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Minneapolis Places to Visit to Celebrate AAPI Month

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Minneapolis Places to Visit to Celebrate AAPI Month

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Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. From special virtual events, delicious food spots, museum exhibits and more, Minneapolis has many different ways to celebrate and learn about Asian culture all month long.

Places to Visit

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Mia's diverse collection displays plenty of art created by the AAPI community as well as Asian artists from around the world. Their curators work hard to find works that are reflective of all communities. Check out their Collection of Asian Art, which include works from China, South and Southeast Asia, Japan and Korean. They currently have a few exhibits exploring Asian culture including:

The Three Perfections: Image, Poem, and Calligraphy in Chinese Painting
Exhibit lasts until December 4, 2022

Yee I-Lann: Picturing Power
Exhibit lasts until November 13, 2022

Amano Kazumi: Prints from the Kimm-Grufferman Collection
Exhibit lasts until May 29, 2022

Midtown Global Market

As a hub for showcasing food and shopping from Minneapolis' diverse communities, Midtown Global Market not only offers a wide variety of Asian cuisine including, Intown Sushi, Pham’s Rice Bowl, and Sabbai Cuisine, but it also is home to a unique Tibetan shop, Tibet Arts & Gifts, filled with rare clothing, accessories and home decor from the Himalayas.

Como Park and Conservatory

At Como Park and Conservatory's Ordway Gardens you will find Minnesota's only top-curated Japanese plant collection. Within the garden is a Bonsai tree collection that honors Japanese art. The Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden was created by renowned landscape designer, Masami Matsuda from Nagasaki. His creation serves to honor Japanese design principals using Minnesota plants and trees.

Weisman Art Museum

A permanent collection at the Weisman, Traditional Korean Furniture, includes about 200 examples of Choson dynasty furniture, 80 Silla dynasty stoneware pieces, close to 150 folk paintings and wooden bowls and utensils, in addition to other folk arts and crafts. The collection represents many types of wood, decorative material, and joinery techniques.

South Korean born artist, Megan Rye's multi-part public art project Foundling: 100 Days will be on display this month. The exhibition will be on view in the Carlson Gallery until May 2022. Comprised of one hundred painted and photographed portraits, Foundling is based in Rye’s own and her fellow international adoptees’ referral photographs.

Hmongtown Marketplace

An indoor and outdoor marketplace with over 125 stalls and shops, including 11 restaurants. Here you can browse all types of products from food and fresh produce, to clothing, home items, and accessories. The marketplace has grown to become a commonplace for Hmong Americans and given them a familiar sense of home with the community.

Walker Art Center

The Walker Art Center is one of the most visited modern and contemporary art museums in the country. Its exhibits bring together collections of art from communities and creators across the globe. Here are some current exhibits featuring Asian artists and pieces:

Five Ways In

With more than 100 works on view, this exhibit is organized by five familiar themes: portraiture, the interior scene, landscape, still life, and abstraction.

Included in this exhibit are a recently acquired grouping of photographs by Twin Cities photographer Pao Houa Her (US, b. Laos) who is known for her photographs of the Hmong community and through her work examines themes of migration, displacement, and diasporic cultures.

Yoko Ono's Cut Piece is also on view as a part of Five Ways In in Gallery 5.

Shen Xin: Brine Lake (A New Body)

For their first US museum solo exhibition, Twin Cities–based artist Shen Xin (b. 1990, Chengdu) debuts a new video and sound installation following its 2021 premiere at the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea. Brine Lake (A New Body) (2020) meditates on the intersections between extractive economies, migrant populations, statelessness, and transnational identities.

United Noodles

United Noodles is a pan-Asian grocery store located in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis. Here you can pick up and discover new ingredients and products from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Hawaii and more. If you get thirsty during your visit, check out Machi Machi a boba tea shop that opened within the market earlier this year. Try one of their many mixed drinks with their signature cream cheese foam.

University of Minnesota Campus: Dinkytown, Stadium Village, and West Bank

The University of Minnesota campus is surrounded by pockets of Asian culture powered by food, the people who prepare it, and those who enjoy it. Within walking distance from campus, you’ll find restaurants, food halls, boba shops, bakeries, and cafés representing Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, Hmong, Thai, Japanese, and Polynesian cuisines. These places represent a piece of home for the more than 4,000 Asian students, many of which are international. The array of authentic flavors offers the opportunity to learn more about generations and traditions of the AAPI community in Minneapolis.

Events

An Evening With Jeffrey Yang and Anni Liu

May 16, 2022
7:00pm
Hook & Ladder Theater

Join an evening featuring acclaimed poet, translator, and editor Jeffrey Yang presenting his latest poetry collection, Line and Light (Graywolf Press). Yang will be joined by Minneapolis poet Anni Liu as she celebrates her debut book Border Vista (Persea Books), which intimately narrates the experience of being undocumented in America.

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Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in Minneapolis

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May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. From special virtual events, delicious food spots, museum exhibits and more, Minneapolis has many different ways to celebrate and learn about Asian culture all month long. Mia's diverse collection displays plenty of art created by the AAPI community as well as Asian artists from around the world.

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Teacher Guides and Lesson Plans - National Endowment for the Humanities

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Teacher Guides and Lesson Plans - National Endowment for the Humanities

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Who is Asian American and Pacific Islander?

How have AAPI individuals contributed to the history and culture of the U.S.?

How have Asian Americans advanced civil rights in the United States?

To what extent was Angel Island the "Ellis Island of the West"?

How did the narrative of AAPIs change between the 1850s and the 1980s?

Background on Terminology

"Asian Americans" Documentary Resource

Asian Americans is an NEH-funded documentary series that examines the significant role of Asian Americans in shaping U.S. history and identity from the first wave of Asian immigrants in the 1850s to the present day.

"Asian American" & Civil Rights

The term "Asian American" was coined in 1968 by student activists Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka, as a unifying political identity for different groups of people of Asian descent. With the Black Power Movement, the American Indian Movement, and anti-war movements expanding, Gee and Ichioka strategically named their student organization the " Asian American Political Alliance" to increase the visibility of activists of Asian descent and consolidate their efforts. The term "Asian American" also pushed back against the usage of the Euro-centric term "Oriental" to refer to Asians in the United States, which holds racist and colonialist connotations. This episode from the PBS history show "Origin of Everything" further explains why the word "Oriental" is no longer used. Asian Americans claiming the words to describe themselves went hand-in-hand with being empowered to continue supporting civil rights efforts.

During the 1960s, as African Americans continued to challenge institutional racism, Asian Americans came to reflect on their experiences, identifying how they also faced discrimination. Sharing the struggles to achieve ideals of freedom and equality for all, Asian American activists joined the Civil Rights Movement. Asian Americans also became inspired to speak out on matters specific to their communities, such as issues facing business owners and residents of Chinatowns across the country and the Vietnam War. Speaking out as an Asian American community was unheard of before, as reflected by the lack of an iconic representative. Furthermore, 1960s Asian American civil rights activism was significant because it signaled a shift from Asian Americans fighting for the right to be Americans, to fighting for their rights as Americans. One prominent example is Yuri Kochiyama, who was influenced by Malcolm X's ideologies of self-determination and liberation, and who supported quality education for inner-city children, anti-Vietnam War protests, the development of Ethnic Studies programs. In an interview on May 19, 1972 for the radio station KPFK in Los Angeles, Kochiyama stated that Malcolm stressed needing to know one's heritage and history to know which direction to go in; words the Asian American community heeded.

Asian American students in California challenged curricula in institutions of higher education because, as was argued, research and teaching had for too long propagated stereotypes about AAPI education history and culture. They joined the Third World Liberation Front's student strikes (TWLF) in 1968 at San Francisco State University and in 1969 at the University of California, Berkeley. A coalition including the Black Students Union and other student groups, TWLF demanded that the university establish new departments devoted to ethnic studies, hire more faculty of color, and enroll more students of color. At this time, the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) formed on the University of California, Berkeley campus, and AAPA branches soon sprung up on college campuses nationwide. Although the AAPA was disbanded in 1969, it played an important role in encouraging Asian Americans to take political action together. An Asian American identity was thus claimed.

Vincent Chin

1982 marked a turning point for the pan-Asian identity and community. The decline of the industrial sector in United States starting in the 1970s, coupled with the early 1980s economic recession, created a bleak situation for jobs centered around goods producing industries. The unemployment rate for auto workers rose from 3.8% in 1978 to 24% by the end of 1982. Contrasting America's economic slowdown was the rise of Japan, with its rising position in international trade and finance making it the world's second largest economy. Behind this rise was the increasing competitiveness of Japan's manufacturing industry, which was making major inroads into U.S. markets. Consequently, the fear of America's "decline" fed into anti-Japanese sentiment during the 1980s as U.S. autoworkers blamed Japanese car manufacturers for the industry's decline. In this climate of hostility, one man lost his life and a community was forever changed. On June 19, 1892, 27-year-old Vincent Chin was celebrating with friends at his bachelor party in Detroit, Michigan. Two white autoworkers, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, mistook Chinese-American Vincent Chin for a Japanese, escalating a fight and eventually fatally beating him.

