AAPI Heritage Month Programming on WETA World

Wednesday, May 1

On Honolulu's famous Waikiki Beach stand four large stones that represent a Hawaiian tradition of healing and gender diversity that is all but unknown to the millions of locals and tourists passing by. According to legend, the stones are a tribute to four mahu - people of dual male and female spirit - who brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii and used their spiritual power to cure disease.

Wednesday, May 1

For My Father's Kingdom follows Tongan pensioner Saia Mafile’o and his family as they are stretched to breaking point by the commitment and passion to God that has driven Saia’s life. This debut feature documentary offers a rich view of how contemporary secular families deal with the rigors of devout Christian tithing, as well as a unique insight into traditional Tongan culture.

Wednesday, May 1

Follow fashion designer Sharayah Chun-Lai and her family as they put it all on the line to bring Ola Hou Designs to the New York runway. 

Thursday, May 2

Weaving together never-before-seen archival footage and photographs, Chinatown Rising reveals a deeply personal portrait of a San Francisco neighborhood in transition. Chinatown activists of the 1960s reflect on their years as young residents waging battles for bilingual education, tenants’ rights and ethnic studies curriculum that would shape their community and nation.

Monday, May 6

Learn about Mahatma Gandhi's early transformative years in South Africa and final days through the eyes of historians and witnesses who grew up in his presence, including Dr. Rajmohan Gandhi, a historian, and Gandhi's grandson, Indian scholar Dr. Vandana Shiva, and author James W. Douglass.

Monday, May 6

An exploration of the survival of urban ethnic neighborhoods in three American cities: Washington, DC, Chicago, and Boston. Through the voices of residents, community activists, developers, and government officials, the film looks at the forces altering each community and the challenges that go with them, including urban development and gentrification. 

Tuesday, May 7

Learn about Mahatma Gandhi's early transformative years in South Africa and final days through the eyes of historians and witnesses who grew up in his presence, including Dr. Rajmohan Gandhi, a historian, and Gandhi's grandson, Indian scholar Dr. Vandana Shiva, and author James W. Douglass.

Tuesday, May 7

An examination into the life of Grace Lee Boggs, a Chinese American philosopher, writer and activist. 

Thursday, May 9

As a teen, Alaudin Ullah was swept up by the energy of hip-hop and rebelled against his Bangladeshi roots. Now a playwright contending with post-9/11 Hollywood’s Islamophobia, he sets out to tell his parents’ stories. In Search of Bengali Harlem tracks his quest from mid-20th-century Harlem to Bangladesh, unveiling intertwined histories of South Asian Muslims, African Americans, and Puerto Ricans.

Thursday, May 9

See the world through the eyes of Nam June Paik, the father of video art and coiner of the term "electronic superhighway." Born in Japan-occupied Korea, Paik went on to become a pillar of the American avant-garde and transformed modern image-making with his sculptures, films, and performances

Friday, May 11

This film is a fascinating look at Nushu, a 400-year-old written language invented to allow Chinese women to communicate with each other without men understanding. It spans past and present, as two young women try to continue the tradition while fiercely protecting it.

Sunday, May 12

This film chronicles the previously untold stories of Japanese Americans who self-evacuated from the West Coast in the wake of forced incarcerations during World War II. 

Monday, May 13

The award-winning film chronicles the life and revival of Fanny, a groundbreaking 1970s rock band co-founded by Filipina American sisters and other teenage girls. The legendary rock group is the first all-women band to release an album with a major record label.

Monday, May 13

For decades, a group of Chinese residents, now grandpas and grandmas, have patrolled the streets of Manhattan's Chinatown as NYPD volunteer police while fighting to find belonging in a country that felt foreign and unwelcoming to them. From the savage tribulation in the '70s to "Asian Hate" during the COVID-19 pandemic, these stories remind us of the hope the U.S. represented to the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses yearning to belong. 

Monday, May 13

Follow the journey of Cambodian refugee Ted Ngoy, who arrived in California in the 1970s and built a multimillion-dollar donut empire on the West Coast through a mixture of diligence and luck. 

Thursday, May 16

Charles Chiu and his family's attempt to trace their ancestral roots leads them to the Mississippi Delta, where they uncover stories and learn about the racially complex history of Chinese in the segregated South. 

Friday, May 17

American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai'i tells the stories of three kumu hula (master instructors) who direct hula schools based in California. The film explores the challenges they face trying to perpetuate hula faithfully, from the very traditional to the contemporary, as it evolves on distant shores. Their stories serve as a reminder of the power of tradition for communities creating a home away from home.

Saturday, May 18

During World War II, the U.S. government initially imposed policies that limited the use of cameras by Japanese Americans in the confinement sites, while simultaneously utilizing photography for propaganda. Despite the ban, Japanese American families found ways to document their lives. The photo albums reveal stories of community and resilience, transforming how this history is understood today.

Friday, May 18

Today it is estimated there are nearly 2 million people dancing hula in Japan – a figure greater than the entire population of Hawai‘i. Tokyo Hula examines how tourism, economics, and a love for all things Hawaiian have fueled this cultural phenomenon by focusing on the personal stories of Japanese teachers who have started their own schools and Hawaiian master teachers who are now living and teaching in Japan.

Sunday, May 19

We Said No! No! is a story of civil disobedience set against the backdrop of World War II and the controversial internment of thousands of “disloyal” Japanese Americans in the most notorious of all Japanese concentration camps, Tule Lake. It was there that the Japanese Americans who refused to say “yes” to the infamous Loyalty Questionnaire were imprisoned and labeled the “No, No’s.” 

Thursday, May 23

Follow director Crystal Kwok as she unpacks the history behind her grandmother's family, who were neighborhood grocery store owners in the Black community of Augusta, Georgia during the Jim Crow era. By centering on women's experiences, Kwok poses critical questions around the intersections of anti-Black racism, white power, and Chinese patriarchy in the American South.

Thursday, May 23

Shinmachi: Stronger Than a Tsunami is an hour-long documentary that shares the resilience of a unique Japanese community in Hilo, Hawaii. Their stories bring to life the once-thriving small business district founded by Japanese immigrant plantation laborers who made the bold decision to establish their economic independence from the sugar industry.

Friday, May 24

This film chronicles how the Asian American community came together to fight back against hate following the aftermath of the March 2021 mass shootings at three spas.

Saturday, May 25

A "then and now" look at the Japanese island at the heart of a brutal World War II battle, the film follows two men as they visit the historic war site. Narrated by sportscaster Jim Nantz, the film details events leading up to, though, and after the Battle of Iwo Jima via veteran interviews, archival material, and recreations. 

Sunday, May 26

The Vow from Hiroshima follows Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, on her 75-year journey to channel her horrific experience as a 13-year-old into banning nuclear weapons globally. Told through the intergenerational lens of her friendship with a second-generation survivor, the film takes us through Setsuko’s extraordinary life up to her present-day fight to abolish nuclear weapons.

Monday, May 27

The environmentally and culturally-sensitive design philosophies of George Nakashima, Junzo Yoshimura, and Antonin and Noemi Raymond continue to influence architecture and design today. A House in the Garden: Shofuso and Modernism offers viewers stunning visual explorations of three architecturally significant sites in the Philadelphia region that highlight the influence of traditional Japanese architecture on these four masters of modernist architecture and design.

Friday, May 31

Compelling story of how Yoga, Vedanta, the deeper aspects of Hinduism, and Interfaith understanding first entered the popular American conversation in 1893 with the arrival of charismatic yet almost forgotten Indian monk Swami Vivekananda at the first World’s Parliament in Chicago.