Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States. This annual commemoration pays tribute to those of AANHPI heritage in our country, both past and present, whose tenacity, resilience, and courage "have transformed adversity into opportunities for public service, efficiency, and innovation; resulting in lasting change that...has positively impacted our world" (). Learn more about the histories, lives, and experiences of AANHPI people through these selected resources from our collections, and stop by our display on the first floor of Bender Library for more suggested reads.
Nonfiction
Reckoning with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in anti-Asian hate and violence, award-winning historian Catherine Ceniza Choy presents an urgent social history of the fastest growing group of Americans. The book features the lived experiences and diverse voices of immigrants, refugees, US-born Asian Americans, multiracial Americans, and workers from industries spanning agriculture to healthcare. Despite significant Asian American breakthroughs in American politics, arts, and popular culture in the 21st century, a profound lack of understanding of Asian American history permeates American culture. Choy traces how anti-Asian violence and its intersection with misogyny and other forms of hatred, the erasure of Asian American experiences and contributions, and Asian American resistance to what has been omitted are prominent themes in Asian American history. This ambitious book is fundamental to understanding the American experience and its existential crises of the early 21st century. -
The Making of Asian America shows how generations of Asian immigrants and their American-born descendants have made and remade Asian American life, from sailors who came on the first trans-Pacific ships in the 1500 to the Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. Over the past fifty years, a new Asian America has emerged out of community activism and the arrival of new immigrants and refugees. But as Lee shows, Asian Americans have continued to struggle as both 鈥渄espised minorities鈥 and 鈥渕odel minorities,鈥 revealing all the ways that racism has persisted in their lives and in the life of the country. -
Also check out the author's related children's book: by Erika Lee and Christina Soontornvat.
Fiction
Set in the Silicon Valley suburb where Castillo grew up, this debut novel depicts the Filipino American experience across three generations. It鈥檚 a family saga that鈥檚 full of heart and humor, shining a rare light on Filipino life in the United States. America Is Not the Heart was named one of the best books of 2018 by, among others, NPR, Literary Hub, and the Boston Globe. -
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Winner of the 2020 National Book Award Fiction prize.
By turns hilarious and flat-out heartbreaking, Charles Yu鈥檚 Interior Chinatown is a bright, bold, gut punch of a novel. Written in the form of a screenplay with porous boundaries, Yu鈥檚 wonderfully inventive work spotlights the welter of obstacles its everyman protagonist must confront in a profoundly racist, rigidly hierarchical world as he does his best鈥攊n the story of his own life鈥攖o land a decent role. -
Films
(DVD, in-library use only)
Kumu Hina is a powerful film about the struggle to maintain Pacific Islander culture and values within the westernized society of modern-day Hawai鈥檌. It is told through the lens of an extraordinary Native Hawaiian woman who is both a proud and confident mahu, or transgender person, and an honored and respected kumu, or teacher, cultural practitioner, and community leader. -
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(DVD, in-library use only)
A film developed to raise awareness about hate crimes and bias incidents affecting South Asians living in America, with particular reference to their increase since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
(streaming)
Combining a poignant family story with the stigma of racism, this film gives insight into the Asian-American experience, including the trauma of internment. The latest film from Academy Award-nominated director Christine Choy (Who Killed Vincent Chin?) tells the fascinating story of Larry and Trudie Long, a popular husband-and-wife nightclub act of the 鈥40s and 鈥50s. Narrated by their daughter, actress Jodi Long, the film traces the couple鈥檚 rise from the Chinatown nightclub circuit to a coveted appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show - Alexander Street Press
Asian American stories of resilience and beyond, and (streaming)
Asian American Stories of Resilience reflects the complexities of Asian American experiences: [In Volume 1,] Queer filmmaker Quy锚n Nguyen-Le recovers and articulates the legacy of their mother's nail salon for their refugee family, and Filipino-American filmmaker Frances Rubio records and captures the experience of being distanced from her sick father, who has been isolated in his facility during the pandemic. [In Volume 2,] Filipinx filmmaker Bree Nieves and her cousin grapple with what remains of their dreams, after losing one of their fathers during the pandemic; and Chanthon Bun, who lost his legal protection to live in the U.S. after conviction, must tread carefully after being released - ICE could detain and deport him. - Films on Demand