Vincent Chin's murder initially did not make national news. However, the lenient sentences handed down to the murderers, which included a $3,000 fine and three years' probation with no jail time, outraged Asian American communities in Detroit, San Francisco, and across the country. They realized that if Chin's murder could result in essentially scot-free outcomes, then it could happen to anyone of Asian descent. Asian Americans of all backgrounds supported the rallying cry "Remember Vincent Chin," and Chin became an icon and represented a narrative that Asian Americans could identify with. The rise of protests and formation of new organizations, such as the American Citizens for Justice, convinced the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the case as a civil rights violation. Vincent Chin became the first Asian American victim prosecuted under the federal hate crime law. The Asian American civil rights movement thus led to the historic broadening of federal civil rights protection to include all people in America, regardless of immigrant status or ethnicity. The 1984 federal civil rights case convicted Ebens of violating Chin's civil rights and did not find Nitz guilty, but Ebens was eventually acquitted. (See the United States Court of Appeals decision for the United States v. Ebens case in 1986 for more details on 1984 case and acquittal.)

The Vincent Chin case helped transform a biracial discussion on race relations to be a multiracial one. It was a wakeup call to address anti-Asian bias and racially-instigated hate crimes. The award-winning 40-minute documentary Vincent Who? features interviews with key activists at the time, as well as a new generation of activists inspired to continue fighting for justice.

Pacific Islander

By the 1980s, the U.S. Census Bureau grouped persons of Asian ancestry and created the category "Asian and Pacific Islander" (API). In 2000, the API category was separated into "Asian Americans" and "Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders" (NHOPI). The Federal Government defines "Asian American" to include persons having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent. "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander" includes persons having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's Our Stories: Digital Storytelling Initiative supports the dissemination and perpetuation of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island cultures through the media arts. Through film, podcasts, mixed reality (VR/AR), and emerging media content platforms, the public can learn about Pacific stories and what it means to be Pacific Islander American.

Present Day

As of 2019, the largest United States Asian populations are of Chinese, Indian, and Filipino origin. However, the AAPI population represent over 30 countries and ethnic groups that speak over 100 different languages. There is considerable internal group variation regarding issues such as poverty, health care, educational attainment, and English proficiency. Consequently, there have been calls to disaggregate data to better address the needs of the diverse AAPI community.

The first Asian immigrants to come to the United States in significant numbers were the Chinese in the mid-nineteenth century. For most of U.S. history, Asian immigrants were portrayed as undesirable and a threat to Western civilization. Accordingly, Asian immigrants were ineligible for citizenship based on race and subject to the most severe immigration restrictions. One defining moment in U.S. immigration policy history was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Examine the origins, history, and impact of the 1882 law in this American Experience documentary film, The Chinese Exclusion Act. An accompanying Teacher's Guide is also included. You can also learn more about the history behind the Chinese Exclusion Act and its legacies in sections below.

EDSITEment's Closer Readings Commentary on Everything Your Students Need to Know About Immigration History places Asian immigration in the broader context of America's immigration history. Asian immigration remained at a trickle until the passage of the landmark Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Since then, Asian immigration has been on the rise, outpacing Hispanic immigration since 2010.

The First Japanese in America

The first Japanese national to set foot on American soil was a young fisherman named Manjiro who was to become influential in ending Japan's centuries of isolation. Though Manjiro's name and legendary life story is celebrated by the children in contemporary Japan, fame has eluded him on this side of the Pacific where he remains a footnote in American maritime history.

On a routine fishing trip near their coastal Japanese village in 1841, Manjiro's crew was cast adrift in a violent sudden storm. For a week they survived on icicles that clung to their frozen clothes before being washed up on a desert island three hundred miles away. There the crew subsisted on albatross until an American whaling ship out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, that had stopped at the island to take on sea turtles miraculously rescued them five months later.

Young Manjiro caught the attention of William Whitfield, the captain of the ship, who adopted him as a son and renamed him John Mung. John Mung/Manjiro was invited to continue on the whaling voyage, eventually returning to America to be fostered to adulthood and educated in English and navigation in the Captain's hometown of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Manjiro's journey from the shores of Japan to continental United States is just one of the subjects captured on the timeline of Manjiro's life.

Manjiro's remarkable arrival in America presaged a life of drama and courageous adventures. His life is documented in an online exhibit from the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Pacific Encounters: Yankee Whalers, Manjiro and the opening of Japan. After many further exploits on land and sea, Manjiro managed to get back to his beloved homeland a decade later. Although he was charged for leaving the country, Manjiro was redeemed and elevated to the status of samurai. He was also allowed to chose a surname. Manjiro took Nakahama, the name of his birthplace. He went on to serve as a translator/diplomatic consultant during the Commodore Perry standoff (see the EDSITEment-reviewed resource: Black Ships and Samurai). Continuing to act behind the scenes as a political emissary between Japan and the West, Nakahama Manjiro went on to become an esteemed professor of English and navigation.

Manjiro chronicled his own life in an autobiographical account, Hyoson Kiryaku, Drifting toward the Southeast: A Story of Five Castaways, told to the shogunate upon his return to Japan in 1852. Direct students to the materials at the Whitfield-Manjiro Friendship Society site, where they will find further biographical accounts of his life. Note that American presidents have made references to Manjiro.

Chinese Railroad Workers & Chinese Exclusion

Chinese immigrants first arrived in the United States during the 1850s to try their luck at the California gold rush. Civil unrest and poverty in southeastern China encouraged many Chinese to migrate. Despite California placing a high monthly tax on all foreign miners, Chinese miners had no choice but to pay to keep mining.

The question of Chinese immigration entering the national political scene in the late 1870s alluded to President Arthur eventually signing the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. This act suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and declared Chinese immigrants ineligible for naturalization. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first immigration law passed in the United States to exclude a group by specific national or ethnic origins. It was renewed in 1892 with the Geary Act and made permanent in 1902.

During the exclusion era Chinese American intellectuals did not remain passive, criticizing the derogatory characterization and treatment of Chinese in America. The NEH-funded New-York Historical Society's exhibition Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion offers classroom materials that give an overview of the life story of the first Chinese-American, Wong Chin Foo, on pages 45-47. Chinese immigrants also used the American legal system to expose loopholes in the U.S. immigration system. To better enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act, the United States decided to build the Angel Island Immigration Station.

Angel Island Immigration Station

When thinking about immigrants arriving on America's shores, the Statue of Liberty and the words inscribed at the statue's base often come to mind: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." (See the EDSITEment lesson plan, The Statue of Liberty: Bringing "The New Colossus" to America, for a discussion on Emma Lazarus's sonnet and the statue's symbolic meanings.) Emma Lazarus' words idealized the immigration experience for European immigrants who entered through Ellis Island Immigration Station on the East Coast. However, on the West Coast, from 1910 to 1940, the majority of immigrants arriving at Angel Island Immigration Station received a much colder reception. The majority of immigrants crossing the Pacific came from Asia, not Europe. Many were from China and Japan, but immigrants from the Philippines, the Punjab, Australia, and Latin America also arrived at Angel Island. The classroom materials accompanying the New-York Historical Society exhibition, Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion, gives a brief comparison between the treatment of immigrants at Ellis Island and Angel Island on page 50. The location Angel Island was ideal to stem the flow of Chinese immigrants into the American west. Remote from the San Francisco mainland, Chinese immigrants could not communicate easily with family and friends in San Francisco and acquire necessary witnesses for their immigration applications. Therefore, the process could take weeks and even months, so immigrants at Angel Island were detained much longer than immigrants at Ellis Island.

