2010 was a banner year for AAJA-LA as host chapter of the 29th annual AAJA Convention in Hollywood. The 2010 convention, widely viewed as one of the best in AAJA’s history, honored for the first time in its 29 years, its Founders and Asian American Pioneers in journalism as a group.  The event turned out to be the greatest gathering of pioneer Asian American journalists in history.

Thirty-six of 107 individuals, more than half of all living Asian American pioneers in U.S. journalism (1925-1975), were honored by the Asian American Journalists Association at the unveiling of AAJA’s Honor Roll of Asian American Pioneers in Journalism.

The Asian American Pioneer Journalists Honor Roll and Research Project was initiated by Suzanne Joe Kai, AAJA-LA board member, and Christopher Chow, AAJA-SF, in collaboration with Annabelle Udo-O’Malley, AAJA events and fundraising coordinator, and the 2010 AAJA National Convention Founders and Pioneers Opening Reception Committee members Leezel Tanglao, 2010 convention co-chair and AAJA-LA board member, and George Kiriyama, AAJA National VP for broadcast, with generous support from AAJA National, the AAJA Los Angeles Chapter, and many other individuals and organizations.

AAJA HONOR ROLL names and categories can be seen here: Pioneers in U.S. Journalism, Change Agents, Pioneers in Asian Community Press, and Pioneers in Asian American media.

FOR MORE CONVENTION COVERAGE:

CREDITS: Individuals and organizations that assisted in the production of the Opening Reception can be seen here

PIONEER LIST: To see a complete list of the Pioneers on the AAJA Honor Roll list, click here

PIONEER GROUP PHOTO:  To see an enlarged version of the photo including all 36 Pioneers, click here.

Q&A: Five minutes with National Convention co-chair Leezel Tanglao

TWITTER: The AAJA National Convention in 140 characters

SLIDESHOW: Time machine back to the AAJA National Convention with “Joz”

Opening Night at the 21st AAJA National Convention August 4, 2010, Hollywood, California

(Top L to R) Judy Chu Lin rep. late husband Sam Chu Lin, Jack Ong, Felicia Lowe, Stewart Kwoh rep. late mother Beulah Quo, Don Nakanishi, Bruce Koon, Kyung Won Lee, Al Young, Curtiss Kim, Lloyd LaCuesta, Henry Moritsugu, David Kishiyama, Ti-Hua Chang rep. late father Jen-Chung Chang, H. Lorren Au, Jr. rep. late father Henry Lorren Au, Russell Leong rep. late father Charles Leong; (Middle L to R) Corky Lee, Christopher Chow, Tomi Kaizawa Knaefler, Paul Sakuma, Emil Guillermo, Linda Yu, Harry Honda,
Sumi Sevilla Haru, Frank Kwan, Jan Yanehiro, Connie Chung, Ben Fong-Torres, Jon Funabiki
(Bottom L to R) Loan Do rep. late husband Yen Ngoc Do, Suzanne Joe Kai, Dorothy Ing Russell, Serena Chen, Rosy Chu, Gimmy Park Li, Bill Sing

© 2010 Photography by Corky Lee with contributions by Karen Zhou, Anthony Alvarez-Eng, Michael Kai, and Kevin Clark. Digital compilation by Aeon Wood.