The Asian population is currently one of the fastest growing populations in the Charlotte area. In the 1960s, there were only eight Asian businesses in Charlotte and less than 200 Asians, but in 2016 over 60.000 people of over 15 countries of origin are living in Charlotte, which adds up to 5% Asian-Americans in the general Charlotte population.
According to a study of the Institute for Southern Studies, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the N.C. Justice Center, and the Southeast Asian Coalition over 60% of individuals in the Asian-American Community in North Carolina were born abroad, but 7 out of 10 people of Asian descent in N.C. are citizens of the United States, which gives N.C. a remarkably high citizenship rate.
Half of North Carolina´s Asian population lives in three Counties, Mecklenburg County and the Charlotte area is one of those three.
The Asian Community is hosting an annual Chinese New Year Festival and Lion Dance, and the Grand Asia Market seems to be an important resource for food and events.
One highly impacting method to distribute cultural knowledge and ideas and reach over 
338,000 readers, is the newspaper The Asian Herald. People within the Asian Community in N.C. founded its own newspaper in 1993, which is, however, not just directed at the Asian-American population. It is an English language newspaper with separate inserts written in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese and is trying to improve the communication between people of different cultures and bridge the cultural gap between Asian-Americans and the greater American community in the Carolinas. It is supposed to educate the general American community about Asian culture, specialties and work on cultural unawareness. Further, it also wants to help educate and integrate Asian-Americans into the greater community.
Apart from this, and despite their rapid growth, however, the Asian community seems to be one of the more invisible population groups in the city. Thus, it will be important to not only make the impact of festivals last longer, but also work towards cultural participation of everybody. The Asian Herald is a good start on the transcultural level, to educate different population groups about one-another and foster understanding and acceptance.
Vision for Charlotte 