Fay Chew Matsuda, born Fay Lai Chew (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

: 陈丽妃;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''Chén Lìfēi''; April 11, 1949 – July 24, 2020), was a Chinese American museum curator and activist. She directed the

Museum of Chinese in America The Museum of Chinese in America (; abbreviated MOCA) is a museum in New York City which exhibits Chinese American history The history of Chinese Americans or the history of ethnic Chinese in the United States includes three major waves of C ...

from 1997 to 2006.

Biography

Matsuda was born Fay Lai Chew, on April 11, 1949, in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

to immigrants from

Taishan, Guangdong Taishan (), alternately romanized in Cantonese as Toishan or Toisan, in local dialect as Hoisan, and formerly known as Xinning or Sunning (), is a county-level city in the southwest of Guangdong province, China. It is administered as part o ...

. She grew up in

East Village, Manhattan The East Village is a neighborhood on the East Side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is roughly defined as the area east of the Bowery and Third Avenue, between 14th Street on the north and Houston Street on the south. The East Villag ...

. Her father owned a hand-laundry north of the city in

Ossining, New York Ossining may refer to: * Ossining (town), New York, a town in Westchester County, New York state *Ossining (village), New York, a village in the town of Ossining * Ossining High School, a comprehensive public high school in Ossining village * Ossi ...

, and a number of small businesses. Her mother was a garment worker on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

. She graduated from

Hunter College High School Hunter College High School is a secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Hunter is publicly funded, and there i ...

and received her BA in sociology from

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

in 1971. Her activism in the Chinese community in New York began in the Basement Workshop, an arts and activism organization that became a hub for the

Asian American Movement The Asian American movement was a sociopolitical movement in which the widespread grassroots effort of Asian Americans affected racial, social and political change in the U.S, reaching its peak in the late 1960s to mid-1970s. During this period Asia ...

on the East Coast. She later received her master's of social work from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. Matsuda began her career as a social worker at

Hamilton-Madison House Hamilton-Madison House is a voluntary, non-profit settlement house dedicated to improving the quality of life of its community, primarily that of the Two Bridges/Chinatown area of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, United States. The ...

, originally established in the

to help acclimate Jewish and Italian immigrants and now serving a predominantly Asian and Latino constituency. She left to join the Chinatown History Project as executive director and was instrumental in transforming the project into the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA). She later worked at the Chinatown Health Clinic, the Asian American Federation and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. She was also a director of the

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) is a New York-based national organization founded in 1974 that seeks to protect and promote the civil rights of Asian Americans. By combining litigation, advocacy, education, and organiz ...

during the 1980s and 1990s. Matsuda returned to MOCA to serve as executive director from 1997 to 2006. She then served as director of the Hamilton-Madison City Hall Senior Center before retiring in 2016. Matsuda died on July 24, 2020, at her home in

Sound Beach, New York Sound Beach, established in 1929, is a Administrative divisions of New York#Hamlet, hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the north part of the Administrative divisions of New York#Town, Town of Brookhaven, New York, Brookhaven in Suffolk Cou ...

, at age 71. She was married to Karl Matsuda.

References

1949 births 2020 deaths American social workers {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsuda, Fay Chew American curators Directors of museums in the United States American nonprofit executives Barnard College alumni Hunter College High School alumni New York University School of Social Work alumni People from New York City American activists