Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month celebrates the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, heritage, history, and traditions in May of each year. Around the nation, this is celebrated in a various number of ways. These events are hosted by businesses, nonprofits, and city agencies.

Los Angeles holds an annual Asian Pacific Film Festival which showcases the “films,videos, and digital mediaworks” of Asian Pacific Americans as well as other international talents. Similar to this is the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) Festival, which moved the event from March to May to remain uniform with APAHM. The Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans (CAPA) in New York hosts an Asian Pacific American Heritage Festival where Asian Pacific Americans and Non-Asian Pacific Americans alike can come together to experience and learn about the diverse, pan-asian/pacific islander cultures. Mehandi art, Korean doll-making, Taiko drumming, Polynesian dance, and Chinese cuisine can all be found in this mecca for diversity. Furthermore, the Chicago public libraries have book discussions concerning Asian/Pacific stories and authors. On the other hand, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. has created an interactive art gallery, using over 2000 photos and videos submitted from all over the world to depict the life of an Asian Pacific American. An annual awards ceremony is held in San Francisco to honor the individuals and organizations who have made a “distant impact in serving the APA community in San Francisco”. In addition to all of these observances, high schools and colleges host heritage shows for Asian Pacific Americans and other racial and ethnic groups.

The 2017 Asian Pacific American Heritage month celebration in San Francisco.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzeaJNHPO60&t=3187s

The sponsors and partners of San Francisco’s 2017 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Who is considered an Asian Pacific Islander?

The U.S. Census Bureau follows the guidelines of the Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting set by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). These guidelines were set in 1977. So, according to these guidelines:

Asian – “A 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.”

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander – “A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.”

Asian Pacific Islanders in the United States

Asians are one of the fastest growing racial groups in the United States. Their presence has become increasingly prevalent. The estimated number of Asians/Pacific Islanders in the United States in 2015 is about 16.2 million people, which accounts for about 5.2 percent of the U.S. population. In 2060, the projected number of Asians/Pacific Islanders is 38.2 million people, about 9.3 percent of the population.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 21.5 million people identify themselves as full or partly Asian, and about 1.5 million people identify themselves as full or partly Native American/ Pacific Islander.

Who initiated the celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and why?

As an advocate for Asian Pacific Americans and women, Jeanie F. Jew holds an extensive list for her work for the community. She created the Organization of Chinese American Women and was the national president for the administration from 1997 to 2001. She was also the creator of the original Congressional Asian Pacific American American Caucus (CAPAC) which educates and ensures that Congress passes legislation that is in the best interest of the Asian Pacific American community.

The Organization of Chinese Women and the Congressional of Asian Pacific American Caucus – Organizations led by Jeanie F. Jew that advocated for Asian Pacific Amer

However, Jeanie is most known for proposing the idea for an Asian Pacific American Heritage Week or Month. She wrote the first legislation for this proposition to Congress. The month of May was chosen to honor the Japanese American immigrants, who first arrived in the United States in May 7, 1843. The month also celebrates the day in which the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in May 10, 1869; The railroad was built mainly by Chinese immigrants, like Jeanie F. Jew’s grandfather. This commemoration was prompted when Jew saw that Asian Pacific Americans were not represented enough during the United States Bicentennial Celebration of 1976. The event was meant to recognize those who helped build the nation.


Jeanie F. Jew, the first person to propose the idea of Asian Pacific American Heritage month	Chinese laborers of the Transcontinental Railroad	Japanese immigrants in the United States

Legislation for Asian Pacific American Heritage Week

Frank Horton, New York Republican representative (left), and Norman Mineta, California Democrat Representative (right)

Jeanie F. Jew reached out to New York Republican Representative, Frank Horton, and California Democrat Representative, Norman Mineta, to help bring this this issue to Congress. On June 30, 1977, Horton introduced to the House of Representatives a bill (H.J.Res.540). The bill summary, authored by the Congressional Research Service, reads that H.J.Res.540 bill was a “Joint resolution authorizing the President to proclaim annually a week during the first 10 days in May as ‘Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week.’”

Hawaii State Senators: Daniel Inouye (left), Spark Matsunaga (Right)

Soon after, on June 19, 1977, Hawaii State Senators, Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga, also proposed a similar bill (S.J.Res.72) to the Senate.

The two bills were unable to pass. Therefore, the two legislations were then revised to form the House Joint Resolution 1007 (H.J.Res.1007) which was proposed on June 19,1978. There were minor changes, such as rather than to call it “Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week”, the event was renamed “Asian/Pacific American Week” to be consistent with how the U.S. Census Bureau named the group. To pass the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee, 218 Congressional members were needed to co-sponsor the bill. National organizations that actively supported and advocated for the bill includes the Organization of Chinese Americans, Japanese American Citizens League, and the Organization of Chinese American Women. Furthermore, for the first time, young Asian Pacific Americans, like the Young Organization of Chinese Americans, took participation in a national campaign.

