♪ ♪ CANDY: I grew up
with the American dream. ERIKA: But all Asian immigrants
were denied the right of naturalized citizenship and with
the Exclusion Act, the Chinese became the first
undocumented immigrants. CANDY: The American Dream is
a lovely dream to have and so people continue to aspire;
enduring whatever it is that they've got to do as immigrants. HELEN: Japanese Americans fought
on the side the United States, while the rest of their
family was incarcerated. ERIKA: Legal challenges were so
important because they did not have political power. And as much as tragedy is
a part of our heritage here, so is possibility. MAN: Asian voices
are coming out. ALEX: You've got these
young people fighting to make change happen. ALISA: They had to
assert their rights. NOBUKO: It was like a giant
genie coming out of the bottle. You couldn't put us back in. THAHN: These were stories about
what it meant to be human. What it meant to be resilient. VIET: To transform the system
into something more just for everyone, that's the hope
from which the Asian American movement was born. ♪ ♪ <i> NARRATOR: They come
from all corners of Asia,</i> <i> from tiny villages
and teeming cities.</i> <i>The first immigrants cross
the seas from China and Japan,</i> <i> from Korea, India
and the Philippines.</i> <i> Some flee poverty,
war and oppression,</i> <i> others seek opportunity
or adventure.</i> <i> They all dream of new
possibilities in America.</i> <i> Every dreamer has a story.</i> <i> One is 12 year old orphan,
Antero Cabrera,</i> <i>who sets off from the
Philippines in 1904 to see the</i> <i> land of riches he's
always heard about.</i> <i> He arrives at the
St. Louis World's fair,</i> <i> and what a
fantastic sight it is.</i> <i> Exhibits from over
50 countries dazzle</i> <i> 20 million visitors.</i> CANDY: St. Louis did
itself proud with the fair. It was a real
marvel to behold. All the technology
that was on display. Pseudo multicultural
exhibitions were popular at the time. The fair was huge. The United States was
telling the world that they had arrived. They were an imperial
power and their biggest exhibit was the Philippines. Their newly acquired colony. <i> NARRATOR: It is the age
of American imperialism:</i> <i>the U.S. defeats Spain in 1898,</i> <i> and annexes
colonies one by one.</i> <i> Its biggest
conquest is in Asia.</i> <i>After a long and bloody conflict
with Filipino nationalists,</i> <i>the U.S. takes the Philippines.</i> NAYAN: Thousands of Americans
go there as school teachers, as military people, as anthropologists
to study all the different people in
all the different islands of the Philippines. As McKinley, the president
at the time says, you know, "It's to save the
little brown brothers." <i> NARRATOR: In the Philippines,
Antero is educated by</i> <i>missionaries who believe their
divine mandate is to civilize</i> <i> the native population.</i> <i> Antero is a star pupil who
works as an interpreter and</i> <i> houseboy for
anthropologist Albert Jenks.</i> CANDY: Jenks was tasked with
bringing a shopping list of Filipinos to the fair. The Visayans were the most
civilized and then there were kind of grades going down. Then at the bottom or near
the bottom were the Igorots. Albert Jenks really believed
that they were savages. MIA: I belong to
the Bontoc tribe. We call ourselves the Igorots. My grandfather Antero, he was a very
intelligent little boy. Jenks trusted him and
asked my grandfather to come with him to the United States. Here was a, quote unquote,
"promised land". <i> NARRATOR: But
the promised land is not</i> <i> what Antero expected.</i> <i> His home at the fair is a
replica of an Igorot village,</i> <i> inside a living
anthropological exhibit.</i> CANDY: Anthropology at the
time had an evolutionary aspect of it where they
believed that there were races that were inherently
barbaric and races that were inherently enlightened, and they were arrayed
according to skin colors. It was kind of for Americans
to realize how superior they were to the rest of the world. MIA: A day for my
grandfather in the fair would be waking up, of course,
to the requirements of the fair managers. They were asked
to perform dances. They were told to
do some dog eating. These are savages and
this is how they look. This is how they live. CANDY: The Americans, they
just saw them as objects of display in those human zoos. MIA: The Igorots
were not blind. My grandfather actually
had a motive himself, to earn money so that
he could bring it back and then make his life better. NAYAN: So Antero, he's already gotten a taste
of what the possibilities are. Antero continues after
