A violoncellist performs during the awards ceremony in Pasadena, California, the United States, May 30, 2017. The Asian American Heritage Month celebration festival in Los Angeles ended Tuesday with its awards ceremony in Pasadena. (Xinhua/Zhao Hanrong)
LOS ANGELES, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Asian American Heritage Month celebration festival in Los Angeles ended Tuesday with its awards ceremony in Pasadena.
The month of May was officially designated as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in 1992 by the U.S. Congress to celebrate the achievements and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.
The celebration festival in Los Angeles honored four organizations and five individuals this year for their achievements and contributions.
"I am very honored to receive this award," Mike Eng, award recipient and former California Assemblyman, told Xinhua at the ceremony.
"I hope that Asian Americans in the community will understand that being elected as an official is a very honorable thing. I hope that more young people... more women will consider running for office because we need the representation," Eng added.
Individual recipients of the awards included prominent Asian Americans as well as friends of Asian Americans, such as American philosopher and environmentalist John Cobb Jr, who has been working with Chinese scholars for years.
"I am very interested in the work that has been done by Asian American group," Cobb said, adding that he appreciated this honor a lot.
"My work has been done mainly in China itself, so I have been directly working with the Chinese-American group," said Cobb.
The other award recipients are the City of Pasadena, White House Initiative On Asian Pacific Islanders, API Human Trafficking Task Force, and the Council of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Association, for their contributions to Asian American communities.
Various celebration activities were held not only in Los Angeles, but also across the United States, including San Francisco, New York and Washington D.C.
