Search the Media Repository
Discover the curated images, videos, and primary sources featured throughout Foundations and Futures
History is more than just text on a page; it is the photographs, voices, and artifacts of the people who lived it. The images and recordings featured across Foundations and Futures are part of a meticulously curated media repository. Whether you are building a lesson plan or investigating an artifact, you can use this database to trace the provenance of our media: discover who created an asset, the historical context behind it, and how it can be used to bring Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences into your classroom.
Multimedia
Chapters
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DJ Q-Bert
DJ Q-Bert at the Nuits Sonores festival (Lyon, France) in May 2006. The rise of hip hop in the Philippines paralleled and accelerated its popularity in Filipino communities back in the States.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 5
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Japanese Breakfast
Michelle Zauner, AKA Japanese Breakfast, at the Day In Day Out Festival in Seattle Washington, August 2022.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 5
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Video
“Dynamite”
“Dynamite,” the first all-English song recorded by Korean band BTS, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2020. A massive global phenomenon transcending music, BTS’s cultural influence has been compared to that of the Beatles.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 5
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Video
“Gangnam Style”
Comedy rapper Park Jae-sang, better known as PSY, with his viral mega-hit “Gangnam Style”—the first video on YouTube to reach one billion views.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 5
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Far East Movement
Far East Movement at the 2011 MuchMusic Video Awards. The all-Asian American hip hop / electronic dance group pushed Bruno Mars out of the top spot on the Billboard charts, marking the first and still the only time in history that Asian American acts occupied the two top spots.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 5
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Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars performing live during his 24K Magic World Tour. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that an Asian American performer would find superstardom in pop music—though many didn’t know about his Filipino American roots.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 5
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Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda and Joe Hahn
Linkin Park performing at the O2 Arena, London, during their 2024 Zero World Tour. The group includes Japanese American rapper Mike Shinoda (center), and Korean American DJ Joe Hahn (right).
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 5
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Video
Fanny: The Right To Rock Clip
In this clip from “Right to Rock,” B-52s vocalist Kate Pierson explains how the band Fanny influenced her as a female musician. In 1970, the rock-funk group co-founded by the Filipino American Millington sisters, June (guitar and lead vocals) and Jean—became the first all-woman group to release an album on a major label.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 5
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Video
The Kim Sisters
Music pioneers the Kim Sisters, actually composed of two sisters, Sook-ja (Sue) and Ai-ja (Aija), and their cousin Min-ja (Mia), performing on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. They were “discovered” while playing US military clubs after the Korean War.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 5
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Larry Ching
Larry Ching, billed as the “Chinese Frank Sinatra,” performs at Charlie Low’s legendary San Francisco nightclub Forbidden City, c.1942, part of the “Chop Suey Circuit” in the 1940s and 1950s.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 5
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Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach Performance
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, Bourrée I and II.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 4
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Yo-Yo Ma Performs
Perhaps the best-known classical musician of his generation, cellist Yo-Yo Ma was born in France to Chinese immigrant parents who moved to Boston when he was seven. In his legendary career, he has recorded 120 albums and received nineteen Grammy Awards.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 4
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Debut by Sarah Chang
Violinist Sarah Chang was a child prodigy who released her first album at the age of nine. The first wave of Asian immigrants after the Hart-Cellar Act often brought with them the belief that Western classical music was aspirational.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 4
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A Grain Of Sand Album Cover
The cover of A Grain of Sand (1973), the first album of music by, for, and about Asian Americans.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 4
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Nobuko Miyamoto and Chris Iijima Perform
Nobuko Miyamoto (left) and Chris Iijima (right), the folk duo who, along with guitarist Charlie Chin, created what is often referenced as the first album of music by, for, and about Asian Americans: A Grain of Sand (1973).
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 4
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Video
“How are we still here??”
Sketch comedy creators Phil Wang and Wesley Chan of Wong Fu Productions center Asian American representation in their work, and have collectively amassed millions of followers and billions of views on YouTube.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 3
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Crazy Rich Asians Premiere
The stars of Crazy Rich Asians (2018) gather for its #GoldOpen premiere. Asian communities joined together to buy out screenings of the film, helping it to a $25 million first-place opening weekend and a $239 million global box office.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 2
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“The Road To Crazy Rich Asians” Page 4
Page 4 of The Road to Crazy Rich Asians from the book RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now, by Jeff Yang, Phil Yu and Philip Wang. Comic by Jon M. Chu, as told to Jeff Yang.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 3
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“The Road To Crazy Rich Asians” Page 3
Page 3 of The Road to Crazy Rich Asians from the book RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now, by Jeff Yang, Phil Yu and Philip Wang. Comic by Jon M. Chu, as told to Jeff Yang.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 3
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“The Road To Crazy Rich Asians” Page 2
Page 2 of The Road to Crazy Rich Asians from the book RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now, by Jeff Yang, Phil Yu and Philip Wang. Comic by Jon M. Chu, as told to Jeff Yang.
Featured in:
Asian American Popular Culture, Module 3
