May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States, but for Cloudflare's APAC Heritage Month celebration, the scope is deliberately broader. The initiative, a collaboration between the company's Asian employee resource groups, Asianflare and Desiflare, is built around one premise: the stories told about the Asian diaspora rarely reflect the diversity of a community that spans two-thirds of the world's population. The month's programming—panels, fireside chats, and cultural segments, all broadcast on Cloudflare TV—was an attempt to widen that lens.

Highlighting Untold Experiences

All external events for the month were held virtually on Cloudflare TV. The lineup included a range of segments covering generational identity, cultural norms, and the career journeys of Asian leaders and founders:

  • The Asian American Experience: a series on the collective experience of Asian Americans, with panel discussions on the youth perspective, the interplay of cuisine and culture, and a career retrospective from Christine Hung, VP of Data and Engineering at Flatiron Health.
  • Coming of Age: a look at cultural touchpoints that shape life for those of Asian heritage, covering the PRC's One Child Policy, a critical review of the “model minority” myth, and an examination of filial piety and intergenerational relations.
  • Founder Focus: conversations with startup founders including Quinn Wang (Quadrant Eye), Angus Luk (EventX), Beyang Liu (Sourcegraph), Kathy Zhou (Queenly), and Jeremy Lam (Venu), discussing everything from pivoting during the pandemic to the economics of trade shows.
  • Fireside Chats: interviews with influential figures across industries, including hardware hacker Andrew “Bunnie” Huang, Broadcom CTO Andy Nallappan, and several Cloudflare leaders, exploring the paths and challenges involved in reaching their positions.
  • We Are Cloudflare and A Mile in Your Shoes: internal-facing series that profile colleagues and their personal histories, from migration stories to everyday experiences.
  • Cooking with Cloudflare: a live segment teaching dishes from Cloudflarians around the world.

Recordings of the sessions are available on the APAC Heritage Month landing page, along with a curated playlist for those looking to dive further into the culture and practices celebrated during the month.

Building Asianflare

The origin of Asianflare is rooted in a moment of shared trauma. In March 2020, a group of colleagues discussing a racially motivated attack on an Asian family in Texas found themselves commiserating over a common experience: growing up as a minority in the US. That conversation, one of the last before offices went remote, led to the creation of the employee resource group.

Initially, Asianflare was intended as a support group—a safe space to share experiences in what was anticipated to be a difficult period. As lockdowns took hold, it evolved into a genuine social hub, replacing the lost casual office chatter with food photos, music and movie recommendations, and festival celebrations. Conversations ranged from career advice to public policy, including an internal chat with Cloudflare's public policy expert, Alissa Starzak, when a potential US ban on WeChat and TikTok threatened to separate members from friends and family back home.

The group's role was put to the test in March 2021 following the Atlanta shooting that killed eight people, six of them Asian women. The infrastructure built over the preceding year allowed the community to grieve together. The People Team arranged group therapy sessions, and leadership, including CEO Matthew Prince, acknowledged the pain and offered assistance from the physical security team. Colleagues checked in, and the office flags flew at half-mast. The impact, for one co-founder, was significant: a kid growing up in that environment would see their family's experiences acknowledged as part of the conversation rather than swept under the rug.

Desiflare: From Diwali Lunch to Global ERG

Desiflare traces its roots to late 2019, when a group of roughly 25 employees in the San Francisco office gathered for a vegetarian meal to commemorate Diwali. The event's success spawned monthly lunches and eventually the formalization of the Desiflare ERG.

The group's mission is to foster a sense of belonging among employees with an interest in South Asian culture, welcoming both those who identify with it and those simply interested in learning. With a membership that spans offices from San Francisco and Austin to NYC, London, and Singapore, the ERG focuses on embracing the vast diversity within South Asian culture—its varied traditions, cuisines, habits, and beliefs—amplified further by the breadth of the diaspora. The goal is to create a place where everyone feels welcome, regardless of their specific background or connection to the region.