the world's fair. He can make a living,
have his expenses paid, see the world, and then develop economic
and social status. He even gets married and he
has a daughter that's actually born in the United States. CANDY: When you
think about Antero, he came home and he told
stories of his amazing adventures in America and
maybe the people that he told those stories to thought,
"Oh, we want to go too. We want to experience that." I grew up with
the American dream. My mother tells stories about
square dancing and learning how to do the boogie and the
reality is the people who have made it to America and
are now enduring whatever it is that they've
got to do as immigrants. Maintain the fiction
with the people at home. The American dream is a
lovely dream to have and so people continue to aspire
to the American dream. <i> NARRATOR:
Every dreamer has a story.</i> <i> Antero goes on to lead
a prosperous life,</i> <i> moving back and forth between
the US and the Philippines.</i> <i> And his descendants will
plant roots in America.</i> <i> These Asian immigrants
arrive during a</i> <i> time of great upheaval,</i> <i> of reinvention
and expansion.</i> <i> Asians will play
a crucial role as a new</i> <i> America is being forged.</i> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ CONNIE: 2019, May 10th, we have
this incredible celebration of the 150th anniversary
of the completion of the transcontinental railroad. <i> NARRATOR: Connie Young Yu
and descendants of Chinese</i> <i> railroad workers are here
to honor the men who laid</i> <i> these tracks 150 years ago,
and share stories of their</i> <i> astonishing exploits.</i> <i> This is a milestone
in Asian American history</i> ♪ CONNIE: And the
home of the brave. ♪♪ ♪ ♪ My great grandfather, Lee Wong Sang came
at the age of 19. He came to the United States
in 1866 and first job was on the railroad. <i> NARRATOR: The Chinese are
first lured to America by</i> <i>tales of riches in California.</i> <i> They join the great
Gold Rush of the 1850s.</i> <i> But many arrive too late</i> <i> and instead they find jobs
on the railroad.</i> <i> They become known as a
cheap source of labor,</i> <i> willing to take on
back-breaking work.</i> <i> And so more Chinese
are recruited,</i> <i> and they cross the ocean
in overcrowded ships.</i> GORDON: The ships
would come in and to the astonishment of observers,
they would begin to see these Chinese come up above deck. Most of the ships were
populated by young men, prime of life coming
over here to work, take their chances and see
what life would bring them, and they of course would
have their traditional queue, their so called pigtail, which was required of
them by Manchu emperors. And this was really
a novel sight. Chinese, after they
arrive in San Francisco, were sent into the
Sierras to work. <i> NARRATOR: The
transcontinental railroad</i> <i> fulfills the nation's grand
ambition to expand westward,</i> <i> seizing Native American
land along the way.</i> <i> The new railroad connects
the Atlantic to the Pacific.</i> <i> Irish immigrants lay
the track westward,</i> <i> while the Chinese work their
way eastward to meet them.</i> CONNIE: My great grandfather, he learned English
and he became a foreman. He was paid $1 a day
and the cost of the food was taken from that dollar
and the rest of it would be sent home to his village. GORDON: The rail Chinese
become indispensable for the railroad company. They become 80 to 90% of
the construction crew. The railroad line
could not have been built without the Chinese. The Chinese railroad workers
work through some of the most difficult terrain imaginable. The Sierra Nevada. The Chinese dug out 15
tunnels through solid granite. (dynamite blast) CONNIE: It was all hand
tools with blasting powder. They would run out of the
tunnel and after the blast, they'd muck it out and
start doing it again. And can you imagine
how dangerous that was? GORDON: The most dangerous
time was wintertime. The snow avalanches would just
come down in monumental force and just sweep away
dozens of workers. Chinese associations send out
teams to recover remains of Chinese for repatriation. 20,000 pounds of remains,
around 1,200 people, picked up in one sweep
to be sent back to China. <i> NARRATOR: After
six brutal years,</i> <i>the two tracks finally come
together at Promontory Summit.</i> <i> On May 10, 1869,</i> <i> the lines are linked
with the driving of a</i> <i> ceremonial Golden Spike.</i> GORDON: The moment is
immortalized in one of the most famous photos of the 19th
century in the United States. People believe this photo
