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Quiz Your Family on AAPI History Trivia for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

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May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and whether your family is of Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native Hawaiian descent or not, it’s a great reminder to learn more about America’s rich and diverse AAPI history.

If you or your kids haven’t learned a whole lot of Asian American history in school or the media, you may not realize how long and involved that history is. Over the past few centuries (yes, centuries!), Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been making huge contributions to America’s arts and culture, economy, politics, athletics, scientific fields, and more.

Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with our AAPI History Trivia Quiz for Families!

Use the following Asian Pacific American Heritage Month trivia questions and answers to test your true knowledge of American history, but also as a guide to what you could research more together — during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and beyond!

As a bonus, read about how AAPI history impacts our daily lives, the incredible diversity that exists within the label “Asian,” and how to talk to your kids about Japanese internment camps.

1) Hawaii is home to the country’s highest percentage of Asian Americans, Pacific Islander Americans, and multiracial Americans compared to any other state. In what year did Hawaii become a U.S. state?

2) The first large-scale immigration of Asians to the continental U.S. was when hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers arrived during the California Gold Rush (1848-1855). However, well before the Gold Rush, a smaller population of which ethnicity became the very first settlers in mainland Asian American history?

3) What age was actor and singer Auli‘i Cravalho when she voiced Disney’s Moana?

4) In 1948, Vicki Draves and Sammy Lee became the first Asian Americans to win Olympic gold medals for the United States. What was their sport?

5) Which of the following is NOT a U.S. territory in the Pacific?

6) Ang Lee, who is Taiwanese American, is known as the first non-white filmmaker to win an Oscar for directing. Which of these movies was NOT directed by Ang Lee?

7) There are over 300,000 Hmong people living in the United States. Hmong is an indigenous ethnicity originating from Southeast Asia. Besides California, which U.S. state has the largest Hmong American population?

8) Who was the first Asian American in history to appear on U.S. currency?

9) A more recent figure in AAPI history, Kamala Harris has been lauded as the first woman, first Black American, and first South Asian American to be elected Vice President of the United States. What is her actual ethnic identity?

10) In a disturbing chapter of Asian American history, about 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast were imprisoned in relocation camps in remote desert areas during World War II, simply for having Japanese or part-Japanese ethnicity. What fraction of Japanese heritage required people to report to the authorities to be relocated?

Joanna Eng is a staff writer and digital content specialist at ParentsTogether. She lives with her wife and two kids in New York, where she loves to hike, try new foods, and check out way too many books from the library.