Skip to Main Content

Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies

Resources to explore Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies. Take your time exploring and feel free to reach out with any questions!

Digital Collections

A list of digital collections of primary source materials, including oral histories, related to Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies.

UC Berkeley Library Databases

Ethnic Studies Library Digital Collections

The Ethnic Studies Library has a growing number of digital collections publicly accessible. In Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, we have the following digital collections available. 

Calisphere:

  • Chung Sai Yat Po Newspaper (1900-1905) - See issues of Chung Sai Yat Po from 1900-1905 on Calisphere. Additional years are available on microfilm at the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library and the UC Berkeley East Asian Library. 
  • Asian American Political Alliance Oral History Project - The mission of the Asian American Political Alliance Oral History Project is to document the history of the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) at UC Berkeley. AAPA was formed in 1968 and its two main chapters were at UC Berkeley, formed by Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee, and at San Francisco State College by Penny Nakatsu and others. AAPA was an anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, Third World political organization that fought for self-determination and liberation for Asian Americans and emphasized solidarity with Third World peoples in the United States and around the world. Ichioka and Gee were also the co-creators of the term “Asian American” which replaced the term “Oriental” and brought individuals of different Asian backgrounds under a pan-Asian identity for the first time. At both UC Berkeley and San Francisco State, AAPA was a major force in the Third World Liberation Front coalition which joined African American, Asian American, Chicanx, and Native American students in the struggle for Ethnic Studies. Individuals who were involved in AAPA were involved in other struggles for liberation and justice including the KDP, anti-Vietnam War organizing, the Black Panthers, United Farmworkers, and other formations.
  • Wei Min She (為民社) and Asian Community Center photographs, 1970-1980 - The Wei Min She (為民社) and Asian Community Center photographs collection consists of negatives and digital photographs which were primarily taken by Steve Louie. The photographs document residents of the International Hotel, dating from 1972 to 1979, labor strikes in Chinatown and Manilatown such as the Stanford Hotel, San Francisco Hotel, 666 Sacramento, Asia Garden and Nam Yuen restaurants, as well as protests in San Francisco such as anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, anti-imperialism, and civil rights rallies. There are also images related to the Wushu Troupe delegation visit from China and other Chinese athletic groups participating in various sports events.

Internet Archive:

  • H.K. Yuen Social Movement Archive - Audio recordings of Berkeley and Bay Area social movements including the Third World Liberation Front student strike. Digitized recordings are available on the Internet Archive thanks to our collaboration with California Revealed and a CLIR Recordings at Risk grant. 
  • Sut Yung Ying Yee - Sut Yung Ying Yee was a bilingual Chinese and English TV-series co-produced by the Chinese Media Committee of Chinese for Affirmative Action and KPIX-TV Westinghouse in 1971 and aired starting in 1971 on KPIX Channel 5. The series was produced and directed by filmmaker Loni Ding, one of the founders of the National Asian American Telecommunications Association, now the Center for Asian American Media.

Omeka:

  • Lavender Phoenix Dragon Fruit Oral History Collection - The Dragon Fruit Project (DFP) was an oral history project initiated by Lavender Phoenix (then API Equality Northern California) and Dr. Amy Sueyoshi in 2007 and closed in 2021. This collection consists of interviews collected during the Dragon Fruit Project with LGBTQ Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2015, the Dragon Fruit Project worked with Storycorps to continue conducting interviews. The Dragon Fruit Project closed their work in 2021 and partnered with the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library to preserve and make the Dragon Fruit Project oral histories accessible. These intergenerational and diverse oral histories provide first-hand accounts of life, love, diaspora, and resistance from the 1960s through the 2010s.

A-Z Asian American Studies Digital Archive Collections and Websites