Radio Bandung Collection (TAM 746)

Radio Bandung was a weekly radio news magazine that delivered news and cultural information about Asian/Pacific/American communities and the Asian/Pacific geographic region to the general public from 1991 through the late 1990s. Domestic topics covered on the program included anti-immigration hearings, South Asian taxi drivers in New York City, the Native Hawaiian independence movement, and LGBTQ rights. International issues included AIDS activism in Southeast Asia, new film movements in China and Vietnam, and redress efforts over the forced sexual slavery of Korean women and girls by the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II (euphemistically referred to as “comfort women”). 

The Radio Bandung Collection (dated 1986-1998) consists of materials documenting the program’s regular activities including: show outlines, scripts, grant applications, financial records, equipment sign-out sheets, and technical manuals for radio production equipment. The collection also contains materials concerning the production of the documentary Silent Decades: Chinatown and McCarthyism, including press kits, drafts and transcripts in various stages, and editing documents. The Radio Bandung collection documents and demonstrates Asian/Pacific/American efforts to represent and analyze the community’s experiences with racism, discrimination, immigration, and ethnic identity formation. 

To learn more about the contents of the Radio Bandung Collection, located at the NYU Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, view the collection’s finding aid.