At Angel Island, immigrants were held in sparse barracks, with men separated from the women and children. Many of the detainees looked for ways to stay busy during their time on Angel Island. Photojournalist Lydia Lum documents oral histories to remember the individual experiences of Angel Island detainees and their families. In addition, the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation's Immigrant Voices Oral History collection has a growing archive of personal stories from detainees. One popular activity at the station was writing poetry. The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation's lesson on Angel Island Poetry demonstrates how history and culture can be integral to our understanding of poetry. This lesson draws from the book, Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940, which records 135 poems written and carved into the barrack walls on Angel Island. The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation also features an article about a lesson on Angel Island developed for a third/fourth grade class: " Teaching about Angel Island through Historical Empathy and Poetry. "

Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese immigrants were measured by a stricter standard than others. After passing medical exams, they underwent a grueling interrogation by a Board of Special Inquiry. The development of "paper sons" and "paper daughters" fueled the development of such interrogation. In an attempt to circumvent the discriminatory legislation, many Chinese falsely claimed that their parent was an American citizen. They were able to do so because the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire destroyed the city's municipal records in 1906. Immigration "slots" were given to or bought by would-be entrants who were not really the children of U.S. citizens. Some of these claims were legitimate, but immigration inspectors increasingly became suspicious of the legitimacy of Chinese immigrants' documentation, resulting in protracted, exhaustive interrogations. They quizzed detainees and their sponsoring relatives in detail on their family history, their homes and their villages. Some questions included: What is your living room floor made of? How many houses are in your village lane? How many steps lead up to your house? Chinese immigrants thus spent months committing to memory minute details, because any discrepancies prolonged the questioning or put the applicant and his family at risk of deportation. Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation's curriculum guide, Interrogation of Immigrant, gives students an opportunity to experience what the immigrants went through and felt during their interrogations on Angel Island.

Between 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island. Between 1910 and 1940, one million immigrants entered the United States through Angel Island. Their migration histories and experiences demonstrate the diversity of American immigration experiences. The documentary Carved in Silence presents an account of the Angel Island experience of Chinese immigrants, highlighting the emotional and mental anguish many Chinese felt. America was both an inclusive nation of immigration and an exclusive gatekeeping nation.

Yellow Peril

The Chinese Exclusion era and the gatekeeping ideology behind Angel Island demonstrate the idea of the "yellow peril." A fashionable phrase in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, yellow peril refers to Western fears that "barbaric" Asians, in particular the Chinese and Japanese, would invade their lands and destroy Western civilization. Media played a big role in propagating this fear, emphasizing Asians' "exotic" features and associating them with malevolence and undesirability. The popular fictional villain character Dr. Fu Manchu personified the idea of the yellow peril.

Due to its alliance with China in the Pacific War, the United States ended the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943; yet the idea of the yellow peril remained alive. Angel Island stopped processing immigrants, but was used during World War II as a temporary internment facility for Japanese and Americans of Japanese descent, deemed "enemy aliens." The yellow peril label would transform into the "model minority" label after the Immigration Act of 1965. This act enabled skilled immigrants and persons seeking political asylum to enter the United States, resulting in an influx of highly educated Asians and Asian refugees. Immigration and Ethnic History Society provides a summary and informative timeline on Asian immigration, as well as a lesson plan on the changing characterization of Asians and Asian Americans from 1886 to 1987.

The umbrella term "Asian American" has been an important political identity for peoples of Asian descent to fight for their civil rights. However, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are often more likely to identify with their national origins or ethnicity, than by race. This is because they have been viewed as a homogeneous group with generalized experiences, as exemplified by the "model minority myth." In the wake of the Watts Riots and emergent Black Power Movement in the 1960s, Asian Americans were deemed the "model minority," solidifying a picture of Asians as an industrious and law-abiding group that accordingly achieved a higher level of success than the general population.

Despite attributing positive stereotypes to Asians, the model minority myth is harmful because it discounts the racial discrimination minorities have faced. For example, William Pettersen's influential 1966 New York Times story, titled " Success Story, Japanese-American Style," put African Americans and Japanese Americans at odds. Under the assumption that both groups' experiences with injustice were the same, African Americans were expected to conform to the "pull-yourselves-up-by-your-bootstraps" immigrant narrative Asian Americans seemingly epitomized. This expectation discredited the lasting legacies of slavery, discrimination, and systemic racism. In effect, the model minority myth has created a rift between Asian American and African American communities, as demonstrated by the L.A. riots in 1992.

The model minority myth assumes Asians to be universally successful. However, aggregated data for AAPIs overshadows the great diversity in experiences among different ethnic groups, including migration history, socioeconomic status, and political status. As the Washington Center for Equitable Growth shows, ethnicities in the AAPI population represent both ends of the achievement spectrum with respect to educational attainment, household income, and employment rate. For example, as a group, AAPIs have the highest share of college graduates, surpassing every other racial group by wide margins. Yet this high level of educational attainment is attributed to only a select group of Asian Americans, such as Taiwanese, Asian Indians, and Malaysians. About 13 of these U.S. ethnic and racial sub-groups have lower educational attainment rates than the U.S. average, including peoples of unspecified Micronesian, Bhutanese, Hawaiian, Vietnamese, and Burmese origin. Therefore, it is important to dismantle the model minority myth to acknowledge the diversity of AAPI experiences and cultures.

Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year is one of the most popular holidays celebrated across Asia and other places with Asian populations. While called Chinese New Year or Spring Festival in China, Lunar New Year is called Seollal in Korea, Tet in Vietnam, and Losar in Tibet. Not all Asian communities officially observe a singular New Year holiday, and some Lunar New Year celebrations do not have a set date since they follow the lunar calendar. East Asian celebrations (excluding Japan) usually take place in late January up until mid-February. These celebrations include traditional activities such as exchanging red envelopes or silk pouches containing money, setting off fireworks, cleaning the house, eating traditional foods, and holding parades with colorful costumes.

The EDSITEment lesson plan, Lions, Dragons, and Nian: Animals of the Chinese New Year, encourages students to learn about the origins and festivities of the biggest holiday in China. Another EDSITEment lesson plan on the Animals of the Chinese Zodiac introduces students to the Chinese lunar calendar. Thus, students are given an opportunity to engage in interesting, craft-oriented activities that encourage them to become curious about other cultures' customs and traditions.

Hawaiian Music

One Hawaiian musical genre, slack-key guitar, is well known worldwide. The 2017 Smithsonian Folklife Festival featured Hawaiian musician Ledward Kaapana, master of the ukulele and ki ho'alu (the slack key guitar). You can read the Festival's blog post, Legend and Legacy: Hawaiian Slack-Key Guitar with Ledward Kaapana, to learn more about the history of the slack-key guitar and about Ledward Kaapana. Both contemporary and traditional musical styles still thrive in Hawaii.

On the poetry front, China has a rich heritage as poetry is highly regarded in Chinese culture. The T'ang dynasty (c. 600-900 CE) fostered a cultural boom in China, considered by some to be the peak of classical Chinese culture. Asia for Educators, an EDSITEment reviewed web source, provides an introduction to Tang poetry. In the EDSITEment lesson plan, Lu Shih - The Couplets of T'ang, students can learn about one of the classical forms of poetry that got its start in the T'ang period: lu shih. By analyzing a lu shih, students can also think about Chinese philosophy's influence in the development of lu shih poetry.

Perhaps one of the most well-known poetic forms among your students is haiku. Haiku stand out with their simple, yet personal and highly sophisticated form. K-5 students can learn about the rules of haiku and develop ideas to compose their own haiku in the EDSITEment lesson plan, Can You Haiku?. 6th-8th grade students can delve into the history of haiku to learn about Japanese culture, before creating and sharing original haiku poems in the EDSITEment lesson plan, The World of Haiku. Haiku not only became popular during the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), but also ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Like haiku, ukiyo-e woodblock prints were an art rooted in everyday experience. For a lesson extension on haiku, students can compare the types of scenes evoked by haiku with the scenes portrayed in ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Ukiyo-e.org database provides digital prints from the early 1700s to present day that your students can view. EDSITEment also provides a lesson plan, Life in the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Prints and the Rise of the Merchant Class in Edo Period Japan, for you and your students to investigate the ukiyo-e prints and what they tell us about Japan during the Tokugawa period.

Contemporary poets writing about immigrant heritage in the United States include Chinese-American Adrienne Su. One of her works is featured in the EDSITEment lesson plan, "Peaches" by Adrienne Su, where she describes her experiences growing up in the state of Georgia as the child of immigrant parents. Students have the opportunity to reflect upon the complicated identities many Americans, including their classmates, grapple with, and think about the connections between food and identity.

To learn more about Asian American poets, Poetry Foundation has provided a collection of poets, poems, and articles exploring Asian American culture. Poetry Foundation also offers a collection on Pacific Islander Poetry and Culture to explore the history and aesthetics of the Pacific.

Asian American and Pacific Islander representation in mainstream media has recently been on the rise. In 2020, the Korean thriller Parasite became the first non-English language film in Oscar history to win the award for Best Picture. During the same year, The Farewell star Awkafina became the first woman of Asian descent to win a Golden Globe Award in a lead actress film category. Other recent films like Crazy Rich Asians and Moana brought more attention to portraying different cultures in Hollywood.

However, AAPIs have historically remained largely unseen in film and media, and have been cast in supporting roles or as stereotypes. Below we recognize a few Asian American individuals who have made vital contributions to American culture, and whose stories may be new for you and your students.

Kintaro (Sessue) Hayakawa

"My one ambition is to play a hero."

