Growing Up Asian in America's 20th Anniversary Celebration

Growing Up Asian in America, or GUAA, Art, Essay and Video Contest hit a tremendous milestone in their history, this year, as they celebrated 20 years of encouraging young Asian Pacific Americans to take pride in their heritages and identities. Each year, GUAA receives thousands of submissions depicting the experiences, feelings and thoughts of young Asian Pacific Americans throughout our local and diverse Bay Area communities. See the winning art pieces of every year from 1997 through 2014 here.

There are many reoccurring and similar themes within the picture, essay, and video submissions that have spanned GUAA’s 20 years. Each theme brings up notions of identity, nationality, culture and heritage among Asian and Pacific Islander American youth. These themes include: flags, faces with dualities/binaries representing multicultural backgrounds, interlocked hands, food, music, cultural traditions and holidays, cultural gods, and so many more.

This year’s awards ceremony for the winners of the GUAA Art, Essay and Video Contest was held at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. NBC Bay Area’s own Janelle Wang and Lance Lew were the emcees of the celebratory ceremony. To see some of the highlights from the awards ceremony, click here.

As a part of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, GUAA winners were also invited to attend the Asian Pacific American Heritage Luncheon hosted by NBC Bay Area at the news station. At this luncheon, NBC Bay Area talent like Raj Mathai, Robert Handa, Mike Inouye and Vicky Nguyen met and spoke with the winners who had a chance to share the story of their art, essay, or video with the audience. The Asian Pacific American Heritage Luncheon also honored five Asian Pacific Americans honorees who received recognition and an achievement award for the tireless and life-changing work they have done in their communities.

To see photos of the winners of GUAA and coverage of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Lunch, please visit here.

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