BOSTON (May 17, 2018) – Come celebrate Boston’s Asian Pacific American community and culture on Tuesday, May 22, with a public screening of excerpts from five premiering films that highlight stories of Asian Americans who have overcome obstacles and defied stereotypes. Following the screening, guests can participate in a conversation with leaders from the Boston-area Asian Pacific American business community, moderated by Liz Cheng, General Manager of WGBH television and the WORLD Channel. The evening will conclude with refreshments and information about how to get involved with local Asian Pacific American organizations. The event will take place from 7 to 9pm at WGBH Studios, One Guest Street in Brighton and is free and open to the public. RSVP online.

“For WGBH’s 10th annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we explore the entrepreneurial spirit with APA leaders making it in Massachusetts and beyond. As immigrants or descended from immigrants, they have defied the odds and are ready to share their pathways to success,” said Cheng. “With five documentaries on WGBH 2 and WORLD Channel that illustrate APA stories of resilience and triumph despite tremendous obstacles, the evening intends to uplift and galvanize.”

Panelists:

  • Yvonne Hao, COO and CFO of Pill Pack
  • Ian So, CEO and co-owner of Chicken and Rice Guys
  • Mohamad Ali, President and CEO of Carbonite

Featured film excerpts:

  • American Experience: The Chinese Exclusion Act: On May 6, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed into law an unprecedented piece of federal legislation, called the Chinese Exclusion Act. Unlike any other law in American history, the act uniquely targeted a single race and nationality for exclusion: making it illegal for Chinese laborers to enter America on pain of imprisonment; for Chinese nationals to become citizens of the United States; and for Chinese immigrants already here to leave and then re-enter the country.
  • Finding Kukan: Filmmaker Robin Lung documents her 7-year journey to uncover the efforts of Li Ling-Ai, the visionary but uncredited producer of Kukan, the landmark color film about the Chinese resistance to Japanese aggression during World War II. Lung discovers a damaged film print of Kukan, and pieces together the untold tale of the two renegades behind its making – Li Ling Ai and Rey Scott. A landmark film, Kukan was the first American feature documentary to receive an Academy Award® in 1942.
  • Kū Kanaka: Stand Tall: At 15-years-old, Terry Kanalu Young took a dive into shallow waters, becoming a quadriplegic in a split second. Nonetheless he learned to value the life he lived rather than mourn the life he lost, using that insight to offer hope to those dispossessed. At the end of his life, Kanalu led a movement to inspire Native Hawaiians to reclaim their history of independence and demand respect for their rich culture.
  • Random Acts of Legacy: Filmmaker Ali Kazimi finds a rare cache of deteriorating 16mm home movies spanning from 1936 to 1951, and deftly crafts a story of a hidden middle class of Asian Americans in “Random Acts of Legacy.'' The family archive was the work of Silas Henry Fung, which reveals a rare portrait of a creative and enterprising Chinese American family in Middle America starting in the Depression years and offers a surprising counter-narrative to the stereotypes of Chinese Americans in his day.
  • Who is Arthur Chu? Who is Arthur Chu? follows 11-time Jeopardy! winner Arthur Chu, who won almost $300,000. By using an unconventional game strategy, the former insurance analyst amassed tens of thousands of fans and haters on Twitter. In an effort to put his 15 minutes of TV fame to good use, Arthur aspires to become a public figure. By addressing topics such as racism and sexism particularly in gaming culture, his posture debunks the “model” Asian American stereotype.

WGBH’s Celebration of Asian Pacific American Culture will take place on Tuesday, May 222 from 7pm to 9pm at WGBH Studios, One Guest Street, in Brighton. For more information and to RSVP, visit https://www.wgbh.org/event/celebration-of-asian-pacific-american-culture.

About WGBH
WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcaster and the largest producer of PBS content for TV and the Web, including Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, Nova, American Experience, Arthur, Pinkalicious & Peterrific, and more than a dozen other primetime, lifestyle and children’s series. WGBH’s television channels include WGBH 2, WGBX 44, and the digital channels World and Create. WGBH TV productions focusing on the region’s diverse community include Greater Boston, Basic Black and High School Quiz Show. WGBH Radio serves listeners across New England with 89.7 WGBH, Boston’s Local NPR®; 99.5 WCRB Classical Radio Boston; and WCAI, the Cape and Islands NPR® Station. WGBH also is a major source of programs for public radio (among them, PRI’s The World®), a leader in educational multimedia (including PBS LearningMedia™, providing the nation’s educators with free, curriculum-based digital content), and a pioneer in technologies and services that make media accessible to deaf, hard of hearing, blind and visually impaired audiences. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards and Oscars. Find more information at wgbh.org.