior Center, Chinatown Manpower Project and H.T. Dance Company, all of which called 70 Mulberry St. home.

Among those to contribute to a charity GoFundMe fundraiser were the Museum at Eldridge Street and a woman named Jocelyn Kaplan, who said she was the relative of a renowned Chinatown photographer.

"In Memory of my great uncle Emile Bocian," Kaplan wrote with her $100 donation. "His work was lost today."