Residents of John Day, an eastern Oregon gold- mining town, didn't have much back in the 1880s, but they did have plenty of ma huang, dang gui and huang qi, thanks to Ing "Doc" Hay. The practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine from Guangdong province settled in the United States in the 1880s, bringing with him the herbal remedies.

Hay is one of the many Asians who helped shape American history profiled in "Crossing East," an eight-part documentary that includes an episode on Hawai'i's plantation era, airing on public radio stations nationwide this summer.

"Crossing East" executive producer Dmae Roberts set out to do something big — chronicle the Asian-American experience in its entirety.

"This has never been done before," she said by phone from the lobby of the Waikiki Sheraton, "not even on public radio." Roberts, based in Portland, Ore., is in town for two local "Crossing East" promotional events. One took place Tuesday at Hawaii's Plantation Village in Waipahu, and tomorrow Roberts will be at a "listening event" at Hawaii Public Radio's Atherton Studio for the Performing Arts, with some of the people who contributed personal stories to the program.

Roberts is best known for her autobiographical radio documentary "Mei Mei, A Daughter's Song." Recounting an epic trip to Taiwan with her mother, "Mei Mei" won Roberts the George Foster Peabody Award.

PLANTATION LIFE

It's not surprising that a documentary about the Asian-American experience