Join the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) for a conversation featuring Dr. Richard A. Pegg, Director and Curator of Asian Art at the MacLean Collection. Dr. Pegg, curator of MOCA’s current special exhibition Heaven & Earth: The Blue Maps of China (on view through March 29, 2026), will engage in an insightful discussion with Herb Tam, MOCA’s Chief Curator & Senior Director of Exhibitions and Programming. Heaven & Earth was first exhibited at the Leventhal Map & Education Center.

During the first decades of the 19th century, China was in a moment of transition, grappling with its geopolitical status as both an ancient and modern nation-state. It was in this moment that two series of large-format maps, one terrestrial and one celestial, were printed in the city of Suzhou. These maps captured Chinese ideas about the relationship between terrestrial and celestial space, and provide insight today into how Chinese scholars and artists conceptualized the world around them.

Join this program to explore the artistic, historical, and cultural significance of these blue maps, considering their place in the broader global history of mapmaking.