- Kintaro Hayakawa

Kintaro Hayakawa, known professionally as Sessue Hayakawa, was a Japanese immigrant who became one of the highest-paid actors in 1910s Hollywood and achieved international stardom. Frustrated with being constantly typecast as the villain and forbidden lover, Hayakawa became the first person of Asian descent to own Hollywood studio. He still faced racial barriers, especially related to anti-Japanese sentiment during World War I and World War II.

Overall, Sessue Hayakawa left a lasting legacy in Hollywood, especially for Asian Americans. His life story is mentioned in the NEH-funded PBS documentary Asian Americans.

Anna May Wong

"Success is not a jewel that you can purchase and keep for your entire life. On the contrary, the brightest star can fall down at any time and fade away into dust."

- Anna May Wong

Anna May Wong was the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star and producer, the first Chinese American actress to gain international recognition, and one of the most influential style icons of her time. This 11-minute video from NEH-funded Unladylike2020 traces her life, career, and impact as she encountered racism and stereotyping in the roles she was offered, to eventually find a way to flourish as an actress on her own terms starring in 60 films. Besides the video, the resource also includes discussion questions, vocabulary, teaching tips, and an in-class activity for students to learn about Wong's place in Hollywood history and how she was impacted by important events in American history, like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and anti-miscegenation laws.

Sabu Dastagir

Sabu was the first Indian actor to make it big in British and American cinema during the 1930s-40s. He was best known for doing adventurous and wildlife roles. In 1944, he became an American citizen and joined the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, to eventually become one of Hollywood's most-decorated war heroes. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

Tyrus Wong

"If you can make a painting with 5 strokes instead of 10, you can make your painting sing."

- Tyrus Wong

Born in Guangzhou, China, Tyrus Wong and his father immigrated to America in 1919, never to see their family again. From the moment of his arrival in America as a nine-year old boy to be detained on Angel Island for a month, to his entrance into the film industry as "in-betweener" animator for Disney studios, Wong faced racial discrimination. American Masters: Tyrus shows how he overcame a life of poverty and racism to become a celebrated painter, a Hollywood sketch artist, and 'Disney Legend.'

Tyrus Wong's unique style-melding Chinese calligraphic and landscape influences with contemporary Western art-is found in everything from Disney animation Bambi and live-action Hollywood studio films to Hallmark Christmas cards, kites, and hand-painted dinnerware. He has been an inspiration for other artists, designers, and filmmakers.

Students can learn about Angel Island and the Chinese Exclusion era through Tyrus Wong's life. In this short profile, Tyrus Wong shares his memories of Angel Island and its impact on his life. Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist, is a picture-book biography of animator and artist Tyrus Wong for young audiences.

AAPI Experiences and Civics Education

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have also played an important role in American civil rights and civics history, and in redefining the "American" identity. Below are important cases concerning Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders that exemplify their civic engagement.

United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) is significant because the Supreme Court ruling determined that the 14th Amendment granted birthright citizenship to all persons born in the United States, regardless of race or nationality. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco, but his parents were immigrants from China and not eligible to become United States citizens under the Naturalization Act of 1790. After visiting his parents in China, Wong was denied reentry into the U.S. in 1895 under claims that he was not a citizen. With support from the Chinese Six Companies, Wong fought his case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ultimately decided that besides limited exceptions, a child born in the United States to parents of foreign descent is a citizen of the United States. American Experience's clip on United States v. Wong Kim Ark explains the historical context behind the case and discusses its important legacy.

The Supreme Court decision to affirm Wong Kim Ark's birthright citizenship as granted by the 14th Amendment became relevant during Japanese internment. The United States War Department made efforts to try to force Nisei ("second generation") to choose their U.S. citizenship and renounce allegiance to a foreign government, or be incarcerated or deported. United States v. Wong Kim Ark determined that the United States could not deny Nisei their citizenship, so the Renunciation Act of 1944 allowed Japanese American internees to renounce American citizenship to be deported to Japan. What did loyalty mean to Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during WWII? EDSITEment's lesson plan, Japanese American Internment Camps during WWII, explores this question, along with the legacy of internment. Library of Congress' illustrated StoryMap Behind Barbed Wire: Japanese-American Internment Camp Newspapers chronicles the stories and experiences of the interned Japanese American community through an engaging examination of the newspapers they produced.

After President Franklin Roosevelt issued an Executive Order to forcibly remove peoples of Japanese ancestry from areas deemed critical to domestic security, Japanese American Fred Korematsu refused to leave his home in San Leandro, California. Korematsu v. United States (1944) became another landmark case in which the Supreme Court held that the compulsory exclusion of citizens during times of war is justified for national security. In 1983, federal courts overturned Korematsu's original convictions, but the Supreme Court has not had the opportunity to overturn the 1944 decision in an official way. The Bill of Rights Institute lesson plan, The Presidency: Constitutional Controversies, asks students to use case background and primary source documents concerning the Supreme Court case of Korematsu v. United States to assess the Supreme Court's decision.

The events leading to Japanese internment revealed an important, underlying question: What does it mean to be American? In the 1920s, two cases demonstrated a legal and popular understanding of American citizenship as being associated with "whiteness." In 1915, Japan-born Takao Ozawa filed for United States citizenship after living in the United States for 20 years. However, in Ozawa v. United States (1922), the Supreme Court upheld the rejection of his application for citizenship on the basis of his race. At the time, only "free white persons" and "persons of African nativity or persons of African descent" could naturalize. After the Ozawa v. United States case, Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian Sikh man, identified himself as Aryan when requesting naturalized citizenship in the United States. However, his request was denied, and in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923), the Supreme Court upheld the denial, arguing that Indians did not meet a "common sense" definition of white. This court decision would lead to the denaturalization of about fifty Indian Americans. Thind's story is also mentioned in the NEH-funded PBS documentary Asian Americans.

It was not until the Luce-Celler Act of 1946 in which Congress allowed Indian and Filipino nationals to acquire U.S. citizenship through naturalization. Other AAPI groups eventually received that right as well, and in the past decade naturalization rates have been comparatively high in AAPI communities.

Asian Americans have also fought for civil rights in education. Before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling of 1954, students of color had to attend separate schools from white students. Despite the U.S. legal doctrine of "separate but equal," schools for students of color were chronically underfunded and of lesser quality. In 1924, a nine-year-old Chinese-American named Martha Lum was prohibited from attending a school in Mississippi for white children because she was of Chinese descent. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Mississippi's Supreme Court ruling that Martha Lum was not allowed to go to the school for white students, expecting her to find a school for students of color outside of the district. Although the case further upheld the "separate but equal" doctrine, it showed how Asian Americans engaged in the American public sphere for their rights.

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Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage and History in the U.S.

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Who is Asian American and Pacific Islander? How have AAPI individuals contributed to the history and culture of the U.S.? How have Asian Americans advanced civil rights in the United States? To what extent was Angel Island the "Ellis Island of the West"? How did the narrative of AAPIs change between the 1850s and the 1980s?

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We're always looking to expand our reading options. May is a great time to add more titles from Asian American and Pacific Islander authors to our book club lists, library hold requests, and bookstore shopping carts! This is by no means an exhaustive or complete list, but we humbly suggest this selection of 10 AAPI authors. In this list, you'll find poets, journalists, novelists, essayists, and playwrights. Each of these writers has created influential work and they all bring their cultural knowledge and experiences to their writing. We can't wait to hear what you think, how many of these authors' books you've already read, and what other AAPI authors you recommend!

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10 Influential Asian American and Pacific Islander Authors

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We're always looking to expand our reading options. May is a great time to add more titles from Asian American and Pacific Islander authors to our book club lists, library hold requests, and bookstore shopping carts! This is by no means an exhaustive or complete list, but we humbly suggest this selection of 10 AAPI authors.

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This article is part of the Asian American identity series.
Sarath Suong has often felt like the term "Asian American" doesn't really serve him.

"I was told that I am Asian American when we came here," says Suong, a Cambodian refugee who immigrated to the US as a child. "But I faced a lot of colorism, a lot of classism, and not a lot of understanding about who Southeast Asians are and how we fit into the Asian American context."

Suong and his family were among tens of thousands of refugees who fled during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, eventually settling in the Boston area. When he arrived in the US, he struggled to find his footing in a country where everyone from teachers to neighbors made him feel unwanted.

"Growing up for me, I felt so disempowered," he told Vox. "I was always wondering why people in my community were getting harassed and being thrown in jail by the police."

That experience, Suong says, seemed very different from the image of Asian Americans portrayed by the media, peers, and even some members of the community. While white writers pushed the idea of the "model minority myth" - a racist trope that suggests that all Asian Americans are successful and well-off - Suong feared for his friends' deportations and violence at the hands of cops. And as he got older and began advocating for specific resources to address the disparities faced by Southeast Asians, he felt abandoned by other Asian Americans, too.

