8th Annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration

The Asian Heritage Street Celebration

T he Asian Heritage Street Celebration is held every year on the third Saturday in May in San Francisco, California. The Asian Heritage Street Celebration (AHSC) is organized by the AsianWeek Foundation in cooperation with over 250 organizations in the Asian American community. The AsianWeek Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)3 committed to developing the Voices of Asian America and bringing together the community.

A celebration of all Asian and Pacific Islander cultures, the goal of the Street Celebration is to promote and foster Asian Pacific American identity by bringing together community and encouraging the sharing of differences and appreciation of diversity. In seven years, the AHSC has quickly become the country’s largest assemblage of APAs, drawing over 80,000 people annually.

The AHSC returns all proceeds to various Asian communities, including newer and underserved communities like the Cambodians and Samoans, as well as more established populations. The AHSC has donated more than $100,000 to over 70 Bay Area community groups and charities, who are selected for their role in assembling diverse elements within the Asian Pacific American community.

Fundraising for San Francisco public schools is another mission of the Celebration, which has created a raffle program with the goal of teaching children about community philanthropy at an early age. The AHSC provides prizes and administrative support for students and school groups to sell raffle tickets, and all proceeds are returned to participating schools.

The AHSC is the only outdoor event in the Bay Area to rotate its location each year, in order to showcase that APIs reside in all San Francisco neighborhoods. The first celebration highlighted the Japanese community in Japantown, the second showcased the Chinese on Irving Street in the Sunset District, the third year paid homage to the large Filipino community in the South of Market area, and the fourth returned to Japantown, and last year, the fair celebrated the Vietnamese American community in Little Saigon. This year and next, the fair will stay in Little Saigon.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

In June 1977, Representatives Frank Horton of New York and Norman Y. Mineta of California introduced a House resolution that called upon the President to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian/Pacific Heritage Week. The following month, senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both were passed. 

On October 5, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating the annual celebration. 

In May 1990, President George H. W. Bush designated the entire month of May to be Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the mainly Chinese built transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869.

In 2004, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued the first mayoral proclamation for Asian Pacific Heritage month.

This year the AsianWeek Foundation, working with more than 50 other community groups representing over 525,000 members and associates in the San Francisco area, have come together to produce the annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration. A celebration of all Asian cultures, the goal of the Asian Heritage Street Celebration is to promote and foster Asian Pacific American identity by bringing together community, and encouraging the sharing of differences and appreciation of diversity.

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