Hello AACP Newsletter Readers.

Happy Lei Day and Happy AAPI Heritage Month!

Since I’m very late (we’ve been really busy this spring), I’ll get right to describing this month’s newsletter.

For this month, we have an article, called “On Expelling the Foreigners: A Warning from Ancient China.” The title is pretty self-explanatory, but when you read this article, keep in mind that the times described took place over 2200 years ago.

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For our book selection, we’ve included 14 books for AAPI Heritage Month. Three of these books are collections of notable AAPIs (Incredible, We Are Golden, and Inspiring Asian Americans). We have three children’s books on notable Asian Americans - Cecilia Chiang, Ruth Asawa, and I. M. Pei (A Banquet for Cecilia, A Line Can Go Anywhere, and Mr. Pei’s Perfect Shapes). We’ve included the first book in a series of AAPI children’s history books called “Fighting to Belong.”  

Stanford History professor, Gordon Chang has a new book called “War, Race, and Culture: Journeys in Trans-Pacific and Asian American Histories.”

The New Yorker executive editor, Michael Luo, has written a new book called “Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America.” I can’t wait to get copies of these two books.

For the remainder of our AAPI Heritage book selection we have a book on Hawaii (Island World: A History of Hawai'i and the United States); a book on Korean American history in the Pacific Northwest (Han in the Upper Left: A Brief History of Korean Americans in the Pacific Northwest); TV writer Sara Saedi’s memoir (Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card); a book called “Southeast Asian Refugee Resettlement in the US”; and a book about a 1920s Korean American flight school in California's Central Valley (Korean American Pioneer Aviators: The Willows Airmen).

For the rest of this month’s books selection, we have language learning books on Taishanese, Cebuano Visayan, Marathi, Okinawan, Burmese, and Chamorro.

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Wow, there are a lot of events going on in May. Thank you to all of you that have informed us of these events.

On May 4, Oakland Ballet will premiere a one-of-a-kind ballet production, "Angel Island Project," inspired by the hundreds of poems Chinese detainees carved into the walls of their cramped quarters over a century ago. Set to original music composed by Huang Ruo, the oratorio is brought to life by Del Sol Quartet and Volti with conductor Dr. Wei Cheng. Dancers capture immigrant stories through work created by seven renowned AAPI choreographers, such as San Francisco Ballet Principal dancer Wei Wang, among others. The performance will take place at the Paramount Theater in Oakland at 3pm. Click here to learn more and to buy tickets.

Watch a YouTube video about this special Oakland Ballet Angel Island Project

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Thank you, Philip, for your article. It was very much appreciated.

Thanks to all of our editors, especially Mina, Susan, and Claire.

That’s all for now.

Hope to see you at some of our listed events.

Take care and best of health to you all.