Although I regularly read AAPI authors and stories, I haven’t yet explored stories from all of the many, many AAPI communities out there — even all of the ones within my own Chinese American one. So this year, starting in May — AAPI Heritage Month — I decided to give myself an AAPI reading challenge, and to invite all the other curious readers out there to join me. Consider purchasing titles from an AAPI-owned bookstore. The owners will happily provide recommendations, too.
For a little while, we’ll get swept up into a world we’ve never visited — something curious readers value, even when it’s painful. After all, expanding our awareness of the human experience — the beautiful, the ugly, and everything in between — makes us better people. Because we’ll be reading two titles, we’ll begin to appreciate not only how AAPI communities are different from our own, but also how they are different from each other. Along with differences, we’ll recognize unexpected similarities between the characters’ lives and our lives — a good reminder that all of us have more in common than we may realize. We’ll support AAPI authors and stories.
Once we realize how rich and varied the greater AAPI community is, we’ll probably be inspired to read more stories from them. Of course, we won’t want to limit our reading to only AAPI books — there are too many compelling perspectives from other underrepresented groups to discover. That said, just because AAPI Heritage month is over, we don’t have to wait until next May to read more. We can continue the adventure all year long and in the years to come.