"Trying to enter spaces with predominantly wealthy, light-skinned East Asians, there was a dismissal of us," he said.

All this has led Suong, now 40 and the head of the Southeast Asian Freedom Network, to be wary of such a sweeping category - and how it excludes some of its most vulnerable members.

While Asian American was a term established by activists in the 1960s as a means to build political power, it's also been criticized for obscuring the immense diversity among those it purports to cover, centering East Asians and preventing specific ethnic groups from getting the policy support they need. Asian Americans not only have the largest income gap of any racial group but also massive health care, education, and economic disparities that rarely get talked about.Cambodian refugees like Suong, and Southeast Asians in particular, are among those who've been overlooked: 19 percent of Cambodians live in poverty in the US, compared to 12 percent of Asian people and 15 percent of all people.

In the 1980s and '90s the classification was further broadened under the term Asian American and Pacific Islander, or AAPI, a decision that's proven contentious in itself. (In 1997, the US government disaggregated Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in its data, though the vestiges of this umbrella category remain. See: AAPI Heritage Month, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and Asian Pacific studies departments at numerous colleges.)

The term AAPI is also meant to be inclusive, but its usage - in government data, in particular - has had the opposite effect.

"AAPI is incredibly ambitious. It contends to cover and speak for some of the largest regions in the world," says Tavae Samuelu, the executive director of Empowering Pacific Islander Communities. "In some ways, marginalization and erasure feel inevitable."

The terms Asian American and AAPI, in their most idealized versions, have at times historically served as a unifying banner for a wide range of communities to work together toward a common cause. They signify, too, a sense of shared experience tied to what it's like to be an immigrant, or part of a family of immigrants, and the xenophobia that different groups have encountered, a connection that's been especially apparent in the wake of recent attacks targeting Asian American people during the pandemic.

"The thing that these Asian American communities share is the experience of perhaps being viewed as outsiders," says Indiana University's Dina Okamoto. "Maybe you arrived 10 years ago, but maybe your family has also been in the US for generations. There are experiences of being othered these communities share."

But this connection can be tenuous and this label so broad that recent calls for data disaggregation and more visible recognition of the roughly 50 ethnic groups that make up the Asian diaspora have surfaced. In conversations with more than 20 people who spoke about their Asian American identities, there was a huge focus on acknowledging the different needs that various groups may have.

"Are Asian Americans one or many?" asks UC Riverside political science professor Karthick Ramakrishnan. "The answer is both."

The benefits of such a label - and who created it

The term Asian American was once a radical one.

First used by UC Berkeley student activists Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka in 1968, "Asian American" was used to unite different communities of Asian descent in order to create a more formidable protest bloc, an approach inspired by the Black Power movement. Their strength in numbers proved more impactful than individual ethnic groups working alone, including working alongside Black and Latino students for an ethnic studies department at the college.

"There were so many Asians out there in the political demonstrations but we had no effectiveness," Ichioka has said previously in an interview with UC San Diego ethnic studies professor Yến Lê Espiritu. "Everyone was lost in the larger rally. We figured that if we rallied behind our own banner, behind an Asian American banner, we would have an effect on the larger public."

The rise of the term also helped combat the use of more derogatory language that referred to people of Asian descent. Before "Asian American" was popularized, the word "Oriental," a label that othered and exoticized those it described, was common parlance.

For many experts and organizers who spoke with Vox, that solidarity is as important now as it was back then.

"When it comes to having policy influence and exercising political power, it is absolutely essential to have an Asian American movement. Each of these groups is too small, and there are similarities," says Ramakrishnan.

In the decades since it took off, the term is now mostly seen as a demographic marker. Today, it captures about 19 million people, up 81 percent since 2000, according to a recent Pew report - and a large immigrant population; 59 percent of all Asian Americans are immigrants, including 1.4 million of whom are undocumented. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in America, currently 5.6 percent of the county's population but projected to be as much as 14 percent by 2065.

Prior to becoming a more established category, though, issues of immigration - and, relatedly, xenophobia - have historically bound Asian Americans closely with one another, serving as a common thread for such an expansive group.

We are "grounded in our history of exclusion laws and immigration bans," emphasizes Ramakrishnan. "What makes us Asian is a history of exclusion."

That history goes as far back as 1882 when Chinese immigrants were barred from becoming citizens because they were seen as competition for white workers; in 1917, Indian people were similarly barred; and by 1924, Japanese and Korean people were barred as well.

In all three cases, groups immigrated to the US as laborers and were framed as the source of economic problems, and in some cases public health ones, too. Members of ethnic groups that have more recently come to the country as refugees - including Hmong, Burmese, and Laotian people - have also faced restrictive immigration policies that have focused on deportation.

"We share ... a continued history of being scapegoated for America's ills - literally and figuratively - and never being accepted as full and equal members of society," says Karen Umemoto, the director of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA.

In recent decades, combating such "othering" has fueled solidarity.

One such instance was in 1982, when 27-year-old Vincent Chin was murdered by two white autoworkers who saw him as representing the increased competition the US was facing from Japanese manufacturers. Asian American-led protests erupted across the country and pushed the Justice Department to investigate the attack as a civil rights violation.

Currently, in the wake of a surge in anti-Asian racism during the pandemic, attacks on older people, mass shootings in Atlanta that killed six women of Asian descent, and a mass shooting in Indianapolis that killed four Sikh Americans, there's similarly been a renewed focus on pan-Asian solidarity and activism.

"It has always been anti-Asian violence that brings people together," says Espiritu. In recent months, thousands of people across the country have gathered for #StopAsianHate rallies in cities including Oakland, New York, and Philadelphia, and worked to raise awareness for nonprofits tracking hate incidents and offering support to local communities.

Ramakrishnan hopes, too, that such efforts will be inclusive of different groups within the Asian diaspora moving forward. "Just as you have South Asian leaders who are showing up to denounce incidents predominantly affecting East Asians, you also need to have East Asians showing up for South Asians and Southeast Asians as well," he says.

The experiences that Asian Americans share

There are the historical circumstances that bind Asian Americans together, and then there are the everyday experiences they share - many often driven by the "forever foreigner" stereotype.

"No matter how much I wanted to be an American, other people wouldn't see me as that," says Daniel Shinhoo Kim, 26, a conservationist based in Tacoma, Washington. "Asian stereotypes, Asian anything, are just considered a joke. The most obvious is Asian men's genitalia being smaller, people laugh at it."

The idea that people of Asian descent didn't belong to the US, or were inherently foreign to this country, has fueled tropes like the fetishization of women, the emasculation of men, and insults about people's accents, food, and appearance.

"The hypersexualization that I faced, probably as young as [when] I was 6, changes how you consider sex and sexuality," says Elim, 26, an organizer in Doraville, Georgia, who worked at her parents' anime shop as a child and dealt with men constantly telling her how much they loved Asian women - and how exotic they found them. (Some full names have been omitted to protect people's privacy.) "It made me question what it was like to be desired, and what it meant beyond being a sex object," she says.

Elim and others spoke, too, of being made to feel undesirable because of their identity.

"There was often people mimicking the racist caricatures of Indian characters they see on TV or parroting comedy skits they see or the desirability or lack thereof of Indian American women, specifically," says M., 22, a resident of Washington, DC.

Combating the idea of being "foreigners" has often meant dealing with - and pushing back on - the pressure to conform as well.

"In America, whiteness is your standardized identity. And that was amplified in the neighborhood I grew up in," says Evan, 34, a government analyst in New York City. "It feels like you're playing a role. You spend a lot of time thinking about how you come across to people. How are these white people going to judge me? In high school, I was always envious of people growing up in Asian enclaves in California or New York City. It just felt like an easier state of being."

"I think the first word I think of is 'invisible.' Aside from stereotypes of Asian women being very quiet, which I've, in my whole life, intentionally fought against, I have been thinking a lot about social situations where I just don't have any social capital," says Annie, 26, a graphic designer in New York City. "I have to compensate for that by presenting myself in a very loud way through what I wear or the way I speak. I've tried to walk more aggressively."

Such dynamics have led some Asian Americans to distance themselves from their identities when they were younger, and to embrace them more fully later in life.

"The hypersexualization that I faced, probably as young as [when] I was 6, changes how you consider sex and sexuality"

"To be completely candid, I'm more embracing of being Asian American now that I had been previously," says Melina, 40, a massage therapist in Boston, who credits a trip to Myanmar, where her family emigrated from, as an experience that changed her outlook. "That feeling of being left out, of not belonging, is something that I internalized for a long time."

It is through some of this shared pain - along with a recognition of the specific hardships that different groups have faced - that Asian Americans, too, can find solidarity with one another. Among second-generation Asian Americans, there's also a broad sense of the sacrifice that family members have made to come to the US in the first place.