deliberately omits Chinese. Despite their accomplishment, their sacrifice,
their suffering, they were prohibited
from entering the frame. <i> NARRATOR: With the
railroad now complete,</i> <i> the workers stand
at a crossroads:</i> <i> Should they return to China,</i> <i> or carve out their
future in America?</i> <i> Thousands decide to
stay and take their chances.</i> CONNIE: My great grandfather,
he was able to save money working on the railroad, go
back to San Francisco and be a partner in a general store. <i>NARRATOR: The bustling quarter
is the center of life for</i> <i> Chinese immigrants,
mostly laborers,</i> <i> young men far from
their families.</i> <i> Chinatown is home.</i> <i> While the majority of Chinese
immigrants are laborers,</i> <i> a lucky few start
their own businesses.</i> <i> One such entrepreneur
is Joseph Tape.</i> <i> His story begins when
he arrives from China,</i> <i> alone, at age 14.</i> <i>He quickly learns
English and gets a job driving</i> <i> a milk wagon.</i> MAE: He was a little unusual
because he seemed to have cut his ties
to his family in China. He had ideas that he
would have his own business when he got older. He cut his queue, which
was kind of an announcement, he wanted to
become an American. <i> NARRATOR: On one
of his milk runs,</i> <i> he meets the girl who
will become his wife.</i> MAE: Mary Tape is an enigma. She's brought into the
United States and put to work as a servant in a brothel
and she knows what her future is going to be. So this little girl ran away
to the home of the ladies protection and relief
society and she's raised as a white American girl. Mary, who's effaced all of
her Chinese-ness meets this Chinese boy and there's this
recognition that they're both Chinese and American. Joseph and Mary get married
and they have an incredible life story together
as one of the first Chinese American families. Joseph does realize his dream
ambition to be his own man and he starts his own
business in Chinatown. <i> NARRATOR: Joseph launches
a transportation business,</i> <i> shuttling new-comers from the
docks to the Chinese quarter.</i> MAE: The route that he always
took was up third street and that was where racists would
gather on the bridge and throw rocks and stones at the
Chinese entering the country. <i> NARRATOR:
Before the Civil War,</i> <i> America's economy
was fueled by the labor</i> <i> of enslaved Africans.</i> <i> After slavery is outlawed,</i> <i> the country is desperate
for new sources of labor.</i> NAYAN: By 1870, the Chinese
were actually such a extraordinarily
important part of the workforce of California. They were the people that
were making it happen, from construction to
manufacturing to agriculture. People began to have
this idea that the Chinese were a threat
to American laborers. MAE: Chinese were depicted
in cartoons as being evil and not Christian. They're pagans. Their queues seems to have
been a particularly offensive to white people. Chinatown is considered this,
kind of, den of iniquity and they become
associated with vices like gambling and opium,
prostitution. It was just a terrible time. It was a terrible time to
be Chinese in California. CONNIE: There was a
rise of white labor. And the 1870s was when the
great anti-Chinese movement took place. And the rallying cry was,
"The Chinese must go." MAE: The gangs would roam
through the streets. They would go to Chinatown
and beat people up. They would attack
Chinese laundries, burn them down and
all over the West, the Pacific Northwest through
Nevada, Southern California, there were riots,
lynching's, burnings, massacres really of Chinese. <i> NARRATOR: In 1882, the
sentiment on the streets</i> <i> reaches Washington, DC.</i> <i> Congress passes the
Chinese Exclusion Act,</i> <i> closing the door on
all Chinese laborers.</i> <i> For the first time in
the nation's history,</i> <i> a group of people is banned
from entering the country</i> <i> solely on the basis of race.</i> ERIKA: The Exclusion
Act bars laborers, but it allows Chinese
students, teachers, travelers, merchants, and diplomats to
still apply for admission. So, it then set in motion
the requirement of immigration documents that
Chinese were required to hold on their person and it
establishes both the laws and the mechanisms to arrest and
deport those who are found in the country unlawfully. So in essence, Chinese
immigrants became the first illegal immigrants, the first
undocumented immigrants. <i> NARRATOR: The exclusion
laws cast a shadow</i> <i> over Chinese immigrants.</i> <i> They either have to abandon
their dream of a life here or</i> <i> find a way to
