Collection
Asian Heritage in Minnesota
Minnesota has had a strong contemporary history in the development of Asian communities that have immigrated to the North Star State. The 70s saw the migration of Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos. Southeast Asians in the late 1970s and 1980s, including Hmong, Lao, Cambodian and Vietnamese made a home here, and more recently refugees from Tibet, Burma and Thailand have become a part of the dynamic Minnesota Asian community.
MPR has been recording decades of material that reflect the Asian experience in Minnesota directly from the voices of members in the community. The wide-ranging subject matter of immigration, civil rights, politics, arts & culture, music, education, and business are captured in the stories, recollections, adaptation, and traditions.
55 Collection Items
- Karen dance group celebrates their culture
MPR’s Danielle Wong profiles a St. Paul Karen dance group that is giving younger refugees a chance to celebrate their culture….and they're attracting new audiences in the Twin Cities and nationally.
- For the poet Bao Phi, a violent past is never far away
MPR’s Marianne Combs profiles Vietnamese American spoken word artist Bao Phi, who talks of the how racial trauma affects both his poetry and life. Phi also discusses his collection, “Thousand Star Hotel.”
- A profile of "Hmong-Lao Friendship Play"
MPR’s Doualy Xaykaothao interviews local playwright May Lee-Yang and poet/playwright Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay about Hmong-Lao Friendship Play.
- Hmong American artists discuss the roles that art plays for themselves and for the community
For the 40th anniversary since the first Hmong family settled in Minnesota, MPR’s Tom Weber interviews three Hmong American artists: spoken word and hip hop artist Tou Saiko Lee, painter Cy Thao, and writer Kao Kalia Yang. They discuss the value of the arts, through which personal and cultural pasts are melded with their present lives.
- Pai Yang commentary and interview on being Hmong
MPR News with Tom Weber presents a commentary and interview with Pai Yang, a Hmong woman who used to live in St. Paul. Yang shares her thoughts of Hmong family and perceptions of Hmong in society.
- Documentary spotlights pioneering Kim Loo Sisters
MPR’s Cathy Wurzer talks with Leslie Li, producer of a documentary on the Kim Loo Sisters, a 1930’s Chinese singing group that orginated form Minneapolis. Li is the daughter of one of the Kim Loo Sisters.
- Minnesota Sounds and Voices: Mu Daiko celebrates 15th anniversary
On this episode of Minnesota Sounds and Voices, MPR’s Dan Olson talks with members of Mu Daiko, a St. Paul-based Japanese drumming ensemble. Iris Shiraishi and Rick Shiomi discuss the background and rudiments of music style.
- Ed Bok Lee and Bao Phi: Two poets exploring, not explaining
MPR’s Euan Kerr profiles Korean poet Ed Bok Lee and Vietnamese American spoken word artist Bao Phi. The poets respective works explore the Asian American experience - with a very Minnesota perspective.
- The Karen a decade after immigrating to Minnesota
MPR’s Tim Nelson reports on how the Karen have adopted Minnesota as their new home, 10 years after the first of the Karen escaped the oppressive regime that rules Myanmar, and began to immigrate to the Twin Cities.
- Theater Mu performing Asian-American shows for more diverse audiences
Theater Mu open's its musical The Walleye Kid at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. After 15 years of performing in smaller theaters around the Twin Cities, the Asian American company is getting some welcome exposure in high-profile venues like the Ordway and the Guthrie.