During his 25 years in broadcasting, Bill Moyers has pursued a broad spectrum of journalism. In presenting Moyers with one of his two prestigious Gold Batons, the highest honor of the Alfred I. DuPont Columbia University Awards, Columbia University President Michael Sovern called Moyers "a unique voice, still seeking new frontiers in television, daring to assume that viewing audiences are willing to think and learn."

A survey of television critics by Television Quarterly, the official journal of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, placed Moyers among the 10 journalists who have had the most significant influence on television news. The Academy has also recognized his work with more than 30 Emmy Awards for excellence. He was elected to the television Hall of Fame in 1995 and a year later received the Charles Frankel Prize (now the National Humanities Medal) from the National Endowment for the Humanities "for outstanding contributions to American cultural life."

In 1986, Moyers formed Public Affairs Television, Inc., with his wife and partner, Judith. This independent production company has produced more than 300 hours of programming. In 2002, he launched the weekly PBS series NOW with Bill Moyers and also produced Bill Moyers Reports: Trading Democracy and America's First River: Bill Moyers on the Hudson. Prior programming includes such series as Bill Moyers Reports: Earth on Edge; Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report; On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying; Surviving the Good Times: A Moyers Report; Free Speech for Sale; Facing the Truth; Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home; Genesis: A Living Conversation; Healing and the Mind; and Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth.

Prior to establishing Public Affairs Television, he was executive editor of the Bill Moyers' Journal on public television, senior news analyst for the CBS Evening News, and chief correspondent for the acclaimed documentary series, CBS Reports. Two of his public television series, Creativity (1982) and A Walk Through the 20th Century (1984) were named the outstanding information series by the Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Following his 1971 best-selling book, Listening to America, four books by Moyers based on his television series have also become bestsellers: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, A World of Ideas I and II, and Healing and the Mind.

Before entering broadcasting, Moyers served as deputy director of the Peace Corps in the Kennedy Administration and was special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1963-1967, including two years as White House press secretary. He left the White House in January, 1967, to become the publisher of Newsday. For 12 years Moyers was a Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation and now serves as President of The Florence and John Schumann Foundation.

Interview with Bill Moyers
and Series Producer Thomas Lennon

Q: Mr. Moyers, why is the story of the Chinese in America important?

A: Bill Moyers
I have been interested in the history and experience of Chinese immigrants to this country, and what it helps us to understand about America, since way back in the sixties when I was a young White House assistant for President Lyndon Johnson.

I worked on helping to pass the Immigration Act of 1965 and then flew with President Johnson to the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor where he signed the bill into law on October 3rd of that year. That act, as I'm sure you know, turned American immigration upside down. It opened the door for Asians to come here in record numbers, and it's been fascinating to watch the face of America change over the last forty years.

I've heard Chinese Americans and recent arrivals grappling with the issues that every immigrant group has had to face over time. What does it mean to become American? At what moment do you think you are American? What do you give up when you become American if you're an immigrant? What traditions do you try to preserve? These are personal and political issues. Issues of identity and assimilation. Issues of access and empowerment. And they lie at the very heart of our democracy, past and present.

Q: Mr. Lennon, you produced a series on the Irish in America for PBS, and historically they faced a great deal of discrimination. What makes the Chinese experience different?

A: Thomas Lennon
On one level, it comes down to two very simple words: skin color. After spending two years exploring Irish immigration, I felt I knew some of the big patterns of the immigrant story in America, and then turning to the Chinese, it was a vivid reminder of the power of race. What a difference skin color makes!

Of course, that's the central fact of African Americans' experience too, but they were brought here against their will, enslaved, so that's a very different story. The Chinese - like the Irish, the Italians, the Germans, the new immigrants today - came here because they wanted to be here. They felt they could make it work. But their features meant they could never just blend in, become another face in the crowd.

It's interesting to remember that the Irish were considered a separate race when they first arrived here in America. And one of the ways they earned recognition as bona fide whites - one of the ways they earned their stripes, if you will - was to turn against other ethnic groups: African Americans in the South, and the Chinese in California, as well. The Irish in the West don't have a proud history in terms of their treatment of the Chinese. When you're afraid of being the scapegoat, of occupying the lowest rung on the American ladder, you often turn on those weaker than you, to make sure there's at least one group below you. And to have a group even more despised than you elevates your standing - it's not pretty, but it's true.

Q: Mr. Moyers, is this going to be the first in a series of immigrant histories that you produce?

A: Bill Moyers
No, the story of Chinese Americans and their fascinating history in this country has, quite frankly, been largely overlooked, and I thought it was time to address that. Tom Lennon told the story of Irish immigrants in his film The Irish in America: Long Journey Home, and PBS has already explored the history of Italians in America, Africans in America, the Jewish experience here, the Muslim experience and others. The story of Chinese Americans is a part of the great American narrative, and it has simply received too little mainstream attention.

Q: Mr. Lennon, there's a lot of history on television these days: what's different about what you have done?

A: Thomas Lennon
First of all, the story of the Chinese is not just history - it's a story that's still unfolding, which is why our series goes right up to the present. And also we were determined to avoid the familiar grooves of racial and ethnic storytelling, where the history of a minority group is told as a litany of all the wrongs done to it. Certainly, the Chinese have been treated very badly during their time here. But their history is a lot more than all the wrongs they've suffered, much richer and more interesting than that

For all immigrants, America is a mind-altering blend of adventure and heartbreak, which open up all kinds of horizons, while at the same time undermining traditional beliefs and ways. And we wanted to try to get at that, as a human story: the tug between old and new, the excruciating dilemmas the Chinese face once here. And we hope that those who watch the program - whatever their own history -- will identify with those very human struggles.

Q: Mr. Moyers, when do you think someone becomes American?

A: Bill Moyers
I think it's different for everyone, and over the three programs we see many different stories of how that transformation occurs. Because it is not one thing. It's not just getting off the boat or plane or coming across the border. It's not just birth or an oath that makes you American. It's an attitude, an acceptance, a commitment.

It is the central feature of the American experience - how strangers from the world over come to feel part of America and come to be American. It's about coming here and discovering that the Constitution - written centuries ago by dead white men - is your Constitution too. It's about discovering that when the Constitution talks about "persons," it is talking about you and your rights and responsibilities as an individual and citizen. "We, the People" embraces everyone, whether your name is Wong or Estrada or Zalewski or Horowitz or Obada or O'Farrell or Smith. It's not about material success. It's not what you own or spend. It's deeper than that - it's about being born again in a sense. You'll see how that happens in a lot of the stories in the series. That's why the story of immigration resonates for all Americans. It's about second chances, new beginnings, fresh starts. When people choose to come here from another country, and make their life here and root their families here, then they become American. It's the drama in our series.