circumvent the law.</i> <i> Joseph Tape sees
an opportunity to</i> <i> expand his business.</i> MAE: Joseph's work as a
transportation agent and a broker or interpreter put
him in this position of being, you know, this
in between person. Needed by both sides,
but also mistrusted. For the Tape family. If you take a step back, you can think
about what kind of opportunities were there for
Chinese in the late 19th century to become part of
the white middle class? The only way you could
really do it was through this brokering position. And it's the one little crack
in the wall of exclusion where there's a need for somebody
like this who can stick his foot through the wall. Joseph and Mary have
several children. Mamie was the first. Mary tried to enroll her
in the Spring Valley School on Union Street. The principal,
Jenny Hurley says, "I'm sorry, we have
a policy in the city that Chinese are not
allowed in our schools." Mary is furious
and they decide to sue. ALISA: I just feel so
proud that they did that. Mary and Joseph did not see
themselves as marginalized. I think they felt that they
had to assert their rights. I mean, they
weren't born here, but their daughter and their
other kids are all born here, so why shouldn't they avail
themselves of the privileges and the rights of
an American citizen? MAE: The case goes to the
California Supreme Court, which rules that
they cannot exclude Chinese from the schools. But the California Supreme
Court, gives a big hint, "There's no law saying
you can't segregate." San Francisco Board
of Education hurries to put into place a segregated school
just for Chinese. Mary's incensed and
she writes a letter to the school board that gets
reprinted in the newspapers. ALISA: Dear Sirs,
will you please tell me, is it a disgrace
to be born Chinese? What right have you to bar
my children out of the school because they are
of Chinese descent? Mamie Tape will never
attend any of the Chinese schools
of your making. Never. She is more of an American
than a good many of you that are going to prevent
her from being educated. Signed Mrs. M. Tape. MAE: The irony is
when the school opens, Frank and Mamie are the
first two kids at the school because at the end of the day, they wanted their
kids to go to school and it must've been a really, really bitter pill
for them to swallow. ERIKA: Legal challenges were so
important for Chinese Americans because they did
not have political power. All Asian immigrants
were denied the right of naturalized citizenship. Asian Americans were demanding
equality and social justice for all Americans actually. <i> NARRATOR: Although the
Chinese are near the bottom</i> <i> of the social ladder,</i> <i> they take their fight to the
highest court in the land,</i> <i> The U.S. Supreme Court.</i> <i> Immigrant laundrymen
prevail in the case</i> <i> Yick Wo versus Hopkins.</i> <i>They set the precedent for
equal protection under the law,</i> <i> regardless of race.</i> <i> A restaurant worker
named Wong Kim Ark,</i> <i> wins the fight to
guarantee citizenship for</i> <i> anyone born in the U.S.</i> <i> Although the Exclusion
Act says to the Chinese,</i> <i> "You have no place
in this country,"</i> <i> it's the Chinese who help
define American citizenship.</i> CONNIE: My grandfather,
Lee Yoke Suey was a merchant, he was born in Chinatown
and he had a store. April 18th, 1906
was the day of the great San Francisco earthquake. It was the earthquake
in the morning and they were evacuated
and my grandfather realized there were some
papers that he had to have and he runs back
and grabs a bunch of papers. He's coming out and a soldier
sees him and bayoneted him because they thought
he was a looter. So my grandfather played dead
and got up later when the soldier left and
joined his family. What my grandfather thought
was so important that he risked his life for was his
birth certificate and several letters of recommendation from
white people that he was a legitimate American Citizen. That's what you
needed at that time, that was worth your life. My grandfather, he would
go back and forth to China, but every time he traveled,
his papers were checked. He wanted his family with him,
so he brought his family on one of the trips and had
them staying in Shanghai. In September of 1922,
he was coming back and he died on board ship. My grandmother realized
she had to go back to the United States and these
were American-born children. My mother and her
three sisters. My mother said it
was so exciting when they reached the Golden Gate, they could see the city
and they were jumping up with joy and then she said,
"And then to be stopped." <i> NARRATOR: Angel Island