"Many of us had immigrant parents, and their focus was on surviving and making a life for themselves and their families," says Jan Kang, 59, a tech executive, who spoke about how her father took a second job in the emergency room to pay for her college tuition.

"I felt like my parents sacrificed a lot," says Kang.

How we ended up with the AAPI label

In addition to grouping people of Asian descent under one racial category, the label expanded in the 1980s to include populations across the Pacific Ocean.

The term AAPI, which includes Pacific Islanders, took off prominently among academics and was used in the 1990 census as government officials weighed how to count the group, who had previously been categorized in individual boxes like "Hawaiian," "Guamanian," and "Samoan."

"Pacific Islanders were too small of a group in the mind of key decision-makers to report separately," says UCLA political science professor Paul Ong, who added that the presence of Asian Americans in Hawaii may have been one of the reasons the two were initially put together. Scholars also began using the term to refer to experiences with colonialism that both Asian countries and Pacific Islanders had had. The idea was to "combine forces, given we were less than 3 percent of the US population in those days," says Umemoto, who helped form a coalition of Asian American and Pacific Islander student groups along the West Coast.

But many Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders argued this grouping erased their specific and current struggles. Although some Pacific Islanders are immigrants, many identify as Indigenous. Pacific Islanders as a group include Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Tokelauan, Tahitian, Tongan, Guamanian, Chamorro, Mariana Islander, Saipanese, Palauan, Yapese, Chuukese, Pohnpeian, Kosraean, Marshallese, I-Kiribati, Fijian, Papua New Guinean, Solomon Islander, and Ni-Vanuatu people.

"Our race is deeply shaped by continued colonization and militarization, and they aren't necessarily key issues for the Asian American community," says Samuelu. "For many Pacific Islanders, America happened without our consent."

"Pacific Islanders always ask, 'Are you just using us in name, or do you cover us in a meaningful fashion?'"

The AAPI category also painted over inequities that existed, making it seem as though Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders were overrepresented at higher education institutions like other Asian Americans when the opposite was the case. When looking at degree attainment broken out by ethnicity, 62 percent of AAPI adults 24 and older have completed an associate's degree or higher, compared to 28 percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific islanders of the same age.

In 1997, the Office of Management and Budget - which determines the categories used by the census - officially disaggregated the group in its data collection practices, though the label is still used by the media, academics, advocacy organizations, and some government institutions. During the pandemic, for instance, Pacific Islanders have pushed back against states' decisions to group them together with Asian Americans, a move that's made it tough to discern when Pacific Islanders have had much higher rates of coronavirus cases and fatalities.

"Pacific Islanders always ask, 'Are you just using us in name, or do you cover us in a meaningful fashion?'" says Ong.

Sela Panapasa, a researcher at the University of Michigan who identifies as a Pacific Islander of Rotuman, Tongan, and Tuvalu descent, says that Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have long been invisible - something that lumping them into a larger category only exacerbated. "And who wants to be invisible, as a PI myself?" she says.

The problem with sweeping labels

It's increasingly apparent that sweeping labels have serious problems.

When it comes to the term "Asian American," there's a continual risk that it's masking the differences within communities and fueling the myth that Asian Americans are a monolithic group. For some, there's also the sense that East Asians, including groups that were part of some of the earlier waves of Asian immigrants such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans, are viewed as more synonymous with the term Asian than others.

"It erases way too many people," says Elim. "That's bullshit. We're not all the same."

Asian Americans comprise roughly 50 ethnic groups, who speak upward of 100 languages includingIndian Americans, Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans, Japanese Americans, Pakistani Americans, Cambodian Americans, Hmong Americans, Thai Americans, Laotian Americans, Bangladeshi Americans, Burmese Americans, Nepalese Americans, Indonesian Americans, Sri Lankan Americans, Malaysian Americans, Bhutanese Americans, and Mongolian Americans - and that's just some of the diversity that exists.

There are also enormous generational, religious, class, and ideological differences among these groups, as well as huge economic disparities.

According to a report from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the income gaps among different Asian American ethnic groups are the widest of any racial group, and they are still growing. While Indian Americans have the highest median income of $100,000, for example, Burmese Americans have the lowest, at $36,000. Similarly, there are significant disparities among Asian Americans in educational attainment and health care outcomes: 94 percent of Japanese and Taiwanese Americans have graduated high school, compared to less than 66 percent of Laotian and Hmong Americans. And 22 percent of Nepalese Americans don't have health insurance compared to 6 percent of Japanese Americans.

"I think one of the biggest indicators is what did communities come to the US with. There is a big difference in the social, political, and literal capital that someone from China may have come from and refugees from Cambodia and Laos," says Quyen Dinh, executive director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center.

When policymakers simply group all Asian Americans together, none of these inequities are visible, meaning help often doesn't get to the groups that need it most.

"There has long been a problem of lumping all of the groups together, which makes Asian Americans look well-off by some measures when averaged out as a sociopolitical group," says Umemoto. "But we're a bifurcated community, with wide differences in well-being within and across ethnic groups."

The rise of the "model minority" stereotype, too, only added to the perception that all Asian Americans are broadly successful, camouflaging the struggles and diversity of many community members. And whether it's representation in community organizations or the way the media talks about Asian Americans, many people don't think the term is representative of the actual breadth of the Asian diaspora as a whole, either.

"Something I've encountered a lot growing up is the erasure of South Asians as Asian. From a young age, folks would tell me, 'Well, you're Indian, that's different from being Asian!'" says M.

There's a unique South Asian experience with "rising racism and Islamophobia" that should be acknowledged, M. says, referring to the surge in hate crimes and anti-Muslim sentiment in the wake of 9/11. "Bigotry toward our Muslim brothers and sisters translates to bigotry toward anyone brown."

For others, identifying based on their ethnicity speaks more directly to their family ties and cultural heritage, compared to a more abstract marker like "Asian American."

"My felt identity, the one that I carry around in my body, is that ... I'm a third-generation Japanese American," says University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Daryl Maeda. "There are vanishingly few people who would say they're Asian American as a felt identity. I think it's a political identity rather than a cultural one or a familial one."

This is further complicated by the fact that Asian American is an identity that's often externally imposed because of how people are racialized in the US. When people of Asian descent have been targeted in America - both in recent attacks related to the coronavirus and historically - such racism is often directed at people of many Asian ethnicities.

"We are all put in this same label even though for thousands of years we've fought wars against each other," says Shinhoo Kim, 26.

How to capture the nuances within the larger Asian American category

There's a major need to recognize individual ethnic groups, and many advocates say this begins with data.

Data disaggregation as a concept sounds complex, but in practice, it's very straightforward: In addition to gathering data about Asian Americans as a large group, the government can also gather data by ethnic group and direct other major institutions to do the same.

By doing so, policymakers would be able to better measure many of these disparities and appropriately target their responses. In the 2020 census, there is some disaggregation, though it's not enough: The survey ultimately enables people to identify as Asian American and as other ethnic categories including Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and "other." Notably, a lot of groups are left out, including some who face the highest rates of poverty and unemployment among the Asian American diaspora, such as Cambodian, Hmong, and Bhutanese Americans. People of these backgrounds are still able to write in how they identify, which the census will report out as well.

"Our ideal solution is that all 50-plus communities have checkboxes," says Dinh, of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center.

The push for more disaggregation has extended to states, too. In Rhode Island, the All Students Count Act became law in 2017, requiring public schools to break out data on Asian American students by ethnicity - though activists are still fighting to make sure it's fully implemented. In California, too, a 2016 law required the state's public health department to disaggregate data, with the goal of providing better insurance coverage to groups that don't have it, and to better understand how illnesses affect various groups differently. Disaggregated health data has played a role in revealing how diabetes disproportionately affects Filipino Americans and South Asian Americans, for instance.

For Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, data disaggregation has been critical during the coronavirus pandemic as well. "In the aggregate, it looks like AAPI has the lowest rates of infection, but when you pull out PI, you see we're twice as, four times as, six times as likely to get the infection," says Samuelu.

In the end, such disaggregation speaks to a larger issue about being seen.

"As a young person who identifies as biracial - Khmer and Black - I always feel left out, particularly when filling out school forms, job applications, and internship opportunities," Deijah Prak Preaster, an ARISE Youth Leader, said in a 2020 report. "I am always forced to check off the 'other' box for the question on ethnicity. The feeling of not being counted or seen hurts; it makes me feel my identity does not matter."

Currently, the #StopAsianHate movement has also been an inflection point for some Asian Americans to talk about their identity more openly and weigh such questions.

"I think it's an opportunity to talk about the ways we're leveraged against each other, the way that East Asians have been used as a wedge and this shining example," says Elim. "None of these communities are monolithic, and we perpetuate a lot of violence toward each other."

That effort is integral to attempts to strengthen Asian American solidarity, experts tell Vox.

