Author: Oliver Chin

Author, editor and co-founder of Immedium, Oliver Chin highlights Dolly Gee’s advocacy for social justice in a reading coordinated in part with the APIA Biography Project. For kids and their families.

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Oliver Chin co-founded Immedium in 2004, an independent publisher of wonderful and diverse children's picture books based in San Francisco. Immedium has published more than 50 books since 2005: 40% feature multicultural themes and characters; 25% are bilingual. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard, Oliver has increased the representation of Asian American characters in the media. Oliver is the author of the popular series Tales from the Chinese Zodiac and Julie Black Belt, the graphic novel 9 of 1: A Window to the World, and sports commentary The Tao of Yao: Insights from Basketball's Brightest Big Man. Oliver's new children's book is Awesome Asian Americans: 20 Stars Who Made America Amazing, co-written by Phil Amara and illustrated by Juan Calle. Previously they created the storybook series The Asian Hall of Fame: the red panda Dao guides the kids Emma and Ethan to learn about Asian inventions that changed the world in like ramen, fireworks, anime and manga.

The APIA Biography Project started as a collaboration between the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University, The Association of Chinese Teachers, and the San Francisco Public Library in 2012. Students from SFSU develop Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) biographies, resources and activities in a community service learning class called “Asian American Children's/Adolescent Literature.” Students showcase their work during APIA Heritage Month. Resources and curricular activities are then archived in a resource website for K–12 educators to repurpose and adopt into their lesson plans.

This year’s theme centers on the fight for legal justice, highlighting court cases and individuals who advocated for social justice in the APIA community.