What is AAPI Month? 

AAPI Month is celebrated every May. It is a month of celebration, homage, awareness, and empowerment of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. The geographies of the different ethnicities, cultures, and nations which make up the AAPI diaspora are distinct and celebrated during AAPI Month. To learn more about different countries and cultures that are part of the AAPI diaspora, please find our Countries Guide as a resource for your appreciation and learning more about countries.  

According to the web portal Asian Pacific Heritage, "The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants." 

• Read more about the history of AAPI Month on the U.S. Department of Education website. 
• Watch a PBS series "Asian Americans" to learn more about the lives of AAPI peoples.  

[Title: Redondo Beach flower farm (1920). LAPL Special Collections]

[Title: Booth Advocating Asian American Studies (1988). UC Irvine Special Collections and Archives.]

[Title: Annak Ti Batac of Southern California (1994). LAPL Special Collections]