Why Belmont Celebrates AAPI Heritage?
Belmont, MA is known as the “Town of Homes.” Now this close-knit community of about 26,000 residents embraces a diverse population, including about 4,500 (17.2%) Asian Belmontonians. We are a group of volunteers coming from Belmont’s Asian residents. In April 2021, in the face of the rise of anti-Asian hate incidents nationwide, we organized a series of activities across Belmont to honor the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Heritage Month, as we yearn to reaffirm communal solidarity and make our voices heard.
Our 2021 events include donating 200 AAPI books to Belmont Public Schools, displaying AAPI-themed posters at all Belmont schools, and fundraising by distributing specially designed bookmarks that showcase a curated list of 119 AAPI books for different age groups. Our successful fundraising enabled us to establish the Belmont Celebrates AAPI Heritage Fund in May of 2021 for supporting similar activities in Belmont in the future.
Our mission is to organize and promote activities that celebrate the AAPI Heritage Month each May in Belmont. Our events are joyful get-togethers to celebrate what we value in life - from AAPI cultural heritages to family, friends, athleticism, innovation, and so much more. Through our events, we aim to celebrate the history, contributions, and achievements of AAPI people, as well as to advance the safety, inclusion, and sense of belonging of the AAPI community in Belmont. Moreover, our events will help promote mutual understanding across diverse cultures and develop the next generation of global citizens. We envision that Belmont Celebrates AAPI Heritage will soon become a beloved Belmont tradition to bring together Belmont’s AAPI communities and all who call Belmont home. We welcome you to join us!
Our 2021 events include donating 200 AAPI books to Belmont Public Schools, displaying AAPI-themed posters at all Belmont schools, and fundraising by distributing specially designed bookmarks that showcase a curated list of 119 AAPI books for different age groups. Our successful fundraising enabled us to establish the Belmont Celebrates AAPI Heritage Fund in May of 2021 for supporting similar activities in Belmont in the future.
Our mission is to organize and promote activities that celebrate the AAPI Heritage Month each May in Belmont. Our events are joyful get-togethers to celebrate what we value in life - from AAPI cultural heritages to family, friends, athleticism, innovation, and so much more. Through our events, we aim to celebrate the history, contributions, and achievements of AAPI people, as well as to advance the safety, inclusion, and sense of belonging of the AAPI community in Belmont. Moreover, our events will help promote mutual understanding across diverse cultures and develop the next generation of global citizens. We envision that Belmont Celebrates AAPI Heritage will soon become a beloved Belmont tradition to bring together Belmont’s AAPI communities and all who call Belmont home. We welcome you to join us!
2022 Event Highlights
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Fundraising for AAPI Heritage Fund by Belmont athletes
Monday, April 18 Congratulations! Our athletes crossed the finish line at the 126th Boston Marathon. They run their race to support the Belmont Celebrates AAPI Heritage Fund. We're so proud of them! Lixin Qin 3:14:24 Yi Zhang 3:41:46 Cheng Zhong 2:55:39 Update: Total fund raised as of 6/1/2022 - $5,694 For Ms. Zhang and Mr. Qin, this was their first Boston Marathon. Please check out their fundraising pages and congratulate them! |
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Virtual Celebration with the producers of documentary film Far East Deep South
Friday, April 29 Co-organized by the Belmont Celebrates AAPI Heritage and the Chinese American Association of Lexington (CAAL) and co-sponsored by 18 organizations, the screenings and the live Q&A session of the AAPI documentary "Far East Deep South'' was a resounding success. Both events were well-attended and well-received. We have over 400 participants in total attending either the virtual or four in-person screenings. There were over 1,200 views (and counting) of the recording of the Q&A session. In addition, we have received great feedback from the students, parents, and other community members. For a replay of the Q&A session, please click either one of the links below: BCAA YouTube live or BARTV YouTube Live For more details about these events, please click here. This project was funded in part by a grant from the Belmont Cultural Council (BCC), a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. |
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Inaugural AAPI 5K Run ‘n’ Walk
Sunday, May 1 Congratulations to the winners and every runner and walker who participated in the inaugural AAPI 5K Run ‘n’ Walk! You were amazing! Race Results Thank you for supporting the AAPI community in Belmont and the Belmont Celebrates AAPI Heritage Fund. The 5K kicked off the AAPI Heritage Month celebrations, and we are off to a good start! The AAPI 5K Run 'n' Walk is organized by the Belmont Chinese American Association (BCAA) and sponsored by local businesses. |
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Belmont Public Library Seminars
Tuesday, May 3 & Wednesday, May 11 In honor of the AAPI Heritage Month, Belmont Public Library will host two virtual seminars this May. The first seminar is at 7:00 PM EDT, MAY 3 by Professor Vicente “Vince” Diaz. He will share how Indigenous canoes and waterways among Dakota and immigrant Pacific Islanders prove to be crucial site of Indigenous political, cultural, and intellectual resurgence for the 21st century. Please sign up here. The second seminar is at 7:00 pm EDT Wednesday, May 11. The Chinese- American author Robin Yuan will speak on his book Red Bishop, the story of his grandfather Robin Chen, the last presiding bishop of the Anglican Church in China. See event description and register here. |
AAPI Cooking Class and a Classic Movie
Friday, May 20
The Beech Street Center is hosting two exciting events to celebrate the AAPI Heritage Month!
