Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is celebrated every May to honor the history, culture, and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. The first official AAPI celebration was from May 4-10, 1979. .In 1990, the celebration was extended to a full month, and in 1992, President George H. W. Bush signed a law to officially make May AAPI month. May was chosen because two important events happened during that month: the first event was that Japanese immigrants arrived in the US on May 7, 1843, and the second is that the Transcontinental Railroad was finished on May 10, 1869, with a lot of hard work done by Chinese immigrants.
Viewpoint has many fun activities planned and there are many prizes that you can win. One of the activities we have prepared is spicy ramen eating which has become a tradition on campus. The champion of the spicy ramen challenge will receive a Maruchan ramen bowl. The ramen bowl comes with not only the bowl but also a soup spoon, a chopstick holder, and chopsticks. Furthermore, there will be a chopstick challenge where each participant will have to use chopsticks to move food from one plate to the other as fast as they can. Another activity is trivia that will include questions about Asian American culture and history.
We will also be showcasing a traditional Filipino dance, called Tinikling. Tinikling originated from the Philippines during the Spanish occupation of the Philippines, which lasted from 1565 to 1898. It started because rice farmers would put up bamboo to scare away birds, but the “tikling” bird, officially called the Gallirallus philippensis, was able to avoid the traps. People would mock the bird’s movement, and it eventually evolved into Tinikling. Tinikling is the national dance of the Philippines, a folk dance that is considered the most popular in the Philippines. The dance has become so popular that it even became popular in the US, being mentioned in shows like “The Middle”. The dance is stepping between two moving bamboo sticks. Coach K, who began dancing to Tinikling at age 7, compares it to double dutch. Our journalism class got to try out Tinikling early. In our experience, Tinikling was a fun dance to do with friends. Personally, Brody thinks he crushed it (although, he also crushed Coach K’s finger).
It has been so much fun learning about the AAPI community and we hope to see you all celebrating on Friday.
