Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month with WKAR-TV!
Check out a variety of AAPI specials on WKAR-HD 23.1 and WKAR WORLD 23.2
WKAR HD 23.1
3 | Fri
9:00 Great Performances: Now Hear This: The Composer Is Yoo
Follow host Scott Yoo's journey to compose a piece of music for the first time. Seeking counsel from other composers, Yoo revisits his heritage in search of ideas, performs landmark pieces for inspiration and ultimately tests his work in progress.
28 | Tue
9:00 Finding Your Roots: Children of Exile
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. retraces the ancestral journeys of David Chang and Raul Esparza, whose families fled their homelands, leading them to find lost parts of themselves along the way.
10:00 Frontline: South Korea's Adoption Reckoning
Allegations of fraud and abuse in South Korea's historic foreign adoption boom. With The Associated Press, investigating falsified records and faked identities in the adoption of 200,000 children to the U.S. and other countries over seven decades.
WKAR WORLD 23.2
2 | Thu
8:00 America ReFramed: Chinatown Rising
In America ReFramed's CHINATOWN RISING, filmmaker Harry Chuck's footage from the 1960s, weaved together with first-hand accounts and present-day interviews, explores how organizers and leaders in San Francisco's Chinatown fought for social justice and equality against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement.
9:30 Vanishing Chinatown: The World of the May's Photo Studio
At a time of public outrage over anti-Asian hate crimes, this new documentary shines a light on everyday life in San Francisco's Chinatown a century ago. Hundreds of photographs, serendipitously rescued from a Chinatown dumpster, chronicle the lives of an immigrant community from an insider's perspective. Through images from the early to mid-1900s, they reveal the artistry of a preeminent photographer of the time, preserving community life from civic parades to small businesses to fantastic Cantonese opera scenes.
4 | Sat
8:00 Asian Americans: Breaking Ground
See how new immigrants from China, India, Japan, the Philippines and beyond, despite anti-Asian laws, still manage to build railroads, dazzle on the silver screen and take their fight for equality to the U.S.
9:00 Asian Americans: A Question of Loyalty
Meet the first generation of U.S.-born Asian Americans, whose loyalties are tested during WWII.
10:00 America ReFramed: Chinatown Rising
In America ReFramed's CHINATOWN RISING, filmmaker Harry Chuck's footage from the 1960s, weaved together with first-hand accounts and present-day interviews, explores how organizers and leaders in San Francisco's Chinatown fought for social justice and equality against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement.
11:30 Vanishing Chinatown: The World of the May's Photo Studio
At a time of public outrage over anti-Asian hate crimes, this new documentary shines a light on everyday life in San Francisco's Chinatown a century ago. Hundreds of photographs, serendipitously rescued from a Chinatown dumpster, chronicle the lives of an immigrant community from an insider's perspective. Through images from the early to mid-1900s, they reveal the artistry of a preeminent photographer of the time, preserving community life from civic parades to small businesses to fantastic Cantonese opera scenes.
6 | Mon
8:00 Hbcu Week: Beyond The Field: A Tale of Three Chinatowns
Explore the survival of Chinatowns in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Boston. Through the voices of residents, developers and many others, the film looks at the forces altering each community and the challenges that go with them.
11 | Sat
8:00 Asian Americans: Good Americans
Learn how Asian Americans are simultaneously heralded as a model minority and targeted as the perpetual foreigner during the Cold War. It is also a time of bold ambition, as Asian Americans aspire to national political office.
9:00 Asian Americans: Generation Rising
Follow a young generation's fight for equality in the fields, on campuses and in the culture, claiming a new identity: Asian Americans. New immigrants and war refugees expand the population and definition of Asian America.
10:00 America ReFramed: In Search of Bengali Harlem
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.
13 | Mon
9:00 Local, USA: Chinatown Auxiliary
Chinese residents have patrolled Manhattan's Chinatown as volunteer police to protect their home while finding belonging in a foreign country. Their stories remind us of the hope the U.S. represented to the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses.
16 | Thu
8:00 America ReFramed: Far East Deep South
Charles Chiu and his family's search for their roots takes them on an eye-opening journey through the Mississippi Delta, uncovering otherwise unknown stories and the racially complex history of Chinese immigrants in the segregated South. This Chinese American family?s unforgettable story offers a poignant and important perspective on race relations, immigration and American identity.
9:30 POV Shorts: Happiness Is £4 Million
An idealistic young journalist in Beijing profiles China's biggest real estate speculator. Their divergent life experiences and clashing values reflect the generational and societal changes happening in the country.
17 | Fri
8:00 Pacific Heartbeat: Tokyo Hula
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.
9:00 Pacific Heartbeat: American Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawai'i
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.
18 | Sat
8:00 Asian Americans: Breaking Through
Revisit the turn of the millennium, when Asian Americans are empowered by growing numbers and rising influence but face a reckoning of what it means to be an American in an increasingly polarized society.
9:00 Snapshots of Confinement
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.
10:00 America ReFramed: Far East Deep South
Charles Chiu and his family's search for their roots takes them on an eye-opening journey through the Mississippi Delta, uncovering otherwise unknown stories and the racially complex history of Chinese immigrants in the segregated South. This Chinese American family?s unforgettable story offers a poignant and important perspective on race relations, immigration and American identity.
11:30 POV Shorts: Happiness Is £4 Million
An idealistic young journalist in Beijing profiles China's biggest real estate speculator. Their divergent life experiences and clashing values reflect the generational and societal changes happening in the country.
20 | Mon
9:00 Hbcu Week: Beyond The Field: Asian American Stories of Resilience and Beyond Volume 1
Queer filmmaker, Quyen Nguyen-Le, recovers and articulates the legacy of their mother's nail salon for their refugee family, and Filipino-American filmmaker Frances Rubio captures the experience of being distanced from her father during the pandemic.
25 | Sat
8:00 American Masters: Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir
Explore the life of the groundbreaking author of "The Joy Luck Club" in this intimate portrait. Archival imagery, home movies, photographs, animation and original interviews create a vivid, colorful journey through Tan's inspiring life and career.
10:00 America ReFramed: Blurring The Color Line
BLURRING THE COLOR LINE follows 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 women's experiences, Kwok poses critical questions around the intersections of anti-Black racism, white power, and Chinese patriarchy in the American South.
11:00 Alternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066
ALTERNATIVE FACTS: The Lies of Executive Order 9066 tells the untold story of false information and political influences which led to the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. The film also examines the parallels to the targeting of groups today and similar attempts to abuse the powers of the government.
27 | Mon
9:00 Hbcu Week: Beyond The Field: Asian American Stories of Resilience and Beyond Volume 2
Filipinx filmmaker Bree Nieves and her cousin grapple with what remains of their dreams, after losing one of their fathers; and Chanthon Bun must tread carefully after being released from prison since he lost his legal protection to live in the U.S.
29 | Wed
9:00 Frontline: South Korea's Adoption Reckoning
Allegations of fraud and abuse in South Korea's historic foreign adoption boom. With The Associated Press, investigating falsified records and faked identities in the adoption of 200,000 children to the U.S. and other countries over seven decades.