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Asian Pacific American Heritage Month for Kids
Did you know you see Asian-American heritage in action every
day?
by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, AAV Contributing Editor
her*i*tage (her-i-tij)
n.: 1. property that may be or has
been inherited. 2. value or traditions passed
from earlier generations.
Imagine this day:
You are sound asleep in bed and
suddenly you are woken up by an earthquake. Your mommy tells you
it was 7. 0 on the Richter scale and that the epicenter was on the
other side of town. You get dressed in a cotton T-shirt and blue
jeans. You tie your hair back with a bandana. And put on a pearl
necklace that your grandmother gave you. You go down to breakfast
and have oatmeal with brown sugar sprinkled on top and a glass of
orange juice. You ride your horse to school. You put your feet in
the stirrups and use your compass to find your way.
Today, you have chess class before
school. At school, you read a new book, Horrible Harry and the
Green Slime, and write in your journal. In math, you learn to
add with zeros. At choice time, you work on the computer. You play
a new software by putting in a CD-ROM. In art class, you make
tie-dye T-shirts. At recess, you play yo-yo or cat’s cradle with
your friends. You play rock-paper-scissors to see who goes first.
At lunch, it is raining, so you stay inside and play Chutes and
Ladders or Parcheesi.
After school, your mommy picks you
up and takes you with her to the polling booth because it’s
election day and she has to vote. It’s still raining, so you use
your umbrella when you get out of the car. When you get home, you
start to play Nintendo or Game Boy, but your mommy says that you
have to do your homework first, of course. After homework, you go
out to the park to fly your kite. Afterwards you might watch
Jackie Chan Adventures or Sailor Moon cartoons
on TV. You help your mommy and daddy push the wheelbarrow as they
work in the garden. Then you have dinner: Teriyaki Burgers and
pineapple juice. Mommy makes a cherry pie for dessert, your
favorite.
Then you go to soccer practice.
After soccer practice, you have martial arts class. After martial
arts class, you have hula dancing lessons. After your lessons are
all finished, it’s just starting to get dark—did I mention that
it’s the Fourth of July?—so your family goes out to watch
fireworks. Afterwards, you go home, take a bath, shampoo your
hair, and put on your favorite Hello Kitty pajamas. You ask to
watch your Mulan DVD, but instead, Daddy reads you
Cinderella for your bedtime story.
Wow, what a day! But without
the contributions of Asia and Asian Americans, none of this would
be possible. It would be a very different
world.
Why?
Because one of the very coolest
things about America is that America is a nation of immigrants.
Except for Native Americans, everyone who lives here is has
families that started somewhere else. Some came 200 years ago,
some 100 years ago, some 30 years ago, some 5 years ago, and some
yesterday. It does not matter how long ago one’s family
came. By living and working in America, we are all making America
what it is. Furthermore, American culture is a mixture of
all the different cultures and customs of people that have come
over the years. All the pieces of American culture, like its
people, have roots somewhere else; and all of America’s history
has been made by people who either came or whose family came from
all around the world.
Asian Pacific American Heritage
Month is a time to celebrate the contributions of Asian Pacific
Americans to America’s history and culture, and the links we all
have to Asia and the Pacific. Here are just some of the many
cool people and things in America that you maybe didn't even know
were part of our Asian-American heritage. There are lots of other
things you might see and do everyday. Can you think of more
to add to our list, too?
E-mail us!
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Pop Quiz!
"Yo-Yo" is
 A) What friends of the
great Chinese-American cello player Mr. Ma call
him?
B) A fun
spinning toy on a string that began in the Philippines and was
used as a weapon
C)
All of the above!
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Famous Asian
Pacific Americans
- Apolo Ohno: Olympic Gold &
Silver Medalist, speed skating
- Angela Perez Baraquio: First
Asian American Miss America 2001
- Bruce Lee: Martial Artist and
Actor
- Sarah Chang: Violinist
- Norman Mineta: US Secretary of
Transportation; formerly mayor of San Jose, US Congressman, and
US Secretary of Commerce
- Elaine Chao: US Secretary of
Labor
- Gary Locke: Governor of
Washington State
- Dr. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar:
Nobel Prize winner, evolution of stars, led to modern
astrophysics
- Ellison Onizuka:
Astronaut
- Kalpana Chawla: Astronaut,
first Indian American woman in space
- Jerry Yang: Yahoo!
