Asian Americans

The most ambitious television chronicle of the Asian American story in the United States launches this month on SDPB.

According to data from the 2010 U.S and South Dakota Censuses and July 1, 2018 estimate, individuals in South Dakota who identified solely as Asian grew by 94% between 2010 and 2018. Americans of Asian descent are among the fastest growing racial/ ethnic groups in the United States. Asian Americans, an engaging new five-part documentary led by a team of Asian American filmmakers, captures the impact of Asian Americans on the country’s past, present, and future.

This groundbreaking series, produced by Renee TajimaPeña (Who Killed Vincent Chin?, No Más Bebés), 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.

Narrated by Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii 5-0, Crash, Always Be My Maybe) & Tamlyn Tomita (Star Trek, The Man in the High Castle, The Good Doctor).

Tune in to SDPB1-TV for the premiere of back-to-back episodes:

Monday, May 11

Episode 1: Breaking Ground 7pm (6 MT) In an era of exclusion and U.S. empire, new immigrants arrive from China, India, Japan, the Philippines and beyond. Barred by anti-Asian laws they become America’s first “undocumented immigrants,” yet they build railroads, dazzle on the silver screen, and take their fight for equality to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Episode 2: A Question of Loyalty 8pm (7 MT) An American-born generation straddles their country of birth and their parents’ homelands in Asia. Those loyalties are tested during World War II, when families are imprisoned in detention camps, and brothers find themselves on opposite sides of the battle lines.

Tuesday, May 12

Episode 3: Good Americans 7pm (6 MT) During the Cold War years, Asian Americans are simultaneously heralded as a Model Minority, and targeted as the perpetual foreigner. It is also a time of bold ambition, as Asian Americans aspire for the first time to national political office and a coming culture-quake simmers beneath the surface.

Episode 4: Generation Rising 8pm (7 MT) During a time of war and social tumult, a young generation fights for equality in the fields, on campuses and in the culture, and claim a new identity: Asian Americans. The war’s aftermath brings new immigrants and refugees who expand the population and the definition of Asian America.

Episode 5: Breaking Through 9pm (8 MT) At the turn of the new millennium, the country tackles conflicts over immigration, race, economic disparity, and a shifting world order. A new generation of 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.