In the late 1970s, May became known as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, or AAPI, which commemorates the success of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander figures, the History website says.
According to the website, New York representative Frank Horton and Hawaii’s Senator Daniel Inouye, the namesake for Honolulu’s airport, tried passing laws to dedicate the first ten days of May towards recognizing Asian and Pacific American Heritage. The laws weren’t passed until Horton reintroduced another resolution the following year, which was passed. Eventually, under George W. Bush’s administration, the week-long celebration was expanded to a month and renamed AAPI Heritage Month.
Terrell Wu, a senior communications major from Malaysia, said although he is Malaysian, he looks up to Asian Americans. He said Asian Americans tend to have an identity crisis about whether they’re truly Asian or American.
Representation is important because in America, Wu explained, Asians are underrepresented and subject to stereotypes. Asians are depicted as being good at math or martial arts, being geeky, weak and defenseless. He said recent films such as Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” portray Asians against such stereotypes.
“More than most of these films are not only making a lot of money because of actual depiction, but, they’re telling real stories, real culture and real traditions instead of the made up ones that we see on TV.”
One of the groups represented under Pacific Islanders are Samoans. Rowena Reid, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Sciences, said there are many Samoans who live in the U.S. mainland and some in New Zealand and Australia. She said Samoa wouldn’t have enough room now for all the Samoans now to live in, thus, the population is scattered. Because of this, she added, there needs to be more representation to have their voices heard and represented.
Samoans are known for going into the military, Reid shared, because that was one way to leave the island and explore the world. She said with second, third and proceeding generations living outside of Samoa, there needs to be a link back to the culture.
To see videos on student and faculty AAPI inspirations done by the Ke Alaka'i team, click here.