Founder
- Dr. David Ho, MD: Medical
researcher and 1996 Time Man of the Year
- Kristi Yamaguchi: Olympic Gold
Medalist, figure skating
- Tiger Woods: Golf Pro
- Michael Chang: Tennis
Pro
- Benny Agbayani: Baseball
Player, Colorado Rockies
- Akebono (Chad Rowan): Sumo
Wrestler (retired)
- Betty Ong: Flight Attendant who
called authorities from American Airlines 11 on 9/11
- Dustin Nguyen: Actor
- Tia Carerre: Actor
- Dean Cain: Actor
- Michelle Kwan: Olympic Silver
and Bronze medalist, Figure skating
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Japan's Hello
Kitty plays in the
Cinderella story, which was told in
China long ago |
Fun
Stuff We Do
- Story of Cinderella:
China
- Chutes and Ladders: Originally
a Hindu religious game
- Parcheesi: India 1500’s
- Kite: China c. 1 AD
(popularized in US in 1876)
- Chess: India c. 550 AD
- Hello Kitty: Japan
- Surfing: Hawai'i, probably
combined from two Polynesian and Tahitian sports
- Cat’s Cradle: Southeast Asia
(imported to Europe 1600’s)
- Rock Scissors Paper:
Japan
- Martial Arts: Kung Fu, Tai Kwon
Do, Akido, Karate, Judo, Sumo
- Yoga: India
- Nintendo: Japan 1980’s
- Sailor Moon: Japan
- Soccer: China played a
"football" game like soccer over 2,300 years ago!
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Fortune
Cookies
Invented in Los Angeles
1918 |
Made in
America: Asian American Contributions
- 100th Infantry Battalion and
442nd Regimental Combat Team: all-Japanese American units, most
decorated units in World War II.
- Bing Cherries: Developed by Ah
Sit Bing in Oregon
- Frost-resistant Oranges:
Developed by Lue Gim Gong in Florida that helped build a great
citrus industry
- Wave Field at University of
Michigan: designed by Maya Lin (also Vietnam War
Memorial)
- Sagwa the Chinese
Siamese Cat: written by Amy Tan, a Chinese American
- Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame: designed by architect IM Pei
- Helped build the
Transcontinental Railroad 1865-1869
- Farming: developed Hawaii’s
sugar cane and pineapple plantations, drained the swamps in
California’s San Joaquin delta region and turned it into
farmland, farmed in the South after the Civil War
- "Manilamen developed shirimping
and fishing villages in Louisiana territory in 1763, introduced
sun-drying process for shrimp
- Mulan film: voices of
Ming-Na Wen, BD Wong, George Takei
- Hula: Native Hawaiian dance
form
- Computer Industry in Silicon
Valley
- Fought for their rights: US vs.
Wong Kim Ark 1898 grants US Citizenship for all children born in
the US
- Built communities in America
like Chinatown, Little India, Japan Town, Little Saigon
- Brought cultural festivals like
Cherry Blossom Festival, Lunar New Year, Obon Festival, Dragon
Boat Races, etc.
- Scooby-Doo and a lot of other famous cartoon dogs were
created by Iwao Takamoto, a Japanese American
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Compact
Disc (CD)
Japan 1982
Sony
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Imports and
Inventions
- Papermaking: China 105 AD (or
200 years earlier)
- Printing (Movable type): China
1045 AD (Gutenberg developed in Europe 300 years later)
- Gunpowder: China c. 800
AD
- Compass: China c. 300 AD
- Umbrella: China 386-532
AD
- Zero: China 400 BC
- Seismograph: China Han Dynasty
(invented in Europe 1500 years later)
- Wheelbarrow: China
- Stirrups: China
- Silk: China
- Tie-dying: India c. 600
AD
- Batik: Indonesia
- Pajamas: India
- Bandana: India
- Sony Walkman: Japan 1979
- Compact Disc (CD): Japan 1982
Sony
- CD-ROM: 1985 Sony
- DVD: Japan 1996 Sony
- Cultured Pearls: China c. 800
AD, Japan 1888 first pearl farm
- Cotton: India discovered and
cultivated 5000 BC, also developed calico, chintz, madras,
seersucker
- Paisley: India Kashmir
- Indigo dye for blue jeans:
India harvested since 4000 BC (Europe started importing
1300’s)
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2-in-1 set of color-in stickers /
tattoos (a Tahitian word!) with
characters from Pokemon (from Japan,
of course!)
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Borrowed Words
- Bangle: Hindi bangri
(Indian bracelets)
- Brainwashing: Chinese
hsi nao
- Bungalow: Bengali
bangla (Bengal)
- Orangutan/orang-outang:
Malay
- Tattoo: Tahiti
- Jungle: Sanskrit
- Catamaran: Tamil
- Loot and Dunagaree:
Hindi/Urdu
- Ketchup: Malay
koetsiap (seafood sauce)
- Shampoo: Hindi capo
capna (head massage)
- Compound: Malay
- Cheetah: Sanskrit
- Boondock:
Tagalog
- Taboo: Tonga
- Ukelele:
Polynesian
- Tycoon: Cantonese ta
kiun (great prince)
- Gung ho: Chinese
zhong guo gung yie hou tsou shi Chinese Industrial
Cooperatives Society. In 1942 US Marine Corps Lt. Col. Evans
Carlson turned gong "work" and ho "together" into
"work together"--Chinese words, but not really a Chinese
phrase.
For More
Information, Check Out These Readings
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