Immigration Station,</i> <i> which opened in 1910, is
the chief point of entry for</i> <i> immigrants from across Asia.</i> CONNIE: They had an
inspection at the dock. The children
were released because they were American Citizens, but my grandmother's papers,
they officially said, "This is Wong Shee,
wife of Lee Yoke Suey." The inspector said,
"You're a widow. Your husband is not with you. A widow has no status,"
and she was detained. She was taken to Angel Island. Angel Island has been called
the Ellis Island of the West. Nothing could be
farther from the truth. Ellis Island with the
Statue of Liberty represents immigrants being welcome. Angel Island meant exclusion. It meant interrogation. It was a place to be feared. My grandmother was
detained on Angel Island for 15 and a half months. <i> NARRATOR: In 1977,
Connie took her mother back</i> <i> to Angel Island for the
first time in 50 years.</i> CONNIE: My mother would take
the ferry with her sister to visit her mother. She would try to visit
like twice a week. They could only talk through
a barrier for like 15 minutes. My grandmother
told my mother, "When you leave, when you go down the
walkway to the boat, look at the window of the
barracks and I'll be waving from the top floor. I'll be waving
from the window," and so my mother would
go down and she'd see my grandmother's hand
waving to her. One of the harshest
punishments is to separate parents from their children. It's the detention of people
who are struggling to survive. <i> NARRATOR: Connie's
grandmother spends over</i> <i> a year at Angel Island,</i> <i> before she's finally
able to reunite with her</i> <i> American-born children.</i> <i> Despite the
anti-Chinese fervor,</i> <i> new groups of immigrants
continue to arrive.</i> <i> They add to the mix of
Asians already in America.</i> <i> Many are Sikh men from
India who find jobs up and</i> <i> down the west coast.</i> VIVEK: The emphasis in South
Asian American history over the years has been on
West Coast migration, but from very, very early on, there have also been
migrants and immigrants and ship workers coming
to ports on the East Coast. One of the earliest of
those migrations consisted of Muslim men from
the region of Hooghly, north of Calcutta,
who were silk traders. One of those men
was Moksad Ali. (jazz music plays) (overlapping chatter) AKLEMIA: My name is Aklemia
and it comes from India and I'm named after my great
grandmother Aklemia. ROBIN: We heard that
my great grandfather Moksad was Turkish.
We heard that he was an Arab. I knew growing up that
he traveled a lot. He was like a
traveling salesman. VIVEK: The peddler network in
some ways have gone under the radar because that
group was so transient. The majority of men who were
peddling would come during the summer months to
the seaside resorts and then make their way south. Moksad Ali was one of
the earliest to settle in New Orleans. Moksad Ali and the
other peddlers, in order to sell their goods, they played up
their South Asian-ness, their Indian-ness. They played to the
fantasies of the exotic East that the tourists who they
were selling to expected. At the end of
the day, however, they were dark-skinned men
in a deeply segregated society and the places where
they were able to live, build homes,
marry and begin families were within African
American communities. Moksad married an African
American woman from the neighborhood of Treme. Ella Blackman. After I wrote about Moksad
and Ella in my book, I was contacted by fourth and
fifth generation descendants. ROBIN: To find out
that we were Indian, it just intrigued us that
we wanted to learn more so we kept reaching
out to Vivek, asking him, "Well, did you
find out anything?" VIVEK: This isn't
something that I expected. I had only seen
Moksad and Ella as names within archival documents. I had never even seen
photographs of them. ROBIN: I can recall my
grandmother telling me a story about when they were small
that her and her dad and mother went to New York
on the train. The kids and the father
was all allowed to sit up in the front and the train, but my grandmother
had to sit in the back and she said, well, it
wasn't that she looked black. It was the fact that
they knew she was black. I said, well that's odd
because some of the kids' skin complexion is darker
than my grandmother's. So, I thought that was
really weird, but... VIVEK: Moksad was darker
than your grandmother. ROBIN: Right. I know you've been
waiting a while to see it. The cemeteries back
then were segregated. So they should not
have been in here, but they were buried here. VIVEK: A white cemetery.
