Immigrants Hungry for a Taste of Home Feast on the International Channel

The five-bedroom Ventura home Mui Liang shares with her son and his family has a washing machine and dryer, dishwasher, videocassette recorder and a kitchen filled with shiny, modern appliances.

But Liang, 77, who followed her nine adult children from Thailand 10 years ago, still yearns for a slice of her native culture that is hard to come by in her adopted land: Thai soap operas.

Isolated by her inability to speak English and by an illness that confines her to bed, she longs that much more to hear the rhythms of her native language and see the ancient dramas depicted on afternoon TV.

Liang’s family has driven to Los Angeles for years to rent tapes of Thai programs. But now snapshots of Liang’s homeland are available in Ventura through a cable television broadcast of the International Channel, carried 24 hours a day by most cable operators in Ventura County.

For Liang and thousands of other Ventura County immigrants, newcomers and longtime residents alike, ethnic cable broadcasts in more than 20 languages provide a vital link to their foreign cultures and personal pasts.

Pam Drake, marketing director at Avenue TV Cable in Ventura, said the station began carrying the International Channel in November at the request of local viewers such as Liang.

“We received calls and letters from customers from the Middle East, India and Korea who wanted to see the same programs that their relatives are able to see in L.A.,” she said.

The news and entertainment shows broadcast on the channel mirror immigration trends in Ventura County, whose population includes an estimated 16,000 Filipinos, 6,300 Chinese, 3,700 Koreans, 3,100 Vietnamese, 3,000 Indians and 900 Thais and Laotians.

In prime time, the channel carries news, Hong Kong variety shows and traditional dramas in Cantonese and Mandarin. Each week, viewers can also find talk shows, cooking programs and movies broadcast in Farsi, Hindi or Korean.

On the popular Hindi show, “Hit Thi Hit Hai,” a sari-clad hostess interviews actors, producers and screenwriters from Indian cinema. “Mr. Cupido,” a half-hour Filipino drama, is based on passionate tales submitted by viewers, which are reenacted by Tagalog-speaking stars.

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The broadcasts also depict how societies around the world reconcile modern and traditional values. A popular Korean drama aired at 6 a.m., for instance, depicts a young woman who must decide which is more important: her career or her household duties.

A range of companies that include A T & T and Panasonic have discovered that these shows are a good way to target the nation’s burgeoning ethnic markets. Some sponsors run ads in as many as half a dozen languages.

Cable subscribers can view the international fare on Channel 58 in Ventura and Channel 57 in Oxnard and Port Hueneme. It’s also shown on Channel 54 in Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks and Westlake and Channel 15 in Fillmore, Moorpark, Santa Paula and parts of Camarillo.

And it’s not only immigrants that watch.

Carl Wright of Camarillo watches Japanese mini-dramas and travelogues for pleasure--and because it’s a way for him to better understand wife Keiko’s culture. Last week, the 3M chemist tuned in to a documentary about hot springs where Japanese families bathe together naked at communal spas.

“Is it really like that in Japan?” Wright asked his wife. “Did you ever do that with your family?”

She did.

Wright says that watching the Japanese programs, most of which are subtitled in English, has also helped him better appreciate his wife’s way of thinking.

When the couple’s two daughters were recently invited to a friend’s birthday party at Disneyland on a weekday, Carl felt it was OK for the girls to miss a day of school. Keiko saw things differently.

“It’s like pulling teeth for her to allow the kids to miss even an hour of school for any reason whatsoever,” Wright said. “Watching these shows, I’ve come to see it’s not just my wife, the whole Japanese society is that way.”

Despite living in the United States for 18 years, Keiko Wright still closely follows events back home. She not only reads a Japanese daily newspaper, she watches a Tokyo news show.

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The International Channel also attracts those born in America who are eager to broaden their horizons or keep in touch with adopted nations.

Suzanne Pajot, an assignment editor at KADY-TV in Oxnard, spends most of her day following Ventura County news. But she begins each morning by jogging on a StairMaster and watching the previous day’s news broadcast from France.

Pajot, who spent two years in Paris, said she watches French news to maintain her language skills and stay au courant with events in France.

“They show stories set all over Paris, and I recognize the places where I used to live,” Pajot said. “It makes me nostalgic for France.”

At other times, the depictions of terrorist bombings and monthlong transportation strikes remind her why she left. “I do sometimes watch stuff on French television and I say, ‘Thank God I live here.’ ”

For Mae Shue, a Camarillo 19-year-old who works as a clerk in a Ventura boutique, watching Chinese shows on the International Channel offers something that American shows seldom do.

“They show lots of Asian actors who look just like me.”