Nancy Yao, the former president of the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in New York, will not direct the new American Women’s History Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The news comes after months of protests by local activists as well as an external review of allegations related to Yao’s leadership at MOCA.
THE Smithsonian announced Yao as director of its new museum in March, prompting immediate backlash of Manhattan’s Chinatown community based on his controversial leadership at MOCA. The Smithsonian engaged an external group to investigate allegations of Yao’s mishandling of sexual harassment complaints at MOCA as well as multiple lawsuits settled for unfair dismissal. Investigation rescheduled his appointmentwhich was to begin on June 5.
Today, July 5, the Smithsonian said in a statement that Yao “has stepped down as Founding Director due to family issues that require her attention.”
A Smithsonian spokesperson said Hyperallergic that the American Women’s History Museum “will immediately begin a new search for a director”. Melanie Adams, currently director of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, will serve as interim director.
After Yao was initially selected for the role, a report from the Washington Post drew increased attention to individual settlements between MOCA and three former museum employees alleging wrongful termination and retaliatory behavior. In 2021, former museum employee Joyce Huang filed a lawsuit on behalf of two employees who told her in 2019 that they were sexually harassed by a male supervisor and a male guard from time to time. Huang reportedly raised her concerns with MOCA’s human resources department and claims that she was later fired without warning on the grounds that she “lacks professionalism and productivity and had poor judgment”, leading her to believe that she had been fired in retaliation for voicing her concerns. The two male staff members accused of harassment, Joseph Duong and Erwin Geronimo, retained their positions; Geronimo is still employed at the museum today.
Yao maintains that Huang was terminated due to “severe budgetary pressures”, continuing to deny all allegations of retaliatory behavior. Two other employees, Grayson Chin and Justin Onne, also reportedly filed lawsuits against Yao and MOCA for wrongful termination which also resulted in settlements – Onne reportedly accepted a payment of $55,000.
Yao’s leadership at MOCA was called into question in 2018 when she accepted a $35 million “community solidarity fund” of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration on behalf of the museum in return for supporting the expansion of a mega-jail in Chinatown to facilitate de Blasio’s plan to shut down the Rikers Island Jail.
Protesters from the Chinatown Art Brigade and Youth Against Displacement (YAD) have been picketing the museum every week since mid-2020 to protest Yao’s decision to sell the community as well as his connection to the chairman of the board. MOCA administration and luxury real estate developer Jonathan Chu, who allegedly helped shut down dim-sum’s beloved historic restaurant Jing Fong.
“[Yao] taught us by example what a 21st century racist looks like in the most progressive city in the country: you can be a person of color and still despise and sell out your community, climb the ranks of racist systems while trampling your own people, provide symbolic cover for anti-Asian discrimination and simultaneously claim that Chinese Americans are making progress,” YAD members wrote in a statement. notice published by Hyperallergic. Yao’s last day at MOCA was May 31.
