Asian American Studies

On Angel Island, the history is written on the walls. From 1910 until 1943, Chinese immigrants to America passed through Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, the Ellis Island of the West. Unlike other groups, the Chinese were legally discriminated against under an 1882 law called the Chinese Exclusion Act. This program looks at how two women-one an artist, the other a documentary filmmaker-are raising funds and awareness to have the old immigration station restored. Slated for destruction, the station was spared in 1970 when a park ranger discovered, beneath layers of paint, poems written by anxious detainees about their fears of deportation. (12 minutes)

This program examines a major piece of the new American mosaic-a group that is seeking to retain its traditional cultural values while adjusting to life in the U.S. Korean Americans have come into frequent and violent conflict with inner-city African Americans, and have sought, through their own ethnic civic organizations, to overcome the rejection of the community around them. (50 minutes)

As communism tightened its grip on what was once South Vietnam, a stream of refugees poured into America. This program uses poignant interviews and archival footage to reveal the fortitude of Vietnamese who faced the gravest hardships in their escape to the U.S. following the fall of Saigon. In addition, Vu-Duc Vuong, of the University of California, Berkeley, and South Vietnamese and American veterans give their firsthand views on the Vietnam War, exploring the factors that led to the elimination of U.S. military and financial support as well as the war's continuing power to polarize opinion in both the U.S. and Vietnam. (37 minutes)

Through candid interviews with first- and second-generation Vietnamese-Americans, this program documents the process of assimilation into American culture of refugees from the former Republic of Vietnam. Vu-Duc Vuong, of the University of California, Berkeley, as well as college students, professionals, and clergy explore what it means to be of Vietnamese descent in America today. Topics include stresses on the family unit caused by cultural and generational differences, gang membership and drug abuse among the young, anti-Vietnamese racial bias, and feelings about relations between the U.S. and Vietnam. (33 minutes)

One of the effects of war has long been the displacement of peoples. But what happens when the refugees come to live in the country of one of the combatants and neither speak the language nor know its culture? This balanced two-part series puts a human face on the issues surrounding the Vietnamese-American experience. 2-part series, 33-37 minutes each.