{"id":478,"date":"2025-05-06T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/?p=478"},"modified":"2025-05-10T15:11:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T15:11:25","slug":"who-gets-to-be-represented-during-aapi-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/06\/who-gets-to-be-represented-during-aapi-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Who gets to be represented during AAPI Month?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

During Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, you can catch a <\/span>cultural heritage parade<\/span><\/a>, food festivals and many other community events happening throughout New York City. But take a closer look at these events, and you may notice a lack of representation from certain Asian cultures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First established in 1979 as a week-long commemoration of AAPI culture and people, the celebration expanded to the month of May in 1991 \u2014 since then, it continues to serve as a means of recognizing the contributions of AAPI individuals in the United States. Following the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent <\/span>\u201cStop Asian Hate\u201d movement<\/span><\/a>, there has been increased awareness of the unique struggles faced by Asian communities, along with a growing interest in Asian cultures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At NYU, many on-campus Asian cultural clubs are divided by ethnicity. For example, the Chinese Student Society or the Indian Cultural Club. The few umbrella organizations \u2014 like the Asian Cultural Union and Asian Heritage Month \u2014 may lack representation of South and Southeast Asian members on their executive boards and in the food and activities at their events.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, this isn\u2019t an issue that\u2019s unique to <\/span>New York City or NYU<\/span><\/a>, but instances like these represent a microcosm of a larger imbalance of representation for different Asian communities. Despite the term \u201cAAPI\u201d encompassing <\/span>all Asian and Pacific Islander identities<\/span><\/a> according to the Library of Congress, the word\u2019s connotation \u2014\u00a0along with much of the AAPI-themed programming in New York City and across the nation \u2014\u00a0skew heavily towards East Asian ethnicities.<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent years, the globalization of popular culture and food from countries like South Korea, China and Japan, like K-Pop, soup dumplings and anime, have created a mainstream perception of Asian culture as being exclusively East Asian. Southeast Asia, and to a further extent, Central and Southwest Asia and the Pacific Islands, are frequently left out of the conversation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Stern sophomore Meruyet Tailanova is an international student from Kazakhstan. She doesn\u2019t believe that her country, nor the broader region of Central Asia, receives any representation during AAPI Month and the celebrations it inspires.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you select what region you\u2019re from, there\u2019s never Central Asia,\u201d Tailanova, who recently founded NYU\u2019s <\/span>Central Asian Hub<\/span><\/a>, said. \u201cIt always feels weird, and I always say \u2018other\u2019 and mark my region.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Granted, not all Central Asian American individuals <\/span>identify as AAPI<\/span><\/a> \u2014 some identify themselves as Asian, while others do not. This illuminates one of many issues with the AAPI label, which is that it is mainly based on race and not geography. Therefore people from countries not represented under the term but who are racialized as Asian may identify with the term but lack official recognition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month, Bite Club at NYU held an event <\/span>showcasing different Asian cuisines<\/span><\/a> in collaboration with four clubs \u2014 Asian Heritage Month, Thai Student Association, International Filipino Association and Vietnamese Student Association \u2014 that was advertised as \u201ca taste of Asia\u201d and \u201ca vibrant celebration of Asian cultures.\u201d The vendors were primarily East Asian, with the exception of one <\/span>South Asian snack brand<\/span><\/a>. The event remains part of the larger cultural trend of labeling Asian cultural events as a celebration of the continent\u2019s peoples, even if they don\u2019t recognize its diversity beyond certain regions.<\/span><\/p>\n

CAS first-year Maya Kantimahanthu is Indian American \u2014 a group of <\/span>more than 5 million<\/span><\/a> in the United States \u2014 and said that it wasn\u2019t until the last few years that a wider range of Asian identities became more represented under the AAPI label.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of the celebrations that I see for AAPI Month are mostly dominated by more East Asian cultures than South Asian cultures,\u201d Kantimahanthu said. \u201cI feel like labeling things has become really important as a way of acknowledging our unique experiences, but it\u2019s also important to acknowledge our united identities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pacific Islanders, who make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, are frequently left out of spaces that purport to be for AAPI. For example, if you browse through the <\/span>New York Public Library\u2019s list of events<\/span><\/a> for AAPI Heritage Month, you won\u2019t find any standalone events specifically for Pacific Islanders.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another group of students to consider during AAPI Heritage Month are those who are ethnically Asian or Pacific Islander, but have been adopted by non-AAPI guardians. CAS first-year Joann Fetner was born in Vietnam but was adopted by a white American mom from the United States at the age of 1 and grew up in Australia. Fetner said that she often feels alienated from spaces dedicated to her ethnicity because she did not grow up involved in her Vietnamese culture or speaking the language.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t help the fact that I was adopted, but I\u2019m still Asian,\u201d Fetner said. \u201cI would be open to people teaching me about Vietnamese culture or having a community that would do that, but I feel like people wouldn\u2019t want to do that because they would judge me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders at NYU and across the country have a complex range of cultural and social experiences \u2014\u00a0all of which deserved to be represented, celebrated and taught during this month and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all part of this big Asian identity,\u201d Kantimahanthu said. \u201cBut I [still] think there\u2019s a lot of room to grow as far as adequately representing our unique identities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact Sherry Chen at culture@nyunews.com.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This story Who gets to be represented during AAPI Month?<\/a> appeared first on Washington Square News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, you can catch a cultural heritage parade, food festivals and many other community events happening throughout New York City. But take a closer look at these events, and you may notice a lack of representation from certain Asian cultures.\u00a0 First established in 1979 as a week-long commemoration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":481,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions\/481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.diamondstatemanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}