Netflix Launches Asian American and Pacific Islander Hub, National Campaign for AAPI Heritage Month (EXCLUSIVE)

Elaine Low
·2 min read
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To highlight its Asian American and Pacific Islander creators and talent during AAPI Heritage Month, Netflix is launching a hub on the service dedicated to AAPI content, as well as a national ad campaign.

The company joins other streaming services in spotlighting its AAPI shows and movies — HBO Max and Hulu are just two other streamers that debuted a dedicated collection of content featuring Asian Americans on screen.

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Netflix’s Celebrate Asian American & Pacific Islander Stories collection includes series, films and specials starring AAPI talent, including “Kim’s Convenience,” “Always Be My Maybe,” the “To All the Boys” franchise, and “Never Have I Ever.” There are also specific breakdowns for AAPI behind-the-camera talent, AAPI stories for families, Asian comedy icons, Asian and Pacific Islander Hollywood stars, and culture and food across Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Netflix also released a minute-long video campaign featuring Daniel Dae Kim, Ashley Park, Ramona Young, Lana Condor, Justin H. Min, Ronny Chieng, Tan France, Jimmy O. Yang, Leah Lewis, Jessie Mei Li, Jo Koy and Punam Patel. France, Condor, Koy, Margaret Cho, Naomi Osaka and Ken Jeong will additionally be featured on billboards across the country, from Los Angeles to New York to San Francisco to DC this month, accompanied by personal quotes from each of them.

“Showing just one of us isn’t diversity,” reads the billboard featuring “Queer Eye’s” France.

As part of the campaign, Netflix is partnering with non-profit Act to Change to sponsor the third annual national AAPI Day Against Bullying and Hate on May 18. Park, Momona Tamada and other talent will be featured at the event.

In a blog post published Monday, Netflix documentary and indie film head Lisa Nishimura recalls the challenges of growing up Asian American.

“I think for the few other Asians and Asian Americans in my school, I could feel us all trying to figure out how best to be accepted by the majority white world around us,” she wrote, adding that her youth was marked by little on-screen representation of Asians in the media.

“In the classroom, Asians were contextualized primarily as wartime opposition, and never as contributors to the fabric of this country,” wrote Nishimura. “As such, my classmates and I longed not to be seen as the “other”, so I’m ashamed now to admit that we didn’t band together. Instead, I believe we may have distanced from one another in an attempt to somehow dilute our Asian-ness.

She hopes Netflix’s campaign will “inspire more storytellers to define their stories on their terms.”

Watch the video spot below:

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