ROBIN: A white cemetery. VIVEK: So he was
known as Indian. ROBIN: Yes. VIVEK: And she was
known as black. ROBIN: Right. VIVEK: Even though he
was darker skinned, he was allowed to move
more freely to do more... ROBIN: Yes. Where she wasn't. VIVEK: Breaking the
color line in death. SHARMILA: Surely any immigrant
who comes to the United States, whether at the
beginning of the 20th century or even at the beginning
of the 21st century, comes here and realizes
there is a racial hierarchy in this country. The top is white and
at the bottom is black. That is how it works in the
United States and the new immigrant, like
any human being, wants to make sure that
they're as far from the bottom of the pecking
order as possible. In our quest for whiteness,
often we're trying to say, "We're not black, we're
not black, we're not black." That's what we're trying
to tell the host country. I don't think Asians were
always given the badge of honorary whiteness,
certainly not during the Chinese Exclusion Act. <i> NARRATOR: Even with families,</i> <i> jobs and dreams, Asians
cannot become Americans.</i> <i> By law, only whites
and blacks can apply</i> <i> for naturalized citizenship.</i> <i> So to become a citizen,
Asian immigrants choose</i> <i> what they see
as their only option.</i> VIVEK: For South Asians who
wanted to become citizens, for the most part, they made
the claim to being white. SHARMILA: The case of Bhagat
Singh Thind is a particularly important case in
US legal history, US immigration history,
and the history of how we understand race and
citizenship in this country. Bhagat Singh Thind was an
Indian from the region of India called Punjab. He was Sikh, he came to the
United States as a young man and joined the U.S. army during the last
year of World War I. Basically he goes to court
to prove that he is white. And this case goes back
and forth, back and forth, all the way to
the Supreme Court. The courts say that
Bhagat Singh Thind is, as a North Indian, someone
from the northern part of the sub-continent,
he is Caucasian, but not, that's
not white enough. So he's not white. MAE: So you have here
in 1923 a really interesting example of the Supreme Court
acknowledging that race is a social construct. Right? What the common man on the
street thinks is white, that is white, and
nobody would consider you to be white. SHARMILA: If before Thind
there were other Indians who could be counted as white, when the court's
verdict comes out, that Thind is not white,
it has ramifications. Their citizenship
were taken away. They lost land because land
ownership was tied to this. ERIKA: Following the
Bhagat Singh Thind case, the government officials came, knocked on
Vaishno das Bagai's door, the South Asian American
who brought his entire family to the United States
because he believed that the United States, unlike India
under British Colonial rule, was a place where
his children could be free. <i> NARRATOR: Because of
the Supreme Court decision,</i> <i> Vaishno Das Bagai is
now denaturalized and his</i> <i> US citizenship revoked.</i> <i> And since non-citizens are
banned from owning property,</i> <i> he loses his house
and his store.</i> <i> He is stripped
of his identity.</i> ERIKA: He said, "Obstacles in front of
me and obstacles behind me." He could not find a way forward
and he commited suicide. <i> NARRATOR: Anti-immigration
policies bar new arrivals,</i> <i> but Asian American families
like the Tapes and Alis</i> <i> continue to thrive.</i> <i> Their US-born children imagine
a better future for themselves.</i> ♪ ♪ ERIKA: There is a really
important shift in particularly the Chinese and
Japanese American community. There is a second generation
population that is growing up. They're very insistent
that they are as American as anyone else. <i> NARRATOR: This generation
wants to play baseball,</i> <i> dance the Charleston,
and see themselves reflected</i> <i> on the silver screen.</i> <i> And for the first time,
they do.</i> SHIRLEY: Anna May Wong
was born in Los Angeles, just outside of Chinatown,
January 3rd, 1905. And she was born
to a laundry man, and as a child she
would deliver bundles of laundry to customers. With the tips, she
