May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Throughout the month, Broadway Stages will feature and celebrate exceptional people, businesses, and organizations of Asian and Pacific Island heritage. We invite you to join us in recognizing their accomplishments and contributions!

Almost everyone in the world knows about Chinatown in Manhattan. But did you know New York City contains by far the highest ethnic Chinese population of any individual city outside Asia? In 2020, approximately 9% of New York City’s population was of Chinese ethnicity. And about 80% of Chinese New Yorkers lived in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn alone.

And did you know that  15% (about 13,000 people) of Woodside, Queens’ population are Filipino Americans? In fact, Asian Americans are the city’s fastest-growing voting bloc at about 13%.

Throughout the United States, communities gather to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI) during the month of May. Formal recognition for the contributions of the AAPI community began in 1977 when the U.S. Congress (spearheaded by Representative Frank Horton of New York and Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii) chose the first ten days of May to commemorate the history and positive impact of Asian American communities here in the U.S. But it wasn’t until 1992 that President George H. W. Bush designated May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. 

The month of May was chosen for two reasons. First, to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States, a young fisherman named Manjiro, who arrived on May 7, 1843. Second, it marks the anniversary of the transcontinental railroad’s completion on May 10, 1869. Most workers on the transcontinental railroad were Chinese immigrants who laid the tracks and were responsible for most of the dangerous and heavy manual labor tasks.

Broadway Stages sincerely appreciates and recognizes the ongoing impact made by those of Asian and Pacific Island heritage, and we look forward to sharing the stories, accomplishments and immense cultural impact they have made, and continue to make, in New York and across the nation.