In 1997, MOCA was able to acquire another large salvage collection. The collection is called the “111 Mott Street” collection, named for the location the collection was acquired from. A Chinese resident of the building had passed away and, with no next of kin, the landlord had thrown all of his belongings away into a dumpster. Museum staff collected the materials and later found dozens of personal letters and household knickknacks.

It wasn’t until an independent researcher named Heather R. Lee began digging into the collection that amazing details of a life came to light. The artifacts belonged to a man named Shuck Wing Chin, who came to the US to earn money for his wife and child back in China. But through the series of salvaged letters, it seemed that he had stopped sending money home and instead fell in love with an American woman.

1997年，美国华人博物馆又一次进行了大规模的文物抢救工作。这一馆藏以其收集地点命名——“勿街111号。”一位在此建筑中居住的华裔住户过世，他没有什么近亲，房东便把他所有遗物弃置于垃圾箱。博物馆员工将这些文物抢救下来，后来发现数十封私人信件与一些家中摆设。

直到独立学者李芸芸（Heather R Lee）开始深入研究该馆藏时，才发现此人生活的惊人细节。这些文物曾经属于一个叫甄灼荣（Shuck Wing Chin）的人，他来到美国为在中国的妻子和孩子赚钱。但是从一系列抢救下来的私人信件中可以看出，他在某一时候已经停止汇钱回家，并爱上了一位美国妇女。

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