Newspaper publishing in North America began in Boston. Massachusetts, in 1690 with the publication of the first English paper in the continent. Among the newspapers published in America during the last three centuries, a number of them are in Asian languages. Although they are few in number compared with English language newspapers, they reflect the diversity of American culture and are a colorful component of American journalism. This paper will review the history of Asian language newspaper publishing from its inception in 1854. It will explore how Asian language newspapers have flourished in a country where English is the dominant language. The paper will examine the close relationship between immigration and Asian language journalism. It will also discuss the present status of Asian language newspapers in the United States and their potential for survival. Since those newspapers have faithfully recorded the lives of people of Asian descent in the United States, they constinute an important resource for scholars conducting multi-cultural research. Unfortunately, due to their ephemeral nature and constant title change, the bibliographical control of newspapers is inadequate. This presentation will describe the current state of bibliographical access to Asian language newspapers and the role played by the United States Newspapers Program.
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