WETA proudly celebrates AAPI Heritage Month with a special lineup that highlights the rich culture and history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Throughout the broadcast year, the station is committed to presenting programs reflecting the diversity of our community.
Program Guide
Download a PDF of our full AAPI Heritage Month programming guide or explore specific channel offerings below.
All programs listed below will be airing on WETA PBS. Check the schedule for additional information.
Journeys in Japan
Saturdays at 8am
This travel series from Japan International Broadcasting provides a look at the many unique places to visit in Japan. English-speaking visitors explore Japan's cultural and historical sites, meet with locals and offer travel insights for destinations that are off the beaten path. Episodes feature the Yatsugatake Mountains; Tomonoura in Hiroshima Prefecture; Mihonoseki, on the eastern cape of the Shimane Peninsula; and the Ise-Shima area of Mie Prefecture, the venue for the 42nd G7 summit.
Asian Americans
Saturdays, May 4, 11 & 18 at 8pm
Asian Americans is a five-hour film series that delivers a bold, fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever. As America becomes more diverse, and more divided while facing unimaginable challenges, how do we move forward together? Told through intimate personal stories, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played.
American Masters: Tyrus Wong
Saturday, May 4 at 10pm
Until his death at the age of 106, Tyrus Wong was America’s oldest living Chinese American artist and one of the last remaining artists from the golden age of Disney animation. The quiet beauty of his Eastern-influenced paintings had a pioneering impact on American art and popular culture.
Repeats Sun 5/5, 4pm, 11pm
A House in the Garden: Shofuso and Modernism
Saturday, May 4 at 11:30pm
Visual explorations of three sites in the Philadelphia region that highlight the influence of traditional Japanese architecture by George Nakashima, Junzo Yoshimura and Antonin and Noemi Raymond.
Dora Fugh Lee: A Life in Art
Sunday, May 5 at 5:30pm
At four years old, Doro Fugh Lee was encouraged to become an artist and calligrapher. Her grandfather singled her out to become an artist of her era, and she learned from him and renowned masters.
Repeats Mon 5/6, 9:30pm; Sun 5/12, 5:30pm
American Experience: Plague at the Golden Gate
Saturday, May 11 at 10pm
Discover how an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900 set off fear and anti-Asian sentiment in San Francisco. This new documentary tells the gripping story of the race against time by health officials to save the city from the deadly disease.
Repeats Sun 5/12, 11pm
Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story
Monday, May 13 at 10pm
Using his camera as a “weapon against injustice,” Chinese American photographer Corky Lee’s art is his activism. His unforgettable images of Asian American life empowered generations. This film’s intimate portrait reveals the triumphs and tragedies of the man behind the lens.
American Masters: Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir
Saturday, May 18 at 9pm
The story of the author whose first novel, “The Joy Luck Club,” was published to great commercial and critical success. With the blockbuster film adaption that followed as well as additional best-selling novels, librettos, short stories and memoirs, Tan firmly established herself as one of the most prominent and respected American literary voices working today.
Repeats Sun 5/19, 11pm
Field Trip with Curtis Stone: Hong Kong
Thursday, May 23 at 4pm
Curtis heads to Hong Kong where he discovers the overlapping influences of tradition and a modern food scene that carries a deep respect for the past. Folding dumplings with a master who has been at it for 40 years, exploring jars of ancient ingredients, and facing up to a martial art legend whose most famous student was Bruce Lee, Curtis reconciles the balance between the old and the new.
American Masters: Waterman – Duke: Ambassador of Aloha
Sunday, May 26 at 3pm
Narrated by Jason Momoa, discover the inspiring story and considerable impact of five-time Olympic medalist Duke Kahanamoku. He shattered swimming records and globalized surfing while overcoming racism in a lifetime of personal challenges.
Stream AAPI Programs On Demand
Plague at the Golden Gate
American Experience
Discover how an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900 set off fear and anti-Asian sentiment in San Francisco. This new documentary tells the gripping story of the race against time by health officials to save the city from the deadly disease.
The Donut King
Independent Lens
An immigrant story with a (glazed) twist, The Donut King follows the journey of Cambodian refugee Ted Ngoy, who arrived in California in the 1970s and, through a mixture of diligence and luck, built a multi-million dollar donut empire up and down the West Coast.
Fanny: The Right to Rock
Fanny: The Right to Rock
Co-founded by Filipina American and queer teenagers, Fanny is the first all women band to release an album with a major record label (Warner/Reprise, 1970). Revered by David Bowie, meet the most groundbreaking rock group you've never heard of... yet.
Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir
American Masters
The story of the author whose first novel, “The Joy Luck Club,” was published to great commercial and critical success. With the blockbuster film adaption that followed as well as additional best-selling novels, librettos, short stories and memoirs, Tan firmly established herself as one of the most prominent and respected American literary voices working today.
Waterman – Duke: Ambassador of Aloha
American Masters
Narrated by Jason Momoa, discover the inspiring story and considerable impact of five-time Olympic medalist Duke Kahanamoku. He shattered swimming records and globalized surfing while overcoming racism in a lifetime of personal challenges.
Breaking Through
Asian Americans
At the turn of the new millennium, the national conversation turns to immigration, race, and economic disparity. As the U.S becomes more diverse, yet more divided, a new generation of Asian Americans tackle the question, how do we as a nation move forward together?
Breaking Ground
Asian Americans
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.
Generation Rising
Asian Americans
During a time of war and social tumult, a young generation fights for equality in the fields, on campuses and in the culture, and claim a new identity: Asian Americans. The war’s aftermath brings new immigrants and refugees who expand the population and the definition of Asian America.
Good Americans
Asian Americans
During the Cold War years, Asian Americans are simultaneously heralded as a Model Minority and targeted as the perpetual foreigner. It is also a time of bold ambition, as Asian Americans aspire for the first time to national political office and a coming culture-quake simmers beneath the surface.
A Question of Loyalty
Asian Americans
An American-born generation straddles their country of birth and their parents’ homelands.
CORRECTION: Certain errors in a previous version of this program have been corrected, including the statement that the Core Civic South Texas Family Residential Center separates children from their families, which is not the case, and the erroneous use of a photo of a different facility.