AANHPI Month -- May 2025

What is AANHPI Heritage Month?

In 1977 Reps. Frank Horton of New York introduced House Joint Resolution 540 to proclaim the first ten days in May as Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week. In the same year, Senator Daniel Inouye introduced a similar resolution, Senate Joint Resolution 72. Neither of these resolutions passed, so in June 1978, Rep. Horton introduced House Joint Resolution 1007. This joint resolution was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 5, 1978. During the next decade, presidents passed annual proclamations for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week until 1990 when Congress passed Public Law 101-283 (link to PDF, 166 kb), which expanded the observance to a month for 1990. Then in 1992, Congress passed Public Law 102-450 (link to PDF, 285kb), which annually designated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. 

• Proclamation No. 10377, 87 Fed. Reg. 26,653 (Apr. 29, 2022)

  President Biden's proclamation for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Are you a CBC student or employee? Do you identify as AANHPI? We want to feature you in our May display!

For more information, take a look at this form.

Helpful Terms

There are a number of terms that are used to denote Asian and Pacific Islander populations, including Asian Pacific American (APA), Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APID/A), and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI). We use the term AANHPI, which stands for Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander, as a pan-ethnic classification. There is a great diversity of identities and ethnicities encompassed under the AANHPI umbrella, including East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander.

Cacahuate, amendments by Peter Fitzgerald, Globe-trotter, Joelf, and Texugo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

• East Asians refer to people from China (including Macau and Hong Kong), Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan, and Mongolia.
• South Asians refer to people from the following countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Ethnic groups include Sindhi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, and many others.
• Southeast Asians refer to people from the following countries and ethnic groups: Burma, Brunei, Cambodia (Khmer, Cham, KhmerLoeu), Indonesia, Laos (Hmong, Lao, Lao Loum, Iu Mien, Khmu, Tai Dam, Tai Leu, and many other ethnic groups), Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Philippines, and Vietnam (Vietnamese, Khmer Kampuchea Krom, Montagnards).
• Pacific Islanders refer to those whose origins are the original peoples of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Polynesia includes Hawaii (Native Hawaiian), Samoa and American Samoa (Samoan), Tokelau (Tokelauan), Tahiti (Tahitian), and Tonga (Tongan). Micronesia includes Guam (Guamanian or Chamorro), Mariana Islands (Mariana Islander), Saipan (Saipanese), Palau (Palauan), Yap (Yapanese), Chuuk (Chuukese), Pohnpei (Pohnpeian), Kosrae (Kosraean), Marshall Islands (Marshallese), and Kiribati (I-Kiribat). Melanesia includes Fiji (Fijian), Papua New Guinea (Papua New Guinean), Solomon Islands (Solomon Islander), and Vanuatu (Ni-Vanuatu).

SOURCES: SEARAC: Southeast Asian American Statistical Profile, 2010; Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC); Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence: Census Data & API Identities