Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month (a.k.a. Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month), celebrating and spotlighting the history, culture and achievements of the more than 25 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. This website brings together stories, photos and video resources from the National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Library of Congress, Smithsonian, National Archives and others to celebrate the generations of Asian American and Pacific Islanders who have enriched our nation’s history and culture and are instrumental to its future success.
The U.S. Census Bureau explains: “In 1992, Congress established May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month to coincide with two key milestones: the arrival of the nation’s first Japanese immigrants (May 7, 1843) and Chinese workers’ pivotal role in building the transcontinental railroad (completed May 10, 1869). … In 2021, a presidential proclamation expanded this to include Native Hawaiians.”
Everything, Everyone, All the Food at Once Fest at the District Warf May, 19-20
Chef Kevin Tien of the D.C. restaurant Moon Rabbit, and an all-star cast of chefs from around the U.S., will host a two-day food festival at the District Warf to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and to raise funds for Chefs Stopping AAPI Hate. There’s a “Dinner on the Dock” event the evening of Friday, May 19, and a day-long market event on Saturday, May 20. DCist has all the details of these ticketed events.
AAPI in DC: Here in Plain Sight
The 1882 Foundation, in partnership with the DC Historic Preservation Office and the DC Preservation League, has convened a team of trusted scholars and community leaders to “build a framework for identifying and evaluating the significance and integrity of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) historic resources in Washington, D.C., and in doing so, encourage the nomination of eligible sites to the National Register of Historic Places.” The AAPI in DC project has begun publishing photos and writings on its website. Check it out here!
Dr. Betty Lee Sung (1924-2023)
Born in Baltimore and raised in Washington, DC, Dr. Betty Lee Sung was an activist, author, groundbreaking scholar of Asian American studies and professor at City University of New York. In the 1950s, after finishing her undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois (1948), Sung moved to New York and worked as a script writer for the Voice of America. While doing research for her stories, Sung was struck by how most material, even in the Library of Congress, portrayed inaccurate and often stereotypical assumptions about Chinese people and culture. This inspired Sung to write her first book, Mountain of Gold: The Story of the Chinese in America (1967). Sung went on to become a professor and wrote several books, her last being Defiant Second Daughter: My First 90 Years (2015). Sung passed away earlier this year at the age of 98 in Silver Spring, MD.
