PBS EXPLORES CHINESE-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
KUED Report and Web Site Explore Utah Chinese

In the 1840s they came by boat, a frightening journey across the wide Pacific. Today, they come by jet, a few hours flight to a new life. For more than 150 years, the Chinese — like other immigrants to this country — have pursued the American dream. Theirs is a compelling tale of struggle and triumph, progress and setback, separation and assimilation, discrimination and achievement. It is the story of the collision of two cultures.

The three-part BECOMING AMERICAN: THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE, a Bill Moyers special, airs on KUED-7 Tuesday-Thursday, March 25-27, at 8:00 p.m. in 90-minute installments, as part of KUED’s DIVERSE VOICES campaign. A special CIVIC DIALOGUE focusing on Utah’s Chinese American culture will air on KUED-7 Sunday, March 23, at 5:30 p.m.

The local Web site, available at www.kued.org/chineseamerican/, will feature the photos and stories of select Chinese Americans in Utah along with discussion guides and additional resources. To obtain a free discussion guide to the series, call (801) 585-3523.

BECOMING AMERICAN unfolds between the two landmark pieces of American legislation: the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 — the first time the United States ever banned a group of people based on race or nationality — and the Immigration Reform Act of 1965, which opened the door to Asians and other non-Europeans to come to America in record numbers. Interviews with historians, recent arrivals and descendents of early immigrants reveal the history of the Chinese in America. Ultimately, examines the lives of new immigrants from China as well as Chinese Americans whose families have lived here for generations.

Part One (3/25) illuminates the Chinese role in settling the West and building the western leg of the Transcontinental Railroad, perhaps the greatest engineering feat of the 19th century. In western cities and frontier settlements, Chinese men also saw opportunity in the economic activities undesirable to white men: setting up makeshift restaurants, taking care of children and doing laundry — all services that were traditionally considered women’s work. For the more limited number of Chinese women in America, both the new country and their native culture offered few options and little hope.

When hard economic times loomed in California, Chinese immigrants faced a wave of violence, terror and discrimination. An epidemic of laws and regulations, aimed at limiting Chinese immigrant rights and economic opportunities, spread through state and local governments. In 1882, the U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, a turning point in American immigration policy.

Part Two (3/26) looks at how the Exclusion Act ushered in the most violent decade in Chinese-American history, with assault, arson and murder becoming ever-present dangers for a people marginalized in the eyes of the law.

This episode also examines how the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed most of the immigration records, making the Chinese who already lived in the U.S. eligible to claim citizenship. As such, they were entitled to bring their children from China. Many Chinese Americans engaged in the practice of claiming “paper sons.” A Chinese immigrant would claim to be the father of a young person still in China and provide the paperwork for his “child” to immigrate. These immigrants, however, found a culture often at odds with the traditional values of China. New tensions developed within Chinese immigrant families as exposure to American freedoms and attitudes inspired the women and young people to defy the patriarchal culture of their homeland.

Part Three (3/27) examines how World War II ushered in the beginning of major changes for the Chinese in America. At war with Japan, China became an American ally. Chinese Americans found themselves suddenly embraced by America’s political establishment, and the exclusion laws were quickly repealed. Chinese men and women moved into factory jobs, the military service and other arenas formerly closed to them. With this integration into mainstream American society, barriers of racism started to dissolve. But it was in the late sixties, as Civil Rights laws and the 1965 Immigration Reform Act took effect, that Chinese Americans began their rise to the pinnacle of U.S. life. This segment focuses on the personal dimensions of the contemporary experience, including the galvanizing effect of the murder of Vincent Chin, the emphasis on education and self-improvement, and the stereotypical image of Asians as the “model minority.”

The image of the Chinese in America has fluctuated through the nation’s history, right up to the present. One constant, however, has been their identification as “foreign.” Michelle Ling, born in St. Louis, constantly battles the perception that she is an outsider. She tells Moyers, “I am an American, but I have to become an American to everybody else all the time.” He asks her why that is; she responds candidly, “I don’t know. You tell me, you’re the white guy!”

KUED’s DIVERSE VOICES campaign is made possible by the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation and American Express.

BECOMING AMERICAN: THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE airs on KUED-7 Tuesday-Thursday, March 25-27, at 8:00 p.m.

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