Taking a leadership role at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in New York's Chinatown might seem daunting, but Nancy Yao Maasbach, MOCA's president, said it's a move that has roots in her childhood.

"We lived in Flushing when Flushing was predominantly Italian, Jewish, and German," she said in an interview. "Every weekend we traveled to Chinatown to shop and dine. Despite the fact that we did not speak Cantonese—the dominant dialect in Chinatown—we felt welcomed by the community."

Maasbach, whose mother hailed from Northern China while her father was a Shanghai transplant to the United States, was born and raised with her older brother in Flushing, Queens.

"We were one of just a handful of Chinese families in Flushing when I was raised in the 1970s and 1980s," she said. "At that time, New York City really had one Chinatown, this one here in Lower Manhattan. The ones in Sunset Park (Brooklyn) and in Flushing really did not exist.

Maasbach said she was first introduced to MOCA when it opened at 215 Centre Street in 1980.

"My mother was very active in the Chinese community, and familiar with MOCA's opening in 1979/1980," she said. "She worked downstairs at the Chinatown Manpower Project, which was housed in the same building as the Chinatown History Project (which would become MOCA).

"My extended family is delighted that I am now at MOCA," she said. "They have all maintained a keen interest and devotion to US-China relations. So I feel a real kinship with the museum having grown up with it."

MOCA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the documentation of the Chinese experience in America. It first began as a community-based organization known as the New York Chinatown History Project.

The museum, which is open to the public six days a week (11 am – 6 pm; Tuesday-Sunday, closed Monday), attempts to document 160 years of Chinese-American history.

Almost 35 years after the museum opened, Maasbach assumed her position at the beginning of February.

"Chinese culture, as we define it, is distinct," Maasbach said. "There's no identical story, and identity for Chinese people in America is so complex and subtle. How does one capture or help to tell their journey? The task is a large one.

"As a museum we have to really to think about how to best objectively present those stories — especially in the world of technology," she said. "It's tricky, but there's a lot of fun thinking that needs to happen."

A number of displays in the museum weave together sociocultural and historical narratives to tell the stories of new immigrants and multi-generation families in the US.

Located just a few blocks from the heart of Manhattan's Chinatown, the relative quiet along Centre Street provides guests with a respite from the constant stream of traffic along Canal Street, just to the south.

Maasbach said her new job requires its fair share of responsibilities, including but not limited to: community outreach efforts, fundraising goals, event planning initiatives, and artist and curator coordination duties.

"The Chinese people are a complex body of people, so there is always more work to do to understand the nuances," she said. "The museum has a tremendous task: Telling the stories of complex topics and different journeys. There's so much someone can get out of this."

Before taking her new post, Maasbach held positions in the private and non-profit sectors, including posts with: the Center for Financial Research and Analysis (CFRA), the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Goldman Sachs & Co and the Yale-China Association.

Maasbach also serves on the federal advisory committee for President Barack Obama's 100,000 Strong Initiative, an educational program focused on strengthening US-China relations through Mandarin language learning and study abroad opportunities.

"Throughout my 20-year career, I've always had a China component," Maasbach said.

Maasbach received an MBA in finance from the Yale School of Management in 1999. Until recently she served as the executive director of Yale University's Yale-China Association. The association, founded in 1901 by Yale University graduates, is a private, non-profit organization that works to promote cultural and educational exchange between the world's two largest economies.

She noted that her alma mater has an extensive relationship with China — a link that dates back to the middle stages of the 19th century.

In 1850, Yung Wing, a Chinese man from Guangdong province, arrived in New Haven, Connecticut. Just four years later, he would leave Yale as the first person from China to earn a degree from an American college or university.

"Yung Wing was the first Chinese student to graduate from a US university," Maasbach said. "He subsequently brought 120 young boys, between the ages of 11 and 13, to New England. Those boys are really the precursor to fully understanding one constituency group with the Chinese American history in the US."

During her time with the Yale-China Association, Maasbach said she would travel to China several times a year, including trips to rural areas in a number of Chinese provinces (Anhui, Hunan, and Yunnan), as well as trips to cities like Guangzhou and the Hong Kong SAR.

Maasbach also said the experience she gained during several years with Goldman Sachs, in both New York and Hong Kong, helped her learn the skills needed to effectively run a non-profit like a museum.

Those assets "can never be undervalued," she said. There's "a really strict eye" on financials at non-profits and "you can't wing it".

"My dream for MOCA is that anyone who walks through that door feels some sort of connection, where the experience isn't distinctly Chinese and it isn't exotic or foreign," she said.

"If I were just someone who loved museums, artwork and exhibits, that would be great, but at the end of the day this is still an organization," Maasbach said. "It needs to be managed, it needs to report to a board, it has risks, and there's a team of people who rely on it for their livelihood."

jackfreifelder@chinadailyusa.com