Nancy Yao, who was to begin her role as the inaugural director of the future American Women’s History Museum in Washington, DC yesterday, June 5, did not start employment as planned. A spokesperson for the Smithsonian Institution confirmed that Yao’s start date had been delayed, citing a ongoing review of allegations against Yao while she was president of the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in New York. The spokesperson said an official announcement would be released once the Smithsonian makes a final decision.
Nancy Yao’s last day at MOCA was May 31. While at the Manhattan Museum, Yao was accused of condoning sexual harassment against female employees and wrongfully firing employees in retaliation for bringing attention to the behavior. THE Washington Post initially reported that Yao’s nomination to the Smithsonian Institution was under review, pointing to the three wrongful termination lawsuits that were settled in the last year and a half of his tenure at MOCA.
In 2021, former MOCA employee Joyce Huang filed a complaint on behalf of two other female employees who claimed to have been sexually harassed by a male supervisor and a male facilities manager from time to time. Huang alleged that she and her husband were wrongfully terminated from their positions at MOCA in 2019 in retaliation for speaking out about the harassment. The case was settled six months after it was filed, and Yao argued that Huang and two other employees were terminated due to “severe budgetary pressures”. Grayson Chin and Justin Onne, two other former MOCA employees, also filed wrongful termination lawsuits against Yao and the museum, which were eventually settled as well.
The Smithsonian Institution is investigating these allegations against Yao and MOCA with the help of the Mintz Group, a New York-based business investigation firm.
The accusations, however, are just a drop in the bucket of Yao’s controversial legacy at the museum. In 2019, it was revealed that Yao accepted a $35 million “community solidarity fund” from the Bill de Blasio administration on behalf of the museum in exchange for supporting the expansion of a prison in Manhattan’s Chinatown as part of the overall plan to close the Rikers Island prison. Yao and the museum have also come under fire for their connection to board co-chairman and luxury real estate developer Jonathan Chu, who allegedly played a role in closing Jing Fongthe neighborhood’s beloved and historic dim sum restaurant, leaving 180 employees out of work.
“Nancy Yao and the Chinatown elites she promotes, like the Chu family and those who profit from the exploitation and displacement of Chinatown, are the new faces of Asian hatred,” activist group Youth Against Displacement wrote in an editorial for Hyperallergic in April, following the announcement of Yao’s new appointment.
Yao’s acceptance of the fund and his connection to Chu was met with protests by Chinatown residents outside the museum for months. Since the beginning of the weekly protests, Yao has accused the elderly protesters on site of “get paid to picketand allegedly called police on picket lines for drumming on buckets of soy sauce. Youth Against Displacement continues its picketing efforts against MOCA Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
