#Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

[creatediana]

"At Night" by Yone Noguchi (1875–1947), the first Japanese-born writer to publish work in English

[padawan-historian]

This May marks Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. As we recommit ourselves to collective liberation and restorative learning, I wanted send out a gentle reminder that these months should not be the extent of your antiracist (un)learning (x)

1. The Korean Women’s Relief Society in Hawai’i was founded in 1919 in response to the  March First Independence Movement in Korea (that called for full independence from Imperial Japan). Along with organizing aid through the Korean Red Cross, the KWRS also organized cultural activities and events like this mock Korean wedding ceremony (1921).

2. A family of Chinese immigrants relaxes in a San Fransisco park (1980s).

3. The wives of the Philippine delegation accompany their partners to Washington D.C. campaigning for the recognition of their independence and island sovereignty; here they are received by First Lady Harding and Mme. De Veyra (1922).

4. American soldier John Konopka holds out a piece of candy to a young Korean child carried  men of the 25th infantry division relax during their advance against the Chinese communist enemy troops in Osan, Korea (1951).

5. Japanese serviceman, Neisi, poses with American Japanese women (1945).

6. Two Chinese soldiers hold the captured Japanese flag as journalist Walter G. Rundle applies first aid to a freed woman who the Japanese soldiers had forced to act as a comfort woman. Although these bondwomen were thought to have been of Chinese descent, additional research speculates that they hailed from Korea (1944).

7. Australian soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) pull together to throw a feast for the 50 displaced Korean children from Bukhansan Orphanage in Seoul. Private Alpha Cashmore Hunter and another unidentified soldier help pass out plates (+ chocolate). After dinner, a the soldiers gathered to listen to the children sing folk songs, play the piano and violin, and recite English classics (1951-53).

8. Young Japanese-Americans from the Y.W.C.A. Summer Camp in Pueblo, Colorado, many of them displaced by the Relocation Center at Granada, working alongside white local farmers (1943).

9. The champion Chinese Hose Team of America, triumphed in the great Hub-and-Hub race at Deadwood, South Dakota (1888).

[elgaberino-mcoc]

MCOC WISHLIST: TOP FIVE MOST-WANTED ASIAN / PACIFIC CHAMPS

Ranked by Summoners

014 Lady Deathstrike 017 Silver Samurai 023 Silk 031 Wenwu (The Mandarin) 041 Shatterstar*

Vote: http://tinyurl.com/mcocwishlist 

*denotes Asian casting of a non-Asian character

[rachy-chel]

Maysia 2: new year

[korra-of-the-watertribe]

Happy Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

[mindboogling]

Kamaʻāina E Komo Mai Welcome Home, Kamaʻāina

🌺Happy AAPI Month!🌺 I've had this piece in mind since I visited home last year. Among the chaos of the airport's baggage claim and shuffling between impatience, a screen greets each guest in yellow text, saying those very words: "To our returning Kamaʻāina, welcome home." My heart ached when I had to leave, leading me to draw this with a lot of plant life and flowers from my nostalgia. Now I'm back on my island, reuniting with my family, and embracing my culture - I'm Kānaka Maoli and couldn't be more grateful to be home.

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week

My staff pick this week is the trade edition of The Tale of the Shining Princess by Japanese-born writer Hisako Matsubara (b.1935) and Japanese-Canadian artist-printmaker Naoko Matsubara (b.1937), published by Kodansha International LTD. Tokyo, Japan in 1966. 

As a artist-printmaker and bookmaker who makes woodcuts, I am greatly inspired by Naoko’s prints. Naoko Matsubara’s work carries on traditions of Japanese printmaking while having its own contemporary flavor. Her woodcuts are ecstatic, they are vibrating with movement. Her use of bold shapes and the white line of the the carving tool makes the most of what woodcut has to offer. In the book form, the active images carry the reader’s eyes through the book space. Her use of negative space activates the page. Additionally, her woodcuts have translated beautifully to commercial printing. 

The Matsubara sisters are daughters of a senior Shinto priest, and were raised in Kyoto. Both studied, lived, and worked in the United States. Hisako received her Master of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State College, moving to Germany where she continued her studies and became a prominent writer, publishing her work in Japanese, English, and German. In the 1980s she moved back to the United States, this time to California where she worked at Stanford University. 

Naoko received her Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, now Carnegie Mellon University. After her studies she traveled across Europe and Asia. She returned to the United States and became the personal assistant to the artist and wood engraver Fritz Eichenberg, an artist who has been featured many times on our blog. Naoko taught at Pratt University in New York and at the University of Rohde Island. She also lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts for a time. Naoko is currently living and working in Canada in Oakville, Ontario, where she continues to work and exhibit nationally. 

The work of both Hisako and Naoko have had great influence inside the United States and around the world. So lets celebrate their accomplishments! 

This book has end sheets of mulberry paper with inclusions of Bamboo leaves, the cover is a red textured paper with a gold stamped design by Naoko. 

View some of our other AAPI selections for this month.

View our other Staff Picks.