"I identify as Tamil, I identify as South Asian, I identify as Indian American, I identify as Asian American. It's not an either/or for me," says Ramakrishnan.

"People are not just one thing," echoes Espiritu. "I do identify as Asian American - it is a political identity - but I also identify as a Vietnamese refugee."

There are a lot of experiences that Asian Americans have in common - including a fight to be visible in American society and a focus on combating the systems reinforced by white supremacy. But achieving true unitymay only be possible if people within it are willing to acknowledge not only similarities but differences in need.

The label only works, Suong says, "if Asian Americans can look inward and say, 'Look, let's join together and support those who are most marginalized.' If Asian America really took care of who's vulnerable in Asian America, we'd have really strong solidarity."

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The inadequacy of the term "Asian American"

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This article is part of the Asian American identity series . Sarath Suong has often felt like the term "Asian American" doesn't really serve him. "I was told that I am Asian American when we came here," says Suong, a Cambodian refugee who immigrated to the US as a child.

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Origin of Everything | Why Do We Say "Asian American" Not "Oriental"? | Season 1 | Episode 35

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Why do Americans no longer use the word "Oriental"?

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The AAPI population is an expanding and culturally diverse community. Improve your understanding of the fastest-growing ethnic group in the nation.

The AAPI population includes over 50 ethnicities and descendants of over 60 nationalities.

"Asian American" was coined in 1968 to unite the population and fight for equality.

Celebrating AAPI culture can include honoring AAPI Heritage Month.

The AAPI community is the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States.

It is important to consider the ways diversity exists in and impacts all communities. Within the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) population, ethnic and cultural diversity continues to grow and impact the richness of people's lives nationwide.

The AAPI community includes over 50 ethnicities and individuals who speak more than 100 languages. Working to understand the diversity of the AAPI population can improve our collective ability to respect and support the individuals within the community.

What Does It Mean to Be AAPI?

The term AAPI is an acronym used to identify multiple cultural and ethnic groups. The Asian American and Pacific Islander community includes a wide expanse of people. Asian refers to the 48 countries and three territories on the continent of Asia. Pacific Islander includes 15 independent nations and thousands of islands.

Before "AAPI" came to be, people often just used their country of origin or ancestry to self-identify. Now, individuals - including Filipino Americans, Japanese Americans, and Chinese Americans - may use the umbrella term AAPI to discuss their identities.

The term Asian American was coined in 1968 by Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka. The phrase was meant to bring together all people of Asian descent in the United States. It also served as a way for activists to join together in their fights for equality across the country.

The term AAPI includes many countries, cultures, and ethnicities. It is important to differentiate between the experiences of those who identify as part of the AAPI community. Each country, culture, and community holds different experiences and histories. Nandita Gupta, accessibility program manager at Microsoft confirms, "It's not only about celebrating various cultures and the diversity within the community, but also supporting these communities."

Using the term AAPI can help to unite communities in collective activism. However, it can also create an assumption that all AAPI people have a singular and shared experience in the world. Naming all AAPI experiences as one collective can greatly diminish the unique and individual experiences of many cultures and individuals.

Exploring Cultural Demographics Within the AAPI Community

According to the U.S. Census, about 24 million AAPI people lived in the United States in 2017. Within this 7.3% of the U.S. population, some people who are categorized as AAPI identify in other ways. Individuals may identify with their personal or ancestral country of origin.

Multiracial and Hispanic Asians accounted for 14% of the Asian population in the United States in 2021, according to the Pew Research Center. People who identify with multiple ethnic groups are a growing population in the country. About 70% of multiracial Asians in America identify as Asian and white.

The Chinese American population made up the largest Asian ethnic group in the U.S. in 2021, according to the Pew Research Center - 5.4 million people identify as Chinese American. Indian Americans account for the second largest ethnic group within the Asian American population.

Asian Americans account for 57% of Hawaii's population, the highest percentage nationwide. However, California holds the nation's largest Asian population with 6.7 million people. Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander groups are often classified together. This group included about 1.6 million people living across the country in 2019, according to the U.S. Census.

By 2055, people of Asian descent are expected to become the nation's largest immigrant group, according to the Pew Research Center. The demographics of the AAPI community indicate the diversity of people's cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Why It's Important for Students to Understand the Diversity of AAPI People

Different Experiences Within AAPI Communities

Each ethnic group under the AAPI umbrella has different experiences and historical roots. Specific ethnic groups' histories of colonization, migration, and language can impact their experiences in the United States. These differences can affect income, access to education, family histories, and stereotypes that impact students and their families.

Ending the Model Minority Myth

The model minority myth assumes that all Asian Americans are hard-working, academically successful, career climbers. This stereotype creates bias and judgment without recognizing the truth and complexity of individual identities. As students come to understand the diversity of AAPI people, they can help dismantle the stereotypes that harm their peers.

Support and Celebrate Differences

Building an understanding of AAPI diversity allows students to honor and celebrate the histories and identities of their peers. Supporting the AAPI community can come in many forms, including celebrating AAPI Heritage Month. Engaging in conversations and teaching others about AAPI issues can encourage others to participate in activism for current community needs.

"We need more voices in this space that would not only stand up for those who are not being heard, but to also empower others to find their own voice. We are all unique in our own ways, especially with our various intersectionalities of race, culture, religion, disability, ethnicity, and nationality. With this growing community, we need to gain a deeper understanding of how they are all connected."

- Nandita Gupta, Accessibility Program Manager at Microsoft

Historical Understanding

Each AAPI population has its own unique history. Learning the respective histories of AAPI communities can affect how students see and engage in the world. Deepening global perspectives can also impact how students understand U.S. history.

Humanize Experiences

As students learn about the diversity of AAPI populations, they can improve their ability to see those around them with complexity. Humanizing the experiences of AAPI people can help build empathy and understanding of individual histories. This level of awareness is critical within the college landscape, as well as more broadly.

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Conclusion

Respecting the cultural diversity of the AAPI community can help us build a foundation for understanding and support. The AAPI community includes many cultural and ethnic groups. People from more than 50 countries identify as AAPI, making it the fastest-growing ethnic group in the nation.

College students can learn AAPI histories and how they impact the U.S. Learners can also build a deeper understanding of the diverse cultures under the AAPI umbrella. Increasing awareness of this diverse population can help students engage with, support, and understand AAPI people and communities.

With Advice From:

Nandita Gupta

Nandita is an accessibility program manager at Microsoft, where she works on a product that empowers users to create inclusive and accessible experiences for all users. She has been named Influential Women of Manufacturing 2019 by Putman Media. She is a board member on different boards within the community including Lime Connect, an organization with a mission for rebranding disability through achievement, where she serves on the Community Engagement Committee. She also serves on the Accessibility Leadership Council for Disability: IN. As a board member for a nonprofit organization - Caroline Calouche & Co. - she leads the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee as the chair where she is working on creating inclusive spaces within the dancing communities. She has been actively involved in various mentoring organizations over the past years and was inducted into the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame. She has been a speaker at numerous conferences including the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing, Assistive Technology Industry Association 2020, and World Information Architecture Day.

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Respecting the Cultural Diversity of the AAPI Community | BestColleges

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The AAPI population is an expanding and culturally diverse community. Improve your understanding of the fastest-growing ethnic group in the nation. The AAPI population includes over 50 ethnicities and descendants of over 60 nationalities. "Asian American" was coined in 1968 to unite the population and fight for equality.

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Asian Americans and the Model Minority Myth | BestColleges

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Many perceive Asian Americans as an ideal racial minority. In reality, though, this stereotype is not only inaccurate but also extremely harmful.

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Asian American / Pacific Islander Communities and Mental Health

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Asian American / Pacific Islander Communities and Mental Health

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It's important to recognize that the term "AAPI" (Asian American / Pacific Islander) encompasses a wide range of countries, ethnicities, nationalities, and identities. Many different communities within AAPI label face their own unique challenges: from the trauma faced by those who survived wars in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam; Japanese Americans who remember the internment camps of the WW2 era; or the anxiety felt by the children of first-generation immigrants to reconcile their cultural heritage with American life. The struggles faced by Filipinx Americans vary from the experiences of Indian Americans (not to be confused with Native Americans). Additionally, Native Hawaiians, who are grouped into the category of AAPI as Pacific Islanders, still experience generations of historical trauma from the colonialization of the islands of Hawaii.

AAPI communities in the United States (U.S.) have had to struggle to reconcile their identities and challenges while recognizing the privilege that comes with the "model minority" myth. The "model minority" myth is a microaggression known as "ascription of intelligence," where one assigns intelligence to a person of color on the basis of their race. It's important to recognize how the "model minority" myth plays into complex systems that hold up white supremacy by allowing Asian Americans to benefit from systems of power at the expense of the wellbeing of Black people.

