May 2025: Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month
By: Q. Joan Xu, Data Services and Business Librarian
It’s the annual celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month. Join us to observe the diverse cultures and achievements of AANHPI.
Image credit: Gisa McCray Simmons
Two key milestones and Heritage Month of Asian American and Pacific Islander
- May 7, 1843, the arrival of the nation’s first Japanese immigrants.
- May 10, 1869, the transcontinental railroad’s completion marked the pivotal role of Chinese workers in building the transcontinental railroad.
Celebrating Asian American milestones was expanded to Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week from 1978 to 1992, when Congress established May as Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month.
Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month
- In 1997, the Office of Management and Budget split Pacific Islander populations into two race categories: Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.
- In 2021, a presidential proclamation broadened AAPI to include Native Hawaiians.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2023, the estimated number of Asian alone-or-in-combination residents in the United States was 25.2 million, and 89.1% of those age 25 and older had at least a high school diploma or equivalency.
The chart below shows the AANHPI population and percentage change between 2013 and 2023.
Image credit and source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Featured Library Resources
The AAPI Heritage Month 2025 page in the Asian Studies guide provides featured library resources and open sources highlighting Asian American experiences, cultures, and achievements.
Eyes that weave the world’s wonders
New York, NY: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2024
“From New York Times bestselling Joanna Ho and award-winning educator Liz Kleinrock.” “A young girl who is a transracial adoptee … wonders about her birth mom and comes to appreciate both her birth culture and her adopted family’s culture, for even though they may seem very different, they are both a part of her, and that is what makes her beautiful. She learns to appreciate the differences in her family and celebrate them.”
Inside Out and Back Again
New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011
“Through a series of poems” with “a beautiful writing style,” “a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.”
Birthday soup
New York: Viking Children’s Books, 2024
“Korean American Maia learns the importance of a mother’s love while making a traditional birthday soup.”
If Lin Can: how Jeremy Lin inspired Asian Americans to shoot for the stars
Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge, 2024
“This picture-book biography encourages children to look to the story of Jeremy Lin, the first NBA basketball player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, for inspiration and empowerment.”
25 Events That Shaped Asian American History : An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic
Westport, CT: Praeger, 2017
“The book offers a unique look at the Asian American experience, from the California Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century to the 2017 travel ban. Highlighting events with national and international significance, such as the Central Pacific Railroad Construction, the Korean War, and 9/11, it documents the Asian American experience. It demonstrates Asian Americans’ impact on American life.”
Ten blocks to the Big Wok: a Chinatown counting book
New York: Children’s Book Press, an imprint of Lee & Low Books, Inc., 2022
“In this bilingual book in English and Mandarin, as Mia, her uncle, and a hungry kitten make their way through Chinatown to the Big Wok restaurant, they count one panda, two lions, and other images of Chinese culture.”
Operation: Happy: a World War II story of courage, resilience, and an unbreakable bond
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zonderkidz, 2024
“After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1940, young Jody copes with the upheaval of war and the challenges of keeping her family together by completing a bucket list with her dog Happy.”
New York: Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2024
“When Jun moves from Hong Kong to America, the only words she knows are hello, thank you, I don’t know, and toilet. Her new school feels foreign and terrifying. But when she opens her lunchbox to find her favorite meals – like bao, dumplings, and bok choy – she realizes home isn’t so far away after all. Through lush art and spare dialogue, Cherry Mo’s breathtakingly beautiful debut picture book reminds readers that friendship and belonging can be found in every bite.”
Smithsonian: AANHPI Heritage Month: Recognizing “many contributions and rich heritage of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities,” the National Museum of American History (NMAH) “has been steadily building” their “museum collections” to “reflect the wide breadth of traditions, experiences, and achievements across these groups.”
National Museum of American History: Filipino Agricultural Workers Collection: “Collection documents the lives of Filipino migrants in Stockton, California, dating primarily from the 1920s to the 1970s and includes correspondence, photographic prints, military documents, financial records, books, wallets, and other ephemera.”
National Museum of American History: Becoming US: “The people of North America came from many cultures and spoke different languages long before the founding of the United States.” Becoming US “is the understanding that some people were already in the land that is today the United States, some people were brought against their will, some people came voluntarily, and some people never moved but became part of the United States as its border expanded to include them.”
Come Through – Asian Pacific American Voices at the Smithsonian: “The videos highlight National Museum of American History artifacts related to political history, entertainment (including a K-pop album by artist Eric Nam), and the life-saving heroics of Pentagon law officer Isaac Ho‘opi‘i on Sept. 11, 2001. Viewers also get a peek into the collecting process as a curator examines artifacts from Baltimore’s Chinatown community and a National Museum of Natural History scientist explains the story behind a meteorite on view in that museum, which was discovered in Utah’s desert by two Japanese American men held in an incarceration camp during WWII.”
Image credit & source: Smithsonian
Asian American—PBS series: “Asian Americans is a five-hour film series that delivers a bold, fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever.” “Told through intimate personal stories, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played.”
Kohala Mountain Boys: Traditional Music from Hawai’i Island: “Led by Boots Lupenui, the Kohala Mountain Boys are committed to uncovering and preserving musical treasures that helped to define the moku of Kohala on Hawai’i Island. Old-time Kohala music is soulful, playful, poetic, and fierce, the manifold voice of a vibrant and extraordinary people.” The Kohala Mountain Boys “want to recover and share the heirloom songs known only to a few isolated and precious old voices.” Reclaiming their heirloom songs strengthens their ancestral ties to their homeland. “It is a source of pride that can be shared by all the families and all the people of Kohala, for generations to come.”