AAPI Cooking Class with Roberta Hing, 11 - 1 p.m.
The class includes dishes from three different countries. We’ll start with fresh Vietnamese spring rolls - healthy and delicious - and an addictive dipping sauce for them. Next, we’ll make classic Chinese dumplings - a symbolic food in Chinese culture. Finally, we’ll make a refreshing Thai mango ice cream - so simple and decadent. At the end of class, we’ll enjoy our creations. Cost: $25.
Feature Film: The Joy Luck Club, 1 p.m.
The Joy Luck Club is a 1993 drama film about four older women, all Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco, who meet regularly to play mahjong, eat, and tell stories. Each of these women has an adult Chinese-American daughter. The film reveals the hidden pasts of the older women and their daughters and how their lives are shaped by the clash of Chinese and American cultures as they strive to understand their family bonds and one another. Cost: Free.
Please call 617-993-2970 or go to Myrec to register.
Friday, May 20
The Beech Street Center is hosting two exciting events to celebrate the AAPI Heritage Month!
AAPI Cooking Class with Roberta Hing, 11 - 1 p.m.
The class includes dishes from three different countries. We’ll start with fresh Vietnamese spring rolls - healthy and delicious - and an addictive dipping sauce for them. Next, we’ll make classic Chinese dumplings - a symbolic food in Chinese culture. Finally, we’ll make a refreshing Thai mango ice cream - so simple and decadent. At the end of class, we’ll enjoy our creations. Cost: $25.
Feature Film: The Joy Luck Club, 1 p.m.
The Joy Luck Club is a 1993 drama film about four older women, all Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco, who meet regularly to play mahjong, eat, and tell stories. Each of these women has an adult Chinese-American daughter. The film reveals the hidden pasts of the older women and their daughters and how their lives are shaped by the clash of Chinese and American cultures as they strive to understand their family bonds and one another. Cost: Free.
Please call 617-993-2970 or go to Myrec to register.
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Asian Culture Night
Friday, May 20 The Belmont Celebrates AAPI Heritage Fund is one of the proud sponsors of this year's Asian Culture Night organized by the Belmont High School Asian American Club (BHS AAC). This is one of the club's most engaging activities of the year, showing younger generations that Belmont is a place where we value diversity, embrace our heritage, and celebrate each other. All profits this year are to be donated to UNICEF. |
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AAPI Book donation and the guest reader program
May, 2022 The Belmont Celebrates AAPI Heritage made a donation of 140 AAPI books to the Belmont Public Schools (BPS). For the 4 elementary schools, 8 copies of 10 biography books of inspiring AAPI figures, selected by our volunteers, were donated to school libraries and are being used to support the guest reader program. For the high school, 5 copies of 12 books, selected based on the recommendations of the BPS teachers and administrators, were donated to diversify the English language arts curriculum by following the Belmont Diversity Task Force guideline. What is new this year is our guest reader program. With the help from the school and the district, our Winn Brook Asian-American parent volunteers have carefully chosen 10 biography books that showcase the incredible work done by many AAPI role models in America. Both Asian and non-Asian heritage parents are encouraged to read these books to the students as guest readers during the library time. This program was later rolled out successfully in other three elementary schools. Students are excited to learn about inspiring AAPI figures and their contributions. The AAPI book guest reader program during the AAPI Heritage Month has officially brought the parent reader activity that has been canceled for over two years due to the global pandemic back to our elementary schools. |
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AAPI-themed poster exhibits
May, 2022 Congratulations to the AAPI poster design contest winners Vince Huang, Alex He, Emily He, and Annie Liu! 2022 AAPI posters 2021 AAPI posters Schedule of the AAPI poster exhibits: Week of 5/1 - Wellington Elementary Week of 5/8 - Winn Brook Elementary Week of 5/15 - Burbank Elementary Week of 5/22 - Butler Elementary Weeks of 5/1 and 5/8 - Belmont High School Weeks of 5/15 and 5/22 - Chenery Middle School Eight AAPI-themed posters designed by the Belmont High School Asian American Club (BHS AAC) students were displayed at all six of Belmont’s public schools in May, 2021. These posters drew the attention of many students to the diverse history, cultures, and role models of Asian-American communities. In 2022, six more posters, including four that are designed by elementary school and lower middle school students through a poster design contest, and two new posters again by BHS AAC, are added to our collection. The funding of this project was provided by the Belmont Celebrates AAPI Heritage Fund. |
Banner photos by courtesy of Helen Zhang, David Hu, Ganesh Ramachandran, D. Young, Jane Guo, Sophie Wang, Xinxin Guo,
Guoliang Yu, and Yufei Xu. All images used with permission.
Copyright © 2021-2022 belmontcelebratesaapiheritage.org All rights reserved.
For questions, please contact belmontcelebratesaapiheritage@gmail.com.
Guoliang Yu, and Yufei Xu. All images used with permission.
Copyright © 2021-2022 belmontcelebratesaapiheritage.org All rights reserved.
For questions, please contact belmontcelebratesaapiheritage@gmail.com.