Suspended from a wall, a Chinese dragon's red eyes peer into mine. Its multicolored head sways playfully, side to side, up and down, mechanical tongue wagging while dancing with glimmering sequins.

To the left of the 5-foot dragon head, a small circular Chinese Moon Gate welcomes me into a new exhibit I've been invited to tour several days before opening. I vaguely remember viewing similar scenery my first time outside of California.

My mind wanders back to 1990, age 5, learning the lion dance in the streets of southern China. I complain to Mother how I'm the only Chinese American Jew in all of China. I miss my Californian friends of many different races.

I walk past a rope, a ladder and a tarp before passing through the Moon Gate. Beyond the gate, the dragon's bright orange, red and green tail continues, 150 feet long, weaving in and out of photographs printed on sailcloth suspended from the ceiling. It's as if all the people in the photographs are holding up the tail.

The photographs feature faces like mine, the faces of other multicultural Californians. It's here I realize it seems silly being a Californian in The California Museum, looking at a to-be-constructed exhibit about other people like me.

The exhibit is called "Under the Dragon: California's New Culture," based on a book by the same name written by Lonny Shavelson and Fred Setterberg. The book and museum serve the same purpose: Each section tells the story of a subject immersed in a stereotype-busting activity, photos capturing moments that lead to a visual anomaly.

Though the book mainly captures people and events in the Bay Area, a prominent section about Mien Americans highlights students at UC Davis. Another section focuses on a photo shoot along the banks of the Sacramento River.

Back in the exhibit, I'm surprised to see nearly 25 cultures represented. More cultures lie on the ground on 6-foot-long strips of sailcloth. I also see Californians adopting other cultures: a Mexican Muslim, a black cowboy, a Filipina Hindu. In another room are an Aztec Catholic, an American in a Balinese orchestra, and a Chinese man and a rabbi — both in sombreros.

It takes me back to the scene that first gave the authors the idea for the book: an annual Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. A sudden cloudburst hit, interrupting the parade. The only refuge for the gatherers was under the 200-foot tail of a Chinese dragon. Under the dragon, together with the Chinese, the authors walked alongside Russians, Samoans, African Americans and Latinos through the streets of San Francisco.

Under the Dragon's thesis comes out in the second section: "Ethnicity, nationality, culture and religion persistently intersect, overlap, startle and confuse. The Bay Area has leapt out of the melting pot and into the fire — where the new America is being forged."

The authors further investigate the lives of a handful of people, whose actions and unlikely alliances provide "momentary annulments of hostilities, grievances, and even traditions itself." But equally important, the authors spotlight other Californians who stay at home, or in homogenous communities where they only mingle with people of their own race.

I called up Shevelson to ask if the dragon was intended as a metaphor for the Bay Area, all of California, or the whole nation.

He explained that the book was not intended as a metaphor for the United States, but as a preview of what we can look forward to as other states become more diverse.

"California was one of the first states, if you exclude Hawaii, that crossed the minority/majority threshold," he said. "What that means is that if you add up all of the cultural groups, none of them — including anglos — make up more than 50 percent of the population."

I can't help but think of how well the book characterizes California as I wait in line to spend $25 on "Under The Dragon" at the museum's gift shop. A busload of elementary school children from Elk Grove are in line in front of me. Their diversity reminds me that South Sacramento contains a number of neighborhoods with, among others, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mien, Hmong, Latinos, African Americans, all living next to each other.

Saturday, Jan. 30 through Friday, July 30. California Museum, 1020 O St. $8, $7 college students/seniors, $6 children.

Photographs 4 and 5 credit Lonny Shevelson