History
Why is AAPI Heritage Month in May? Name at least one of the two primary reasons
It celebrates when the first Japanese immigrants came to the U.S., and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad (May 1969)
The railroad helped open up the West to settlement and development. Nearly 20,000 Chinese laborers worked in hazardous and even deadly conditions for low wages to construct it.
How many people (or approximately what percentage) of people identify as AAPI in the U.S.?
24 million (approximately 7.1% of total U.S. Population)
This Taiwanese-American professional basketball player shot to fame in the 2011-12 season
Jeremy Lin
He unexpectedly led a winning turnaround with the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) during the 2011–12 season, sparking a cultural phenomenon known as "Linsanity". Lin was the first American of Chinese or Taiwanese descent to play in the NBA, and is one of the few Asian Americans to have played in the league. He is the first Asian American player to win an NBA championship, having done so with the Toronto Raptors in 2019.
Disney’s first Polynesian princess
+100 bonus points if you can name the pig or the chicken
Moana
Pua and Hei Hei
This chain is most famous for their “Chinese American” dishes. Since 2016, they have sold over 80 million pounds of their famous orange chicken
Panda Express
What caused the first large-scale Asian immigration?
California Gold Rush (1848-1855)
What percentage of Asian Americans live on the West Coast? Full credit if within 10%
45% as of 2019
This author has skyrocketed in popularity with her series “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “To all the Boys”
Jenny Han
This music festival is an annual music festival organized by 88rising, featuring musical artists across the Asian diaspora
Head in the Clouds
This popular “chili crisp” condiment was created by founder in a desire to capture the flavors of her hometown Chengdu
Fly By Jing
This Chinese American was beaten to death in a hate crime by two auto workers who blamed him for the massive layoffs occurring in the auto industry in 1982
Vincent Chin
On the night of his Bachelor party, Chin was beaten to death by Ebens and Nitz with a baseball bat, thinking he was Japanese, whom they blamed for the auto industry layoffs. These men were arrested and released the same night of the murder. The judge who gave the sentencing offered the following explanation: “These aren’t the kind of men you send to jail. You fit the punishment to the criminal, not the crime.”
Which state has the largest Asian population?
Bonus +100 points if you can guess the percentage within 5%
Hawaii
Bonus: 56.6%
This Asian American was the first to win the Golden Globe Award for best actress in the musical or comedy category
Awkwafina, The Farewell
This Asian-American music group was the first to earn a No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2010
Far East Movement (Like a G6)
This famous Asian American and personality is known for founding the Momofuku chain
David Chang
Where were the first Asian immigrants from?
+200 Bonus points if you can name where the oldest Asian American Settlement was
Philippines (1587)
Bonus: New Orleans, Louisiana
Which state has experienced the most Asian population growth between the 2010 and 2020 census?
North Dakota – 103.1%
Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian-American woman to do what?
Kalpana Chawla was an aerospace engineer and the first Indian American woman in space on NASA's 1997 Columbia space shuttle mission (STS-87) as a robotic arm operator. Chawla was a mission specialist on the Columbia shuttle's STS-107 mission in 2003 and died when the shuttle disintegrated upon re-entry after its 16-day flight.
This popular Asian American designer graduated from Parsons and hit Forbes’ 30 under 30 in 2018, rising through the ranks ever since
Sandy Liang
Can you name this popularized dish?
Spam masubi
Spam musubi is a snack and lunch food composed of a slice of grilled Spam sandwiched either in between or on top of a block of rice, wrapped together with nori in the tradition of Japanese onigiri.
Inexpensive and portable, Spam musubi are commonly found near cash registers in convenience stores or mom-and-pop shops all over Hawaii, the Marianas and Hawaiian Barbecue restaurants in the mainland United States
The origin of Spam musubi is disputed. Survivors of the Japanese American internment camps on the mainland of the United States claim to have invented the precursor to Spam musubi, when they placed seasoned slices of Spam on white rice in a baking pan.[4] However, most origin stories focus on Spam's ubiquity in Hawaii during and in the aftermath of World War II. With few other options, the canned meat was incorporated into local cuisines wherever American troops were stationed
What significant event occurred in 1907?
Bellingham Riots
On September 4th, 1907 five hundred white working men in Bellingham, WA gathered to drive a community of South Asian migrant workers out of the city. With the mission of “scar[ing] them so badly that they will not crowd white labor out of the mills,” the growing mob rallied and went to work.1 The rioters moved through town, breaking windows, throwing rocks, indiscriminately beating people, overpowering a few police officers, and pulling men out of their workplaces and homes. They eventually rounded up two hundred or so of the South Asian immigrant workers in the basement of City Hall to stay the night. The mob was successful in that within ten days the entire South Asian population departed town. Despite promises of protections from city officials, the South Asian workers well understood that there was no protection for them in Bellingham and migrated up and down the Pacific coast looking for safer and saner living conditions.
What are the three Pacific Islands regions?
Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia
This Chinese American Architect is famed for the design of the glass and steel pyramid at the Musee du Louvre in Paris
I.M. Pei
Name the main actress of the hit series “Never Have I Ever,” which focuses on a first-generation Indian American teenager and her journey through grief and high school
(Partial credit if you can name the first and last name of her character)
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
(Character: Devi Vishwakumar)
This famous dish, made in a thick tomato-yoghurt sauce, has been the center of a recent lawsuit
Butter Chicken
A lawsuit over the dish's origins was filed in the Delhi High Court earlier this year. The case involves two competing restaurants and families, each claiming a lineage with the city's renowned Moti Mahal restaurant founded in 1947, and each calling themselves the inventors of the popular dish.