After an unusually productive and highly visible year in 2000-2001, AAAI had only been moderately active until AY 2003-2004, and virtually inactive since then—except for one co-sponsorship of a staged reading in 2007 of the play “Houseguest from Xiangjiang,” co-written by renowned author and playwright C.Y. Lee and Chorswan Ngin of Cal State LA’s Anthropology department.
Dr. Xing was appointed the new executive director in Spring 2017. With the new leadership, a number of activities were reactivated or initiated over the past year, which include:
- Convened a board meeting on November 15, 2017. Four of the six members, consisting of both community leaders, missed the meeting due to unexpected schedule conflicts;
- Sponsored two Asian and Asian American studies faculty members, Juily Phun and Jason Chiu, for the Chinese American Museum Annual Dinner event on September 14, 2017;
- Co-sponsored the stating of the play, “Houseguest from Xiangjiang” on campus on October 21 and 22, 2017;
- Organized two field-learning trips to the Chinese-American museum on February 9, and the Japanese American National Museum on February 16, 2017;
- In collaboration with International Programs, a service-learning seminar in China is being planned for Summer of 2018;
- A field-learning trip to the historic Filipino-town in Echo Park is planned for April 20, 2018;
- A public lecture on Korean Americans in Los Angeles is being planned, in co-sponsorship with the Center for Korean American and Korean Studies, for April 13, 2018;
- A public lecture by Dr. Lane Hirabayashi, Endowed chair in Japanese American Studies at UCLA, is being planned for Fall semester of 2018;
- To promote the institute’s visibility and activities, and AAAI website is in the process of being launched in the Spring semester of 2018;
- An international conference, in partnership with Beijing Language and Culture University, on the Asian American diaspora, is being planned.