‘Ancestors’ Documents Asians’ Arrival in West

A major exploration of Asian immigration to North and South America begins tonight on PBS in “Ancestors in the Americas.”

Award-winning filmmaker Loni Ding, who teaches in the Asian American and ethnic studies department at UC Berkeley, looks at the centuries-old connections between East and West, retelling some familiar scenes from U.S. history along the way, from the Lewis and Clark expedition to the contributions of a Chinese tea merchant in building the Midwest railroads.

The first two hours of what will be a three-part documentary air tonight and next Thursday on KCET at 10 p.m. Part three will air sometime in the fall.

Tonight’s episode looks at the economic and political forces that brought the first Filipinos, Chinese and Asian Indians to places such as Mexico, the Louisiana bayou and Cuba from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Ding, who relies on a mix of historians and first-person family stories, explores America’s trade relationship with China and India, the introduction of opium to Asia and the subsequent waves of “coolie” labor to South America and the West Indies, which forced immigrants to endure horrific sea crossings and brutal working conditions once they arrived.

Part 2 focuses on the role Chinese immigrants to California during the 1800s Gold Rush played in building the American West. It also looks at the enormous number of historic court cases brought by the immigrant Chinese community, which helped reshape some areas of American law.

The final segment explores the late 1800s to the 1920s and the arrival of other Asian groups.

Ding’s past work for public television includes the films “Nisei Soldier” and “The Color of Honor,” about Japanese American soldiers during World War II.

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* Part 1 of “Ancestors in the Americas,” “Coolies, Sailors & Settlers: Voyage to the New World,” airs tonight at 10 on KCET.