Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

What is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month?
Quick Facts about Asian Pacific Americans
Online resources
How to find books in our collection about Asian Pacific Americans
Books
How to find out about area events

What is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month?

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month originated in 1978 as a 10-day celebration in May. The dates were chosen to commemorate the 1843 arrival of the first Japanese immigrants in the U. S. and the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush expanded the celebration to all of May and Congress passed it into law in 1992.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the term Asian refers to any person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. The term Pacific, or Pacific Islander, refers any person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

Source:
U. S. Census Bureau and the Asian Pacific American Heritage Association

Quick Facts about Asian Pacific Americans

• 12.5 million
  Estimated number of U.S. residents as of July 1, 2001, who say they are Asian or Asian in combination with one or more other races. This group comprises 4.4 percent of the total population.
• 935,600
  Estimated number of U.S. residents as of July 1, 2001, who say they are native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander or native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander in combination with one or more other races. This group comprises 0.3 percent of the total population.
• 7.0 million
  The number of people who speak an Asian or Pacific island language at home. Of this number, 5.4 million speak English "well" or "very well." The most commonly spoken Asian or Pacific island languages are Chinese (2.0 million speakers), Tagalog (1.2 million), Vietnamese (1.0 million) and Korean (894,000).

Online Resources

Use the links below to find more information about Asian Pacific Americans and their culture.

• Encyclopedia Smithsonian
• Asia Source
• PBS: Ancestors in the Americas
• Asian American Journalists Association
• Southeast Asian Archive, University of California Irvine
• The State of Washington Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA)

How to find books in our collection about Asian Pacific Americans

• To find items about Asian Americans, use Asian American*.
• To find items about Pacific Islanders, use Pacific Islander*.
• To find items that discuss multiple minority races or ethnic groups, use Minorit*
• To find items about a specific Asian American or Pacific Islander group, use the adjective form of the country name with American* after it. For example, Korean American* or Japanese American*.

Books

Although not in our collection, the books listed below may of interest for learning more about Asian Pacific Americans.

• The Asian Pacific American Heritage: A Companion to Literature and Arts by George Leonard Garland Publishing, 1998 ISBN: 0815329806

• Bearing Dreams, Shaping Visions: Asian Pacific American Perspectives by Linda A. Revilla, Gail M. Nomura, Shawn Wong, Shirley Hune Washington State Univ Pr, 1994 ISBN: 0874220998

• Extraordinary Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders by Susan Sinnott Children's Press; 2003. ISBN: 051622655X

• Issei: Japanese Immigrants in Hawaii by Yukiko Kimura University of Hawaii Press, 1992. ISBN: 0824814819

• Cane Fires: The Anti-Japanese Movement in Hawaii 1865-1945 by Gary Y. Okihiro Temple Univ Press, April 1991.

• Faces of the Islands: When Pacific Islander and American Ways Meet by Willard C. Muller Lincoln Square Publishing, June 2002. ISBN: 0963737015

• And the View from the Shore: Literary Traditions of Hawaii by Stephen H. Sumida University of Washington Press, 1991. ISBN: 0295970782

• Pacific Diaspora: Island Peoples in the United States and Across the Pacific by Paul R. Spickard, Joanne Rondilla, Debbie Hippolite Wright University of Hawaii Press, 2002. ISBN: 0824825624

• Eastern Standard Time : A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture from Astro Boy to Zen Buddhism by Jeff Yang, Dina Gan, Terry Hong Mariner Books, 1997. ISBN: 039576341X

• Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White by Frank H. Wu Basic Books, 2003. ISBN: 046500640X

• Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, James D. Houston Bantam Books; Reissue edition, 1983. ISBN: 0553272586

• Wherever I Go, I Will Always Be a Loyal American: Seattle's Japanese American Schoolchildren During World War II by Yoon K. Pak Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 0415932343

• The Chinese in America: A Narrative History by Iris Chang Viking Press, 2003. ISBN: 0670031232

• On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family by Lisa See Vintage Books, 1996. ISBN: 0679768521

• Living in America by Roshni Rustomji-Kerns, Rashmi Sharma Westview Press, 1995. ISBN: 0813323789

• Century of the Tiger: One Hundred Years of Korean Culture in America by Jenny Ryun Foster, Heinz Insu Fenkl, Frank Stewart University of Hawaii Press, 2003. ISBN: 0824826442

How to find out about area events

Use the resources below to help you to find events in the D.C. Metropolitan area.

• Smithsonian Event Calendar
• D.C. Heritage Tourism Coalition
• Washington City Paper
• The Washingtonian's Museum Guide