Daily Archives: May 14, 2009

Terra Cotta Warriors in Houston and Washington DC

If you can’t get to China to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, you have a chance to see them in the US. (This isn’t The Mummy 3.) Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor was named one of the top five “must see” exhibitions by Time Magazine. This exhibit is making its way to the Houston Museum of Natural Science (May 22, 2009 – October 18, 2009) and the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC (November 19, 2009 to March 31, 2010). Check out the exhibit website here.

Learn more about Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor

Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority on PBS

Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority is currently on the Asian American film festival circuit. If you missed it, you can catch Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority on PBS. Other Asian American documentaries showing include Wings of Defeat and Bolinao 52.

In 1965, Patsy Mink became the first Asian American woman and woman of color in the United States Congress. PATSY MINK: Ahead of the Majority looks at Mink’s remarkable political journey, while often lonely and tumultuous, as she fought for the most disenfranchised and forgotten in society. Learn more about the life and career of Hawaii’s former Congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first Asian American woman in Congress. Mink served both the 1st and 2nd Congressional District of Hawaii for a total of 12 terms and was first elected in 1965. She pioneered the Title IX provision now known as the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, which bans gender discrimination in education programs receiving federal funds. Check your local PBS listing for airdates.

Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority Trailer

Bolinao 52 on PBS

For APA Heritage Month, PBS is showing a bunch of Asian American documentaries including Wings of Defeat and Bolinao 52. Bolinao 52 was on the Asian American film circuit a couple years ago and recently shown at a special screening of the 2009 Vietnamese International Film Festival. Here’s more about Bolinao 52:

Following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, millions refugees took the perilous escape across South China Sea to find freedom. Many died of drowning or starvation and thirst. Other lost at sea for days while some were pillaged, robbed and raped by pirates. However, more than 30 years after, no major film or television program tells their stories. Bolinao 52 is a long-silenced voice, an unspoken legacy of the Vietnam War – the story of the Vietnamese Boat People.

When Tung Trinh, a survivor of the Bolinao 52, stepped foot onto a crowded boat one night in May 1988, she did not know it was a trip that forever changed her life. After leaving Vietnam the Bolinao 52 engine died. They were ignored by passing ships. 19 days later, a US Navy ship stopped. But the captain refused to pick up the dying refugees. Facing death, they resorted to cannibalism. After 37 days at sea, 52 of 110 survived. Two decades later, this Bolinao 52 survivor returned to her past to close off the unresolved chapters.

Please check your local PBS listings for airdates in your area. Also Bolinao 52 is nominated for the 38th Annual NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AREA EMMY® AWARD. The film is nominated for two categories: Documentary and Musical Composition/Arrangement.

Bolinao 52 Trailer