would go to the movies. That helped shape her into
wanting to actually become part of Hollywood
and the movies. So Anna May Wong's
first starring role was in "The Toll Of The Sea". She was 17 when she got
the role and she plays a Madame Butterfly role
where she gets pregnant by an American man and ends up
actually giving him the baby and committing suicide. NANCY: There was always,
I think, an ambivalence that her family had with her career. So even though she
was earning a lot, she was actually putting
her siblings through school, they were not proud of her. SHIRLEY: One of her most
prominent roles was in "The Thief of Baghdad"
with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. MAN: The Mongol slave
girl is portrayed by the beauteous Anna May Wong, who is soon to be type for
every Oriental role in the Hollywood spectrum. SHIRLEY: She did play in a
somewhat scantily clad outfit and I think she got some
grief from her family, but it did catapult her
into a level of fame. Her career had everything to
do with American attitudes towards Asian Americans. MAN: Ling Moy, I can't
believe such loathsome jealousy in you. ANNA: No love now. No jealousy. Just merciless vengeance. NANCY: In interviews she
would say things like, "Why do we always have
to be the villain?" You know? "Us, a civilization that's so
much older than the West." MARLENE: Don't do
anything foolish. NANCY: She jokes that like
on her tombstone has to say, "She died 1,000 deaths,"
because every single movie she just either commits suicide
or gets shot or just dies. ANNA: Forgive me,
majestic father. <i> NARRATOR: The only
other Asian star to grace the</i> <i> silent screen is the
Japanese immigrant actor</i> <i> Sessue Hayakawa.</i> <i> He and Anna May Wong
dazzle Hollywood and</i> <i> project an image
to audiences who may never</i> <i> meet an Asian in real life.</i> NANCY: Sessue Hayakawa started
in "The Cheat" which was 1915, and "The Cheat" was what really
propelled him to superstardom where he became
this matinee idol. Apparently he was walking
across the street and there was a puddle and
he was, like, grimacing and then all these dozens
of white women, like, lay down their furs onto the puddles
so he could walk across the fur to them. ERIKA: "The Cheat" is a great
example of an enduring casting of Asian men as a
sneaky evildoer who is Westernized on the outside, but Oriental
through and through, and who has as his ambition to take over the United States, either through military
occupation or through economic control, and most certainly
through the possession and defilement of white women. He literally stamps her, burning his brand
into her flesh. It's a very violent end,
a message that perfectly resonated in
1915 with the racial violence that's endemic. NANCY: Even though the
film was highly popular and propelled him to superstardom,
the Japanese American community were horrified. Violence enacted against
Japanese because of that film. <i> NARRATOR: Sessue Hayakawa
goes on to establish his</i> <i> own studio to take creative
control of his career.</i> <i> And Anna May Wong continues
to work in the talkies.</i> <i> But leading roles in
mainstream movies remain out</i> <i> of reach for her.</i> <i> So when she learns about
a big budget Hollywood movie</i> <i> set in China,</i> <i> she sees an opportunity
for a breakthrough.</i> SHIRLEY: "The Good Earth",
everybody in Los Angeles' Chinatown knew it was going
to be the biggest movie ever. It had a huge
budget, $2 million. MGM, big studio production. The Good Earth epitomized the
height of Hollywood yellowface casting with Paul Muni,
who's white playing the leading male Chinese peasant,
and Luise Rainer. LUISE: I am with child. SHIRLEY: Both would go on to
win Academy Awards for their performances, so
this was rewarded. ♪ JOLSEN: Mammy, mammy ♪♪ SHAIRLEY:
Blackface and yellowface, it's really a reflection of
Americans and how deeply racist American
society was at the time. White actors and actresses
would be made up, blackface, faces blackened,
yellowface, eyes taped, yellow makeup and would play in
general mocking performances, a very stereotyped
and negative portrayal of what they believed the
