Chandavkl's Menuism Blog

Nowadays we take it for granted that May is Asian Pacific Heritage Month in the United States.  Netflix and all the television streaming services have their special selection of Asian American programming, and reminders of the celebratory nature of the month are everywhere.  But in the beginning, there was only an Asian Pacific American Heritage WEEK, and since this was a new event that nobody had ever heard of, I was grabbed to give the keynote speech at the very first commemoration of the occasion in Los Angeles Chinatown at the Golden Dragon Restaurant on August 9, 1979.   Recently, I found my hand drafted copy of my speech (this before home computers were invented and years before anybody would hear of the Internet (which used to be capitalized)).  So I thought this would be a good time to add that presentation to today's internet.     It’s a pleasure being part of this gathering commemorating Asian Pacific American Heritage Week.   I though...

 Based on presentation to the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California.   I am David R. Chan and it’s a pleasure being back to give another monthly presentation to the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California.    Now if you don’t remember my last presentation I don’t mind, since that was in 1980 when I gave an in-person presentation at the Castelar Street school meeting room entitled “A Post Card View of Chinatown,” showing old historic postcards of Los Angeles and other Chinatowns.      I am one of the charter members of CHSSC from 1975, in fact member number 8, previously served on the society’s the Society Board of Directors.   Also for several years I represented CHSSC in numerous public appearances on historical and contemporary aspects of Chinese Americans, including on CBS 2 television, then known as KNXT.     I also gave the keynote speech at the very first Asian Pacific American Heritage Week commemorati...