Celebrate APAH Month

Categories: Staff Picks

Asian Pacific Heritage Month usually receives lesser fanfare than the months that are dedicated to other minorities. To kick things off in Cincinnati there was an Asian Culture Festival at the Cincinnati Museum Center this past weekend.  Throughout the month of May special programs will air on PBS and PRI, which highlights the Asian communities' varied histories in this country.  And, as a conclusion to the month’s festivities, the cable network AZN TV will air the Asian Excellence Awards on May 24.

Asians are one of the fastest growing racial groups in the United States and many can trace their ancestry on this soil to the 19th Century, yet many Asian Americans feel they are seen as foreigners in their own country.  “Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White” by Frank Wu explores the experience of Asian Americans through their history in this country.  It is a seminal work in Asian American history and has been compared to W.E.B. DuBois’ “The Souls of Black Folks”.

For other books about Asian American history please read:

Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans by Ronald Takaki

Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People by Helen Zia

Asian Americans : Oral histories of first to fourth generation Americans from China, the Philippines, Japan, India, the Pacific Islands, Vietnam and Cambodia by Joann Faung Jean Lee