- Teddy, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[mysteriouspercentage]

happy aapi heritage month, loving and friendly reminders

stop erasing pacific islanders or i'll rip out ur spine

asians outnumber pacific islanders by millions and more often than not this month gives CRUMBS to pacific islanders and it's honestly, transparently anti-indigenous at this point.

pacific islanders are melanesian, micronesian, and polynesian. these identities are not homogenous or interchangeable, but are deeply historically connected.

filipinos are not pacific islander and we are not discussing this further

(i am not pacific islander so if anyone from that community wants to add more friendly reminders onto this post, pls do 💛)

east asians are not the only asians

despite being the face of "asian-ness" in the us, there are actually more countries in asia than south korea, north korea, japan, and china.

celebrate southeast asians !

celebrate south asians !

celebrate west asians !

celebrate central asians !

celebrate north asians !

there is so so much diversity in the pacific islander and asian experiences worldwide, and it's well past time we celebrate all of the facets of our identities

celebrate indigenous asians !

celebrate asians who aren't mixed with white !

celebrate dark-skinned asians !

end the diaspora wars !

we need to stand together in community as we face down the capitalist, imperialist, white supremacist machine. uplift each other, and hold each other accountable, always

[renegaedz]

HAPPY AAPI MONTH TO EVERYONE WHO QUESTIONS MY EXISTENCE

NOW ASK ME AGAIN (WHY I WEAR HIJAB)

[juliettelime]

happy asian american pacific islander heritage month! here is some art i made for a local non-profit's aapi heritage month event programming, i was asked to follow a theme of interweaving stories (both cultural and intergenerational) and i also drew upon my own experiences living in the diaspora as a third gen filipino american ☀️

✧ instagram | portfolio ✧

[powderflower]

man for hispanic heritage month they should’ve done an all hispanic dynamite rampage and collision

[tangramkey]

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month !!!!!!!

[fairynisse]

Sinophobia affects all AAPI. Anyone who a racist thinks is Chinese is going to catch some of that. Or racists don't give a fuck what your ethnicity is and think we're all the same and will attack you anyways. This applies to all of Asia because not everyone fits a look that you think belongs to different parts of Asia & the Pacific. Even if someone is Chinese, they don't deserve it.

Y'alls sinophobia is showing by:

Bringing up the Chinese government every time someone is discussing anything related to China that has nothing to do with their government. Ex: Chinese language, culture, history, celebrities

Calling Asian people "Bing chilling" or commenting it under a video about China or with any Asian people in it just because John Cena said it. It's like calling Asian people "Squid Game" when that Korean show was popular.

"Ching chong" You know exactly what this is. Don't fucking play dumb.

Thinking "Made in China" is inferior despite the American companies being the one who made that decision and told the Chinese manufacturers to make it exactly to their specs. Prior to this, Americans thought Japanese products were inferior, but now y'all lap up Japanese products. Y'all are mad at the wrong people.

Rebranding Chinese beauty trends as Japanese or Korean.

Stealing beauty content from Chinese creators and labeling it as Japanese or Korean while leaving in whole ass Chinese characters. We can literally still see the Douyin or XiaoHongShu logo in the video you fucking stole. Bonus points if they're also speaking Chinese in the video.

Saying "You're so pretty, I thought you were Korean/Japanese." to a Chinese person.

Attacking literally any Asian person because you thought they were Chinese.

Attacking a Chinese person just because they're Chinese.

Bonus points if you attack an Asian person who is from a country you fetishize. *cough cough hardcore kpop/kdrama fans, koreaboos, weeboos*

Double the bonus points if you're a weeboo hating on China. Japan refuses to acknowledge their crimes against humanity to this day. If you want to look up what Japan did, I am warning you(HUGE TRIGGER WARNING), it will psychologically mess you up.

Triple the racist bonus points if you attack an Asian ethnic minority that was oppressed in the past or is currently being oppressed by the Chinese government.

This literally goes for any culture but hating on Chinese culture is not cute. There are beautiful parts of it. We can appreciate the beautiful parts of it.

Y'alls treatment of Chinese or any Asian restaurant/business. I have like a whole other post of this. We all know Asian food is fire. Don't complain about the food and then demand it to be free + request another serving. If you hate us and our food so much, why are you here asking for more?

Categorizing us into the "good" Asians and the "bad" Asians, like y'all could fucking tell the difference between us. This shows y'all are cool with discrimination too, which is just telling on yourselves.

Doing nothing as Congress mistreated the CEO of Tiktok, calling him "China man", saying China comes to Congress, despite him being from Singapore.

Getting mad at Asian people speaking out on sinophobia and all the anti-China propaganda. It's mostly just thinly veiled racism behind "I hate the Chinese government." You can hate the Chinese government, but you can also be racist at the same time. They can co-exist in you.

Nobody is stopping y'all from boycotting anything made in China, but I don't see anyone tossing out their iPhones.

[elgaberino-mcoc]

MCOC WISHLIST TOP TEN MOST-WANTED ASIAN / PACIFIC CHAMPS, PART 2

Ranked by Summoners

014 Lady Deathstrike 017 Silver Samurai 023 Silk 031 Wenwu (The Mandarin) 041 Shatterstar* 047 Sunfire 064 Armor 065 Blink* 125 Daken 130 Radioactive Man

Vote: http://tinyurl.com/mcocwishlist 

*denotes Asian casting of a non-Asian character

[rachy-chel]

Maysia 1: OOTD/what’s in my bag

Hello everybody look at all this stuff I got❗️

[whenweallvote]

About 15 million Asian Americans will be eligible to vote in 2024, including roughly 1.7 million Gen Z’ers.

  AAPI voters have the power to decide key races across the country. 🙌🏽 Celebrate #AAPIHeritageMonth with us today by registering to vote at weall.vote/register!