Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

(Documentary, 24 minutes) Against the Grain looks at the complexities of coming out amongst women in the API (Asian Pacific Islander) community. Looking at women within Los Angeles County, the film seeks to understand the struggles that occur between parents and their daughters as they try to accept them for who they are.

(5 part series, 53-56 minutes each) Asian Americans is a five-hour film series that will chronicle the contributions, and challenges of Asian Americans, the fastest-growing ethnic group in America.

Stream award-winning and critically acclaimed films by Asian filmmakers on our Kanopy streaming service. Search other related terms to view more relevant videos in Kanopy.

(Documentary, 2 hours 40 minutes) Examine the origin, history and impact of the 1882 law that made it illegal for Chinese workers to come to America and for Chinese nationals already here ever to become U.S. citizens.

(Documentary, 1 hour 19 minutes) During the Second World War, while America was fighting the Japanese, a unit of second generation Japanese-Americans was fighting bravely on the European front. These sons of Japanese immigrants proved their courage and loyalty on the fiercest battlefields, as they fought to overcome the stigma of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

(Documentary, 1 hour 17 minutes) Imagine a world where a little boy can grow up to be the woman of his dreams, and a young girl can rise to become a leader among men. Welcome to Kumu Hina's Hawai'i. During a momentous year in her life in modern Honolulu, Hina Wong-Kalu, a native Hawaiian māhū, or transgender, teacher uses traditional culture to inspire a student to claim her place as leader of the school's all-male hula troupe. But despite her success as a teacher, Hina longs for love and a committed relationship. Will her marriage to a headstrong Tongan man fulfill her dreams? An incredible docu-drama that unfolds like a narrative film, KUMU HINA reveals a side of Hawai'i rarely seen on screen.

(Documentary, 54 minutes) Combining a poignant family story with the stigma of racism, this film gives insight into the Asian-American experience, including the trauma of internment.The latest film from Academy Award-nominated director Christine Choy tells the fascinating story of Larry and Trudie Long, a popular husband-and-wife nightclub act of the ‘40s and ‘50s. Narrated by their daughter, actress Jodi Long, the film traces the couple’s rise from the Chinatown nightclub circuit to a coveted appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

(Documentary, 58 minutes) This inspiring film chronicles Capt. Bruce Yamashita's fight against racial discrimination in the Marine Corps. A third-generation American of Japanese ancestry, he grew up in Hawaii and was a graduate of Georgetown law school, and a delegate to the Hawaii Constitutional Convention. In 1989 he joined the Marine Corps and sought to qualify as an officer. Bruce was subjected to humiliating slurs from the moment he entered officer's training.

(Documentary, 58 minutes) Nā Kamalei: The Men of Hula captures the journey of legendary master hula teacher Robert Cazimero and the only all-male hula school in Hawai'i as they prepare to compete in the world's largest hula festival.

(Documentary, 1 hour 25 minutes) One Voice is a documentary film that tells the story of the Kamehameha Schools Song Contest through the eyes of the student song directors. Every year in Hawai‘i, 2000 high school students compete in the Kamehameha Schools Song Contest where young leaders direct their peers in singing Hawaiian music in four-part harmony. The Contest is a unique cultural celebration that has become a major local event, broadcasted live on TV, played on the radio, and streamed on the Internet.

(Feature film, 1 hour 37 minutes) Saving Face is a 2004 American romantic comedy drama film directed by Alice Wu, her feature-length debut. The film focuses on Wilhelmina, a young Chinese-American surgeon; her unwed, pregnant mother; and her dancer girlfriend. It was the first Hollywood movie that centered on Chinese-Americans since The Joy Luck Club.

(Short, 35 minutes) Turbans is a lyrical short drama set in the lush, green Oregon of 1918. It explores the conflict within an Asian Indian immigrant family torn between cultural traditions and a strong desire for social acceptance. Based on the memoirs of the filmmaker's grandmother, Turbans illuminates issues of assimilation faced by all immigrants.

(Documentary, 1 hour 10 minutes) YOU DON’T KNOW JACK tells the fascinating story of pioneering American entertainer, Jack Soo, an Oakland native who became the first Asian American to be cast in the lead role of the television series Valentine’s Day (1963), before later starring in the popular comedy show Barney Miller (1975-1978). Featuring rare footage and interviews from Soo’s co-stars and friends, including actors George Takei, Nancy Kwan and Max Gail, comedians Steve Landesberg and Gary Austin, and producer Hal Kanter, the film traces Jack’s early beginnings as a nightclub singer and comedian, to his breakthrough role as Sammy Fong in Rogers and Hammerstein’s Broadway play and film version of The Flower Drum Song. The film also explores why Soo, a former internee who was actually born Goro Suzuki, was forced to change his name in the post WWII era, in order to perform in clubs in the mid-west.

Access thousands of materials ranging from ebooks to audio clips, videos to pamphlets focused on Asian Americans' history and culture via the Internet Archive.

Credo Reference encyclopedic entries concerning Asian Americans. Includes broad, introductory information, images, links to other relevant resources, and keyword concept map tools.

Credo Reference encyclopedic entries concerning Pacific Islander Americans. Includes broad, introductory information, images, links to other relevant resources, and keyword concept map tools.

Access hundreds of materials ranging from ebooks to audio clips, videos to pamphlets focused on Pacific Islander Americans' history and culture via the Internet Archive.

Explore an extensive range of archival material connected to the trading and cultural relationships that emerged between China, America and the Pacific region between the 18th and early 20th centuries. Manuscript sources, rare printed texts, visual images, objects and maps document this fascinating history.

Spanning three centuries (c1750-1929), this resource makes available for the first time extremely rare pamphlets from Cornell University Library’s Charles W. Wason Collection on East Asia. The resource is full-text searchable, allowing for the collection to be comprehensively explored and studied. In addition, China: Culture and Society features a host of secondary resources, including scholarly essays, an interactive chronology, mini guides, and editors’ choices from the collection.

Sources from the School of Oriental and African Studies and the British Library, London: 1793-1980. With documents encompassing events from the earliest English embassy to the birth and early years of the People’s Republic, this resource collects sources from nine archives to give an incredible insight into the changes in China during this period.

Explore the history of South Asia between the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 and the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947, through the wonderfully rich and diverse manuscript collections of the National Library of Scotland.

Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925) was a great polymath – notable for his work in natural history, ethnography and art history – but, perhaps most famous for his work in bringing Japan and the West closer together. Morse was one of the first Americans to live in Japan. He went there on a scientific expedition in 1877 and his enthusiasm and approach so impressed his hosts that he was made Chair of Zoology at the new Imperial University of Tokyo. But his interests were never limited to evolutionary theory and scientific methodology – in 1882 he turned his attention to ethnology and the documentation of life in Japan before it was transformed by Western modernization. In addition to preserving the household records of a samurai family and many accounts of the tea ceremony, Morse made notes on subjects as diverse as shop signs, fireworks, hairpins, agricultural tools, artists’ studios, music, games, printing, carpentry, the Ainu, gardens, household construction, art and architecture. An accomplished draughtsman, his pencil and ink drawings, enliven his diaries and correspondence and make his papers a pleasure to read.