The campaign succeeded with a total of 231 Congressional members to co-sponsor the bill, and the House and Senate responded positively as well with a majority vote in each branch. The House approved the bill on July 10, 1978. The Senate approved the bill on September 19, 1978. Finally, President Carter signed the bill into Public Law 95-419 on October 5, 1978. The law announced that the week of May 4, 1979 to May 11,1979 would be designated as Asian/Pacific Heritage Week, which would be celebrated with “appropriate ceremonies and activities”. This legislation would have to be renewed annually, brought forth by community organizations.

Public Law 95-419, which declared the week of May 4, 1979 to May 11,1979 to be designated as Asian/Pacific Heritage Week. (left). The bill was signed into legislation by President Jimmy Carter. (right)

Legislation for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Demands by the community pressed for the extension of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week, to lengthen the observance to a month. Congressed passed the Public Law 101-283 in 1990, which delegated the month of May 1990 as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. President George H. W. Bush signed the On May 7, 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed the bill into law.

Representative Frank Horton, who had helped initiate the commemoration, went to Congress to request that the next two following years, 1991 and 1992, also have the entire month of May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. The House and Senate declared the Public Law of 102-42; Not only did it make May 1991 and May 1992 month long celebrations for Asian/Pacific Americans, it also stated the reasons for doing so (to honor the arrival of Japanese immigrants on May 7,1843 and the Chinese workers who constructed and finished the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869). However, Horton continued to advocate in order to make it an annual function. In 1992, Congress unanimously passed Public Law 102-450, where “May of each year is designated as ‘Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month’”. It was signed into law on October 23, 1992. Many of the other heritage months, Black History Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, and National American Indian Heritage Month all parallel in the way that they all began as week long commemorations before being extended to a month long.

The Public Law 102-450, which extended Asian Pacific American Heritage week into a month

Presidential Proclamation

Public Law 95-419 also required that the President “issue a proclamation designating the 7 day period”. The idea to extend the celebration to a month was introduced by Public Law 101-283, and the notion to be recognized annually was made permanent by Public Law 102-450; Therefore a proclamation must be issued each year by the president as well.

A proclamation is “a public or official announcement dealing with a matter of great importance”, as defined by Oxford Dictionary. The presidents who followed President Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump have abided this tradition annually.

The most recent proclamation addressing APA heritage month by President Donald J. Trump in 2017

Criticism

The celebrations of heritage month have been put into question. In 2006, Morgan Freeman expanded on this idea in an interview with 60 minutes. When asked why he doesn’t want a black history month, he responded, “You’re going to relegate my history to a month? What do you do with yours? Which month is White History Month? Black history is American history.” He continues to say that racism will end “when we stop talking about it”.

However, this brings up the issue of having a colorblind society; By ignoring historical events relating to race, people will also continue to participate in the systemic racism today. Heritage months, not just Asian American Pacific Heritage month, is important in which is chooses to acknowledge the discriminatory history and hardships; It is essential to educate others about it because they do in fact play a role in society today. Heritage months make sure that these discussions happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeixtYS-P3s – Morgan Freeman’s criticism on Black History Month

Another critique is the large categorization of Asians and Pacific Islanders. Asians and Pacific Islanders have a large number of different ethnic groups with varied cultures and histories. It is hard to celebrate and focus on all these groups in only one month.

It is hard to delegate a heritage month for every single ethnicity, but the purpose of heritage month is to also celebrate the diversity present in our communities today. It allows people to be proud of their culture and to respect the culture of others as well.

Survey

The purpose of this survey is to see if people know that May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, or in fact, if they knew that we even have an month dedicated to Asians and Pacific Islanders. As an Asian American myself, I found it alarming that I have never heard of APA heritage month around my community, at school, or in the media. I would be interesting to see if others in California specifically, where there is a large population of Asians/Pacific Islanders, are also unaware. If, in fact, people did not know that there was an APA heritage month nor the festivities funded to celebrate APA heritage month, should we have an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month?

Survey Questions and Responses:

What is your sex?

The respondents were 57.5% female and 42.5% male.

What state do you live in?

The majority of the people who responded in the survey lives in California, an area where there is a large population of Asian Pacific Americans, about 6.3 million Asian Pacific residents.

What is your race?

The majority of the respondents of the survey are Asian Americans.

Which month is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month?

The survey indicated that there were 57.5 percent who chose the correct answer: “May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month”. Therefore, 42.5 percent of the people did not know and chose other options. 20 percent, about half of those who did not know, responded with “none, there is no Asian Pacific American Heritage Month”.

Did you know there was an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month?

57.5% of people chose May as the correct answer for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, but only 55% had known that we had an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Conversely, 45% did not know there was an APA Heritage Month.

Are you aware of any of the activities for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM)?

