Past Exhibitions

 Dragon imagery is ubiquitous in the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum’s permanent collection.  The mythical creatures appear on many different types of artifacts, ranging from flags and tapestries to clothing and jewelry to funerary jars.   Dragons was a family-friendly exhibition that explored the symbolism of the dragon in Chinese culture through these very artifacts.  

Dragons ran at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Extension from June 1, 2019 until January 30, 2020.

This temporary exhibition partnered artifacts from the Museum’s permanent collection with a pictorial on the legal history of Chinese-American women, curated by legal historian and Attorney at Law, Chang Chiu Chen.  The panels developed by Dr. Chen pay tribute to the struggles and triumphs of Chinese-American women, as they fought for the right to immigrate, to live with dignity, to attend public schools, and to be able to enjoy success in the United States.  

HERSTORY ran at the Chuang Archive and Learning Center from March 9 until June 1, 2019.

World In Porcelain featured more than 100 pieces of Chinese export porcelain from the collection of Yu Chunming.  The exhibition explored through these objects the expansive trade era between China and the West through the development of the Maritime Silk Road, from the 1500's to the mid-19th Century.  

World In Porcelain ran at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Extension from  September 14, 2018 until February 17, 2019

This exhibition showcased a collection of artifacts and art pieces representing the “Four Treasures of the Chinese Study,” which are used in the study of Chinese calligraphy and writing.  They include: ink stick, ink stone, writing brush, and paper.  

Pieces and personal effects from over 20 local artists were shown as part of Four Treasures, which ran from October 14 to December 17, 2017 at the Chuang Archive and Learning Center.

Unseen Portrait: The Art of Tom Hom featured over 50 works by local Chinese American leader and political legend, Tom Hom.  The exhibition included sketches, cartoons, watercolors, and oil paintings, highlighting Tom's  dedication to documenting the Chinese American experience in artistic form.

Unseen Portrait ran from May 20 -

August 20, 2017 at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Extension.

Radical Machines: Chinese in the Information Age explored the seemingly impossible, yet technologically crucial Chinese typewriter – a machine that types a

language with no alphabet, yet has more than 70,000 characters.  

The exhibition was curated

by award-winning Stanford historian Dr. Thomas S. Mullaney, and ran from January 21 to April 16, 2017 at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Extension.