other races to be like. MAN: You'd better look out. ANNA: Perhaps the white girl
had better be looking out. SHIRLEY: Anna May Wong knew
that if she got a leading role in "The Good Earth" it would
change her entire career. She was asked to try out for
Lotus, the supporting role, the evil wife character, and she famously told
the Los Angeles Times in 1935, "How dare
they ask me to try out for the only negative
role in this film, you know, me being the only person
with Chinese blood." ANNA: "December 16th, 1935. Darling Fania, I've made two
tests for the Lotus part. From all appearances,
Miss Rainer is definitely set for the part of Olan. No use bucking up
against a stone wall. Particularly everyone,
including my friends, seem to feel that I should
take the Lotus part if there's lots of money in it. Always, Anna May." SHIRLEY: Once it became clear
to her that she was not going to get the leading role in
"The Good Earth" and that the Lotus role was offered to a
white actress, she was like, "To hell with Hollywood." <i> NARRATOR: Despite
the bamboo ceiling,</i> <i> Anna May Wong's
career spans 40 years in all</i> <i> the mediums of her time.</i> <i> The girl from Chinatown
continues to break barriers</i> <i> and challenge the
conventions of race and</i> <i> gender against all odds.</i> ♪ ♪ ELAINE: As the first
United States Secretary of Transportation of
Chinese ancestry, I have the unique and
moving opportunity to fully acknowledge the contributions
and sacrifices of these laborers of Chinese heritage. ERIKA: We know well the
consequences of immigration exclusion,
of denaturalization, of deportation and detention. It is a history of always
being in the shadow, of always feeling unwelcome. We have to see
all of these systems, Jim Crow segregation, Asian exclusion as
being interrelated. VIVEK: Everyone
say Moksad and Ella. CROWD: Moksad and Ella. ERIKA: They are all part
of a larger system about how race works, how we define
what it is to be an American. CONNIE: We honor the courage,
fortitude and sacrifice of Chinese railroad workers,
and their legacy in America, which belongs to all of us. <i> NARRATOR: They came
here with dreams of gold,</i> <i> but many found the promise
of something greater.</i> <i> Asian immigrants
built railroads,</i> <i> they built communities,
they built families.</i> <i> And they reimagined
the American dream.</i> <i> They challenged the country
to live up to its ideal as a</i> <i> place where people from
all corners of the world</i> <i> can call home.</i> ♪ ♪ ROBERTA: They're Americans
and they fought on the side of the United States
while the rest of their family was incarcerated. WOMAN: I couldn't believe
we were being corralled to this concentration camp. SATSUKI: The government framed
it as an issue of loyalty. ROBERTA: My uncles
felt compelled to renounce their brother. He was considered a traitor. SATSUKI: I'm here today
so the rest of this world hears our story. ♪ ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ <i> NARRATOR: To order
Asian Americans on DVD,</i> <i> visit ShopPBS.org
or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS</i> <i> This program is also available
on Amazon Prime Video.</i> ♪ ♪
Official Website: https://to.pbs.org/3wb174d | #AsianAmPBS
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.
Watch episodes of Asian Americans through June 26 on the PBS Video App and here on YouTube. Check back each week in April for more! https://to.pbs.org/39T7EXU
Asian Americans is a five-hour film series that delivers a bold, fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever. Told through intimate and personal lives, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played in shaping the nation’s story.
Thank you for sharing this! Bookmarked this episodes to watch for later, PBS always comes through with amazing content.
Good share, wished for more content on South Asians and various Southeast Asians, especially refugees...mostly about early Chinese and Japanese interns which is covered in US History class. But, you get to see things in this series as a lot more layered and gray, than just two sides to the story.
Highly recommended!
Love me some PBS documentaries!