Louisville Metro’s Asian community began to grow in the 1920s with the arrival of Chinese immigrants hoping to  open new businesses. Many initially opened hand laundries, but others opened restaurants. The Loyang Tea Garden, Liberty Inn, Canton Restaurant, and Oriental Restaurant were among the first Chinese eateries to open in Louisville. Since then, the Asian and Southeast Asian communities in Louisville have grown enormously with members of the community coming not just from China, but also from Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, India, Pakistan – nearly every country from the Arabian Sea to the Pacific Rim.

A large number of people in these communities are medical professionals working in the city’s largest hospitals and teaching medicine and engineering in Louisville’s institutions of higher learning. Sporting activities are also an important aspect of Asian and Southeast Asian cultures, and Louisville Metro is looking at constructing a number of cricket fields to complement the growing number of soccer fields in the city’s park system. In the last decade, Louisville has become home to a large number of Asian and Southeast Asian businesses, organizations, and schools, and is proud to have these new neighbors call Louisville Metro “home.”