2023
aapi gift guide
300+ gift ideas from aanhpi brands, makers + businesses
mid-november we made an earth-shattering announcement: we're making a gift guide.about
but when "guide" is (literally) in our name and you can already search and discover 1000s of asian american native hawaiian & pacific islander (aanhpi) brands and businesses on goldenguide.org, we had to really think about what we could do differently that would be additive and helpful to the community going into a particularly important time of year for small businesses and makers.
but this guide is only helpful when we all share and engage with it.as much as we enjoyed creating this guide, it’s not about us, it’s about the hundreds of aanhpi small businesses who could use your awareness and support not just this season, but year-round! we’d really appreciate it if you would take the time to look through the guide (80+ pages of amazing aanhpi businesses from all over), spread the word, and support these great businesses.
by the numbers
when we’re starting from the same place of all being asian american, native hawaiian, or pacific islander—what else can we be?
while the goal for us was never a set number, what we wanted to account for was representation—many of you shared the importance of seeing yourselves represented in the guide. so we asked and researched in order to highlight the diversity of and within our aanhpi communities. we tried to account for underrepresented communities, regions, and identities by adding 70+ additional businesses and contacting folks to submit.
we were truly overwhelmed and humbled by the number of folks (222!) who submitted to be included in the guide. we also didn’t realize how many pages the guide would be (80+) until we started designing it.
ownership identities
it isn’t perfect and there's still work to do, but our goal is for this guide was to celebrate the diversity, ingenuity and creativity within our communities.
the goal of this guide was not to reach an arbitrary number but to ensure a diversity of businesses that folks may have yet to or have a chance to discover. at least a quarter of businesses featured in our gift guide were emerging (founded in 2022 or 2023), and over half identified as woman-owned.
222+
25
small business + nonprofit collaborators
submissions over 15 days
80+
300+
aanhpi small businesses, makers + creators
pages of gifts, recipes, curations + more
cover design by
chunky
highlighting aapi creativitychunky things originally started as a novel twist on the traditional red envelope, creating something that could become a keepsake, repurposed, or reused. today, housed in the historical hop louie (golden pagoda) building in chinatown los angeles, chunky is a brand and marketplace highlighting aapi-made art and goods—carrying everything from candles and apparel, to ceramics, prints, tea and more.
on the cover design, from chunky:“the chunky baby mascot represents joy and good fortune! we wanted a symbol synonymous with happiness and we found it in our chunky baby! we love what golden guide is is doing to uplift the aapi community and beyond! empowering aapi creators is a huge part of our mission! teaming up on a chunky baby design is a no-brainer!”
