May was officially designated as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in 1992 to celebrate the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to the United States on May 7, 1943 and the Chinese laborers’ large contribution to building the transcontinental railroad, which was finished in May 1869. It is a time to recognize and celebrate the diversity and cultural richness of over 23 million Americans in the United States

The term AAPI is an acronym for Asian American and Pacific Islander. In 1997, the White House Office of Management and Budget made the two terms “Asian” and “Pacific Islander” two separate racial categories. Specifically, the U.S. Census Bureau classifies people of Asian descent as “having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent,” including, but not limited to China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, India, Cambodia, Vietnam or the Philippines.

While, Pacific Islanders are people who descended from the islands of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. This classification includes but is not limited to people from Native Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, Guam, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea.

How to Honor and Celebrate AAPI Heritage In Your Workplace

As we honor AAPI Heritage Month throughout May, we look to bring together our organizations and celebrate the unique culture, history, and experiences of the community. To best achieve this, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Host an optional in-person or virtual show & tell. Ask your employees from the AAPI community if they would like to share and demonstrate something about themselves. One idea may be a cooking session where they prepare a dish from their home or show and tell an item that represents their heritage. Create a space that feels safe, optional, and specific to the person.

If you have the budget, hire a speaker to present on a topic. The Rise Journey brings incredible live presentations with speakers on a range of topics. For $2,200.00, your team can hear an amazing presentation on how to "Elevate your AAPI Leaders".

Screen a television show, movie, or documentary from the AAPI community. Good Docs provides a list of incredible documentaries to watch for AAPI heritage month here.

Host a Virtual Class

Create a Living Document

Crowd-source and share a Google doc or spreadsheet with a list of books, films, tv shows, or music created or featuring people of the AAPI community. It can be updated year-round and re-shared in the weeks prior to May.

Take over Slack

An employee can take over a different channel each week and share ways they celebrate their heritage. Again, invite employees to honor in ways that feel comfortable to them and make it optional.

Share AAPI educational resources through existing channels such as:

• • Museum of Chinese in America in New York, NY
  • Art of Asias Galleries in Denver Museum
  • Asian Art Museum in San Francisco
  • Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC

Celebrate & Give Back

Host a Virtual Game Show with Luna Park!

The true art of celebration is having fun & spending time with your team and community. Here at Luna Park, we’ve created an incredibly fun and educational game show hosted by professional comedians on a platform purpose-built for an interactive game show. What better way to celebrate AAPI community than by playing games and learning about AAPI heritage! Here are some examples:

First off, we honor AAPI history with our  "Who Did It First" game. In this game, players combine their knowledge to match the notable AAPI icon to the famous first achievement. Together, we celebrate the achievements of the AAPI community and the impact they have had on the world.

Now your team is thoroughly educated on AAPI history, it is time to play - "It's Customary". Traditions and customs are an important part of the AAPI community, offering a glimpse into the history and ways of this unique and diverse demographic.  In this game, players will use reasoning, logic and geographical knowledge, in order to fill in the missing word from a particular country's custom.  

Ana Castillo, Sr. People Operations Analyst from ShortCut, answers the following questions:

1.In what ways is your organization celebrating AAPI Heritage Month this year?

To celebrate AAPI Heritage Month this year, our organization has created a month-long calendar full of ideas for honoring AAPI culture and history. Suggestions include reading articles, listening to podcasts, and more. Additionally, we are hosting several virtual events to recognize the achievements of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, such as a tea tasting and a trivia game.

2. How are you involving and celebrating the individuals at your company who might identify as a part of the AAPI community?

We encourage all our employees to share their ideas/stories during our monthly diversity and inclusion meetings and have created a safe space for them to express their experiences.

3. What do you think is the best way to be authentic around celebrating DEI moments like this?

Use the opportunity to learn more about the DEI topics being discussed and the individuals involved, and be willing to listen and engage in constructive dialogue. We did a lot of research to put our AAPI Heritage Month calendar together, taking the time to be intentional with educating ourselves and being thoughtful in the content being shared. We also open it up to anyone in our D&I committee to share/edit the content in the calendar before sharing it company-wide.

We are having a film discussion of Everything Everywhere All at Once, hosting and interview with Jeff Yang about the rise and importance of the AAPI community pop culture, doing slack takeovers each Tuesday celebrating different aspects of the AAPI Heritage (cooking, photos, history, etc), we are also sending out a newsletter with different AAPI business to support this month (and always).

With the planning, we defer to our AAPI ERG and we work together with them to create programming based on what they want. The last thing we would want to do is assume that the programming our AAPI colleagues would want.

I feel the best way to be authentic in celebrating these DEI moments is to listen. In my role, I get to work closely with all ERGs to create company wide, and sometimes just ERG specific, programming. What I think would be good, is not always what is wanted or needed form the group I'm supporting, so just sitting back and listening is incredibly impactful. As a white woman, I feel it is important that rather than speaking for a group, I hold up the metaphorical microphone so that their voices can be amplified. And then, I can work my employee experience magic and make these ideas come to life!

During AAPI Heritage month, we celebrate the countless contributions our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) colleagues have made to our nation. Join us in honoring the heritage of our AAPI colleagues right here at Luna Park.

Boen Jiang - He/Him

Role: Director of Product Design. Heritage: Chinese/China/East Asian. First generation immigrant.

In what way do you personally celebrate or honor your heritage? 

Although my mother and I rarely get to celebrate together, when we do we always connect over food. Pancit, fresh Lumpia, and don't get me started on the Chicken Adobo.

What is your favorite memory of a time you were able to honor or celebrate your heritage?

My favorite memory is seeing my mom spend time with one of her Filipina friends Betty. The filipino community is quite small in northeast Ohio. So seeing her connect and share similar experiences from their country is something that I'll never forget.