About 85 percent did not know of the activities associated with APAHM. So, only 15 percent knew of the festivities intended to celebrate APAHM; for example, some of the activities known were school festivals, library celebrations, and film festivals.

Are you aware of some of the topics that APAHM brings to light including: Chinese Exclusion Act (CEA), Japanese Internment, Hepatitis B awareness and education, hate crimes, depression and suicide, etc?

Most of the respondents, 62.5%, did not know of the historical events and critical issues that have and are impacting Asian Pacific Americans today. APAHM celebrations discuss these matters, though ineffectively so.

Do we need an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month?

So this concludes with the question, “Do we need an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month”? The survey indicated that some people are aware of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. However, there is a large amount of people who do not. The reason for celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is to learn the history, like the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japanese internment, and to create awareness of current APA issues. Nonetheless, the majority of the surveyors did not know about these topics nor the events that bring these subjects to light. So, if the purposes for celebrating are not successful, why have an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month? Funds would go to waste on these festivities rather than the issues that press the community today. Respondents who believed that there wasn’t a need for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month argued:

“Why do we need to? We shouldn’t have anything to do with a certain race or culture. We should just have something that brings all cultures together instead of branding only Asian Pacific…”- J.L.

“I personally do not see the significance of having an exact month for it. Rather we should be personally learning about our history and culture on our own everyday! Full supporter in getting to know your roots! Just not sure whether or not having a set month makes a differences or not.”- A.C.

“Too many events segregating people. Would be better to have more events where people unite.”- H.L.

These explanations parallel with Morgan Freeman’s argument that having months for different racial communities perpetuate a divide and separation between racial differences rather than promoting unity. Like black history, Asian Pacific American history should be “American history”. The Asian Pacific American narrative is left of the American imperialism story in history classes starting as early as elementary school.

Although Asian Pacific American Heritage Month has not been extremely effective, the survey demonstrated showed an overwhelming amount of people, 85%, in favor of having an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Some of the reasons included:

“It’s important to raise awareness to parts of the community that identify as Asian Americans as well as those who do not identify as Asian Americans that there are issues that deeply affect those in the Asian american community.”- M.R.

“Just like how black Heritage month brings cultural awareness and appreciation to the black community, I believe we, as Asians, need the same exposure. It will allow second generation Asian-American to better understand their diverse and unique background. At the same time, it will make room for acceptance in the minority groups within the United States.”- K.T.

“Because I think a lot of the time, people don’t think about/celebrate Asian history and culture in America. Usually it’s about the white people or the black people, or even the Hispanic people. All people talk about how we are getting better because we are starting to have all these big celebrations for black culture like black history month, and black lives matter, etc. Although I get that this is a big issue, it’s not just a matter of African Americans, but one of every race.” -K.W.

“…To educate new generations of Asian Pacific Americans as well as other ethnicities living in America of the issues plaguing Asian Pacific Americans (building a more tolerant world, more aware of different issues and not ignorant).” -K.P.

There is, in fact, a demand for an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The justifications state that Asian Pacific American Heritage Month does not work to divide racial groups, but the heritage month promotes inclusiveness. By educating others on Asian American history and issues, people will be more likely to strive for equity. Also, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month festivities will hopefully translate to everyday life, cultivating an environment where the various, variety of Asian and Pacific Islander cultures will be celebrated and accepted.

Conclusion

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is one amongst many other heritage months, such as National Hispanic Heritage Month and Native American Indian Heritage Month, that still have yet to gain widespread attention and recognition. More awareness for heritage or history months should be drawn by the president, government commemorations, tv shows, news reports, commercials, books, community festivities, word of mouth, and more. Part of APAHM should be allocated for advocating for Asian Pacific American study classes in high schools and colleges. Whites and African Americans do play a major role in the history of the United States, but the country is not just a black and white racial binary. It is painted with a multitude of racial and ethnic groups, many who are of different backgrounds and cultures. It is a combination of racial and ethnic groups who have all created what the United States is today. Everyone should be honored for their contributions in creating this world power. Every heritage deserves to be celebrated and have its place in this American tapestry, as Takaki says, of interweaving cultures.

List of Presidential Proclamations addressing Asian/Pacific Heritage Week/Month

1979- Proclamation 4650 (Carter) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=32111

1980- Proclamation 4727 (Carter) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=32991

1981- Proclamation 4837 (Reagan) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=43710

1982- Proclamation 4927 (Reagan) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=42384

1983- Proclamation 5037 (Reagan) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=41108

1984- Proclamation 5178 (Reagan) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=39764

1985- Proclamation 5325 (Reagan) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=38521

1986- Proclamation 5465 (Reagan) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=37163

1987- Proclamation 5647 (Reagan) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=34218

1988- Proclamation 5807 (Reagan) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=35777

1989- Proclamation 5972 (H.W. Bush) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=20516