MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- WuKong Education, a leading online education technology company with over 300,000 students worldwide, joins four Asian American authors to donate 1,500+ books to 100 US K-12 schools during Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. As WuKong Education marks its seventh anniversary, the brand launches additional offerings to showcase its diverse and inclusive values.
Among the many groups who were honoring AAPI Heritage Month in May, two groups of likeminded educators initiated book drives aiming to inspire children to see themselves as heroes.
From WuKong Education's new headquarters in Silicon Valley, the team coordinated with rural schools in Asia to set up book corners for disadvantaged children. Since WuKong Education's inception in 2016, the company's online classes have expanded to 300,000 families in 118 countries with the focus of teaching Chinese as a second language. As the majority of WuKong students' families share a common root in Asia, rural schools in Indonesia and Thailand were chosen to host reading corners with hundreds of new books.
Meanwhile, in New York, Massachusetts, and Washington State, four Asian American authors, Yobe Qiu, Serena Li, Vincent Yee, and Tracy Guan met over Zoom to plan the "Asian American Books, Everywhere All at Once" book drive. Inspired by the Oscar-winning movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once," the authors' goal was to send 500 books to 25 schools in the US. This is crucial, as less than 15% of books published feature an AAPI character.
Rebecca Deng, Head of Marketing for North America at WuKong Education, saw both great causes. "We wanted to do something to make it even bigger and better. I knew more schools would love to receive AAPI books," said Deng, who is a mother of two. With WuKong Education's matched donation, 1,500+ books will be donated to 100 schools during AAPI Heritage Month.
In addition, WuKong Education will support the Disney+ series "American Born Chinese," starring Daniel Wu who plays Sun Wukong. During the series' release in May, WuKong Education will give away Disney+ annual memberships to lucky WuKong students, allowing more children to see themselves as heroes in mainstream media. These activities demonstrate WuKong Education's values and social responsibility to the AAPI community, as well as provide all students with richer learning and cultural experiences.
Founded in New Zealand in 2016, WuKong Education was one of the first companies to enter the Chinese language online education field. In 2021, the company launched WuKong Math to help improve young learners' logical thinking, problem solving, and comprehensive mathematical abilities. As part of its seventh anniversary, WuKong Education plans to launch English Language Arts classes, as requested by its students, 88% of whom speak English as their first language. This summer, students will be able to take WuKong Chinese, WuKong Math, and WuKong English with WuKong's network of 3,000+ teachers.