Other race-based issues that impact the mental health of AAPIs include but are not limited to:

The Perpetual Foreigner stereotype: This occurs when someone is assumed to be foreign-born or doesn't speak English. Some questions that perpetuate this stereotype include "Where are you from?" "Where are you really from?" and "How do you say (or write) _____ in your language?" This increases feelings of isolation and loneliness by being presumed as an outsider based on your race.

Trauma: First-generation immigrants - particularly from conflict areas - may experience trauma. This trauma can be passed down to their children and subsequent generations. AAPIs with a long family history in the US may have compounded trauma due to racial discrimination.

Stigma: Asian Americans are the least likely racial group to take actions on their mental health and are more likely to reach out to friends and family. However, not all AAPIs have a strong support system and can have difficulty expressing their challenges due to guilt, shame, or even not being able to speak the same language.

Expectations: Criticizing appearance, comparing successes, not being _______ enough. Children of first-generation immigrants are particularly expected to serve as cultural and linguistic liaisons for older family members in addition to serving as a caregiver for younger children and attending school.

Religious intolerance: Religious minorities, for example Muslims and Sikhs, are often discriminated against for their appearance and beliefs, bearing the brunt of racial profiling due to Islamophobia (It's important to note that Sikhism is not the same as Islam). There is also the assumption of criminal status where someone is presumed to be dangerous, criminal, or deviant based on their race.

Demographics/Societal Issues

There are over 20 million people in the United States who identify as Asian/Pacific Islander (6.1 percent of the overall population).

As of 2018 there were 5.2 million people of Chinese descent, 4.5 million of (Asian) Indian descent, and 4.1 million of Filipino descent, followed by 2.2 million of Vietnamese descent, 1.9 million of Korean descent, and 1.5 million of Japanese descent.

Over 420,000 (2.5 percent) of Asian Americans and more than 76,000 (7.6 percent) Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders are veterans.

Nearly 54 percent of Asian Americans and 24.4 percent of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders have at a bachelor's degree or higher.

In 2018, 10.8 percent of Asian Americans lived at or below poverty level, and 6.2 percent were without health insurance. Hawaiian Natives and Pacific Islanders fared slightly worse with 14.8 percent at or below poverty level, and 8.6 percent without health insurance.

Attitudes

Knowledge of the mental health needs and attitudes of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders regarding mental illness is limited. Few epidemiological studies have included Asian Americans or people whose English is limited.

The National Asian Women's Health Organization (NAWHO) sponsored a study, Breaking the Silence: A Study of Depression Among Asian American Women, that found:

Conflicting cultural values are impacting Asian-American women's sense of control over their life decisions

Feeling responsible, yet unable to meet biased and unrealistic standards set by families and society, contributes to low self-esteem among Asian-American women

Asian-American women witness depression in their families, but have learned from their Asian cultures to maintain silence on the subject

Asian-American women fear stigma for themselves, but more so for their families

Prevalence

According to SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, mental health issues are on the rise for Asian American/Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian young adults.

Serious mental illness (SMI) rose from 2.9 percent (47,000) to 5.6 percent (136,000) in AAPI people ages 18-25 between 2008 and 2018.

Major depressive episodes increased from 10 percent-13.6 percent in AAPI youth ages 12-17, 8.9 percent to 10.1 percent in young adults 18-25, and 3.2 percent to 5 percent in the 26-49 age range between 2015 and 2018.

Suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts are also rising among AAPI young adults. While still lower than the overall U.S. population aged 18-25, 8.1 percent (196,000) of AAPI 18-25 year-olds had serious thoughts of suicide in 2018, compared to 7.7 percent (122,000) in 2008. 2.2 percent (52,000) made a plan in 2018, compared to 1.8 percent (29,000) in 2008, and 7,000 more AAPI young adults made an attempt in 2018, compared to 2008.

Binge drinking, smoking (cigarettes and marijuana), illicit drug use and prescription pain reliever misuse are more frequent among AAPI adults with mental illnesses.

Treatment Issues

Access/Insurance

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Mental Health America (MHA)'s work is driven by its commitment to promote mental health as a critical part of overall wellness, including prevention services for all; early identification and intervention for those at risk; integrated care, services, and supports for those who need them; with recovery as the goal.

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Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

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October 7, 2015 |
Katie Cunningham | Comments

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Defining Ourselves: Multiracial Identity for Modern-Day Asian Americans

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I am Japanese and white—and have often been self-conscious of being both simultaneously. In most of my college classes, I am the only student of color.

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Every May we take extra time to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month by shining a light on AANHPI experiences and filmmakers. Enjoy this selection of films, some premiering in May as well as some gems to revisit. These documentaries celebrate the light and love in our diverse AANHPI communities. We also recognize the need to face ugly truths about events of racism, xenophobia, and violence targeted towards AAPI communities. When we are honest about the past, we can begin to heal from the wounds of hate and in doing so, make a better future together.

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Celebrating AANHPI Heritage Month: Stories, Facts, History &... | PBS

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Stream documentaries and learn facts to celebrate Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian heritage.

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May marks Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which celebrates the histories of Americans hailing from across the Asian continent and from the Pacific islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

This year's theme, selected by the Federal Asian Pacific American Council, is "Advancing Leaders Through Opportunity," which builds on a leadership advancement theme series that began in 2021.

Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate says the month is a time to speak out, share stories and debunk myths about Asian communities, she said. But it's not the only time to celebrate Asian culture or diversity.

"Our history is also filled with incredible stories of resilience, of persistence, of determination, to fight for our basic rights," Choi told NPR. "This is a celebration of our history, of our culture ... and all the different ways in which our community has really demonstrated that we're not only here to stay, we are a part of this fabric - a part of this country."

Before it was a month, it was a week

The month was the brainchild of Jeanie Jew, a former Capitol Hill staffer, who shared the idea with Rep. Frank Horton, who introduced the legislation that formed it.

Jew's great grandfather, M.Y. Lee, left China for the United States in the 1800s before he helped build the transcontinental railroad, according to . Lee became a prominent businessman in California and later traveled to Oregon. He was killed during a period of unrest and anti-Asian sentiment.

"Mrs. Jew turned a personal tragedy in her family history into a positive force," Horton later told Congress in 1992.

In 1977, Horton introduced a resolution that would establish Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week. Sen. Daniel Inouye introduced similar legislation to the Senate.

In the following year, Horton, with cosponsor Rep. Norman Mineta, introduced another related resolution that passed. President Jimmy Carter signed it in October of 1978.

The resolution "authorized and requested" the president to proclaim the 7-day period beginning May 4, 1979 as Asian Pacific American Heritage Week. It also called on Americans, and especially educators, to observe the week with "appropriate ceremonies and activities."

Congress later passed legislation to extend the observance to a month in 1990. Two years later, Congress passed another public law to annually designate May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Why May was chosen to commemorate AAPI heritage

The legislation to annually designate May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month referenced two key dates: May 7 and May 10.

May 7, 1843, marks the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the United States. And May 10, 1869, or Golden Spike Day, recognizes the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S., which had significant contributions from Chinese workers.

The railroad stretched from the West Coast to the East Coast, and 15,000 to 20,000 Chinese immigrants were a major part of its construction, according to History.com. Initially, construction superintendent James Strobridge deemed the immigrants unfit for the job. But the railroad needed workers, and many white people weren't interested.

Conditions were brutal in the Sierra Nevada, and Chinese workers weren't receiving the same pay as their white counterparts, according to the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project. Unlike white workers, Chinese workers had to pay for their own food and had to work longer hours, according to the project.

The railroad was fundamental to the development of the American West, according to History.com. It cut travel time across the U.S. from months to less than a week.

This year's theme: Advancing Leaders Through Opportunity

The Federal Asian Pacific American Council - a nonprofit that supports the interests of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the federal and D.C. governments - selected the theme: Advancing Leaders Through Opportunity.

The theme builds on the Advancing Leaders series, which began in 2021 and will run through 2024. Last year's theme was Advancing Leaders through Collaboration.

"When you have diversity at the leadership table, the magnitude of what you can accomplish is enormous," Fahmida Chhipa, FAPAC's vice president, told NPR. "You really expand yourself in the horizons to have something creative and innovative."

The council says this year's theme "further highlights FAPAC's efforts in advancing leaders in the Federal and DC governments," according to a press release.

Choi also emphasized the importance of collaboration.

"We do need to center the experiences of those who've been disproportionately impacted," she told NPR. "And when government not only listens, but implements the recommendations of communities who are closest to those who are being impacted right now, you get better results."

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The story behind Asian Pacific American Heritage, and why it's celebrated in May

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May marks the beginning of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This year's theme is Advancing Leaders Through Opportunity.

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How One Woman’s Story Led to the Creation of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

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The observance also commemorates two key anniversaries