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.
December 26, 1975 - MPR’s Kate Williams reports on the success and challenges of Minnesota program for arriving Vietnamese refugees. Topics include housing, education, and jobs.
January 7, 1980 - MPR’s Tom Meersman reports on Laotian refugees arriving in Minnesota. Meersman highlights struggles and adjustments the refugees face.
December 23, 1980 - MPR’s Rich Dietman reports on immigrant’s use of traditional folk medicine and care at International Clinic at St Paul Ramsey hospital. Report looks at how western medical professional are trying to better understand the different medical approaches and treatments.
June 22, 1991 - MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles local Hmong pop-rock group Asian Invasion. Roberts interviews members of the band, who describe their varied influences and cultural subject matter in songs.
December 3, 1991 - Worldview’s Mike Maus interviews Thupten Dadak, founder of the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota. Dadak discusses the struggles of Tibetans in their homeland, the Dalai Lama, Buddhism, and immigrating to the U.S.
November 27, 1992 - MPR’s Chris Roberts reports on the annual Hmong New Year’s celebration held in St. Paul. Roberts interviews participants and describes some of the customs on display.
March 26, 1993 - Hibbing native and second-generation Korean American author Marie Myung-Ok Lee reads from her new book "Finding My Voice."
April 23, 1993 - MPR’s Mike Maus interviews Minnesotan author Marie Lee on her young adult novel If It Hadn’t Been for Yoon Jun. Following a reading segment, Lee discusses the struggles of integrating her Korean and American identities and of feeling different than most other adolescents in her youth.
October 22, 1993 - Midday presents an MPR documentary “Far From the Mountains,” which follows the story of one of the 1,000 Tibetans resettling in the United States in the early 1990s. After documentary, Tupten and Tara Dadak, of the Tibetan-American Foundation of Minnesota, discuss topics from documentary.
October 18, 1996 - MPR’s Lorna Benson profiles Pua Xiong, a first-year resident who works at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul. Xiong describes how her quest for a medical degree has forced her to confront a multitude of cultural barriers.