ASIAN AMERICANS

By Jennifer Robinson / Web Producer

Published May 5, 2020 at 1:24 PM PDT

Sikh patriot. Explore the impact of Asian Americans, the fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the United States, on the country’s past, present and future, told through individual lives and personal histories.

Encore Wednesdays, May 15, May 22, 29, 2024 at 9 p.m. on KPBS 2 and Thursday, May 30 and Friday, May 31 at 4 p.m. on KPBS 2 / Stream now with the PBS App

—The most ambitious television chronicle of the Asian American story in the United States—

A five-part documentary series explores the impact of Asian Americans, the fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the United States, on the country’s past, present and future, told through individual lives and personal histories. Led by a team of Asian American filmmakers, including Academy Award®-nominated series producer Renee Tajima-Peña ("Who Killed Vincent Chin?," "No Más Bebés"), ASIAN AMERICANS examines the significant role of Asian Americans in shaping American history and identity, from the first wave of Asian immigrants in the 1850s and identity politics during the social and cultural turmoil of the twentieth century to modern refugee crises in a globally connected world.

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ASIAN AMERICANS is a five-hour film series that will chronicle the contributions, and challenges of Asian Americans, the fastest-growing ethnic group in America. Personal histories and new academic research will cast a fresh lens on U.S. history and the role Asian Americans have played in it.

“As America’s home for documentaries, PBS is committed to telling stories that illuminate and celebrate the rich diversity of our country,” said Paula Kerger, PBS President and CEO. “We are proud to share this important series with our audiences, and to deepen understanding about the extraordinary impact of Asian Americans on our national identity.”

Annie Tan uncovers a dark moment in her family's history that has inspired her and many other Asian American activists to get involved and raise their voices.

EPISODE GUIDE:

Episode 1 “Breaking Ground” Encore Wednesday, May 15 at 9 p.m. on KPBS 2 - See how new immigrants from China, India, Japan, the Philippines and beyond, despite anti-Asian laws, still manage to build railroads, dazzle on the silver screen and take their fight for equality to the U.S. Supreme Court.

They were young men with dreams who began their lives in America building the Transcontinental Railroad. They blasted through mountains of granite and endured brutal conditions to lay tracks that connected the Pacific to the Atlantic. Some, like Lee Wong Sang, became forebearers of Asian American families that thrive to this day.

Episode 2: “A Question of Loyalty” Encore Wednesday, May 22 at 9 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Meet an American-born generation that straddles the U.S. and their parents’ homelands in Asia. Loyalties are tested during World War II, when families are imprisoned in detention camps and brothers find themselves on opposite sides of battle lines.

In the lead up to WWII, Korean Americans were united by loyalty to America and resistance to Japanese rule of their homeland. Susan Ahn Cuddy was the US-born daughter of Dosan Ahn Chang-ho, a legendary community leader who died while imprisoned by Japan. She vowed to join the war effort and became the first Asian American woman to enlist in the U.S. Navy, and its first female gunnery officer.

Episode 3: “Good Americans” Encore Wednesday, May 29 at 9 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Learn how Asian Americans are simultaneously heralded as a model minority and targeted as the perpetual foreigner during the Cold War. It is also a time of bold ambition, as Asian Americans aspire to national political office.

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Patsy Mink always defied the odds. She was one of two women in her law school class, and when law firms wouldn’t hire her, she hung her own shingle. In 1964 she defied Hawaii democratic party bosses and ran for U.S. Congress, and was the first woman of color to be elected to the office. She championed civil rights and women’s rights and carved a path for generations of women leaders.

Episode 4: “Generation Rising” Encore Thursday, May 30 at 4 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Follow a young generation’s fight for equality in the fields, on campuses and in the culture, claiming a new identity: Asian Americans. New immigrants and war refugees expand the population and definition of Asian America.

By 1965, the Filipino farmworkers in Delano, California’s grape fields had enough with low pay, no health benefits, and toxic working conditions.

Episode 5: “Breaking Through” Encore Friday, May 31 at 4 p.m. on KPBS 2 - Revisit the turn of the millennium, when Asian Americans are empowered by growing numbers and rising influence but face a reckoning of what it means to be an American in an increasingly polarized society.

Hari Kondabolu is a comedian by trade, born and bred in Queens, New York. But he recalls that in the xenophobic atmosphere after the attacks of 9/11, he and other South Asian Americans were targeted as foreigners, even terrorists.

WATCH ON YOUR SCHEDULE: Episodes are available to stream now with the PBS App for a limited time.

Extend your viewing window with KPBS Passport, a benefit for members supporting KPBS at $60 or more yearly, using your computer, smartphone, tablet, Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Fire or Chromecast. Learn how to activate your benefit now.

Also available on DVD from PBS

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Storefront of Chinatown meat and vegetable market, San Francisco, Calif., 1895.

Courtesy of University of Washington, Special Collections

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Antero Cabrera (Ba-Long-Long) and weapon as Igorot villager in the "Living Exhibits" at 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

Courtesy of Public Domain Photograph

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Bhagat Singh Thind as a young man in U.S. Army uniform with rifle, Camp Lewis 1918 (WWI). Thind, a Sikh American, was the first U.S. serviceman to be allowed for religious reasons to wear a turban as part of their military uniform.

Courtesy of Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind Spiritual Science Foundation

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Filipino American labor organizer Larry Itliong. (undated photo)

Courtesy of Corky Lee

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A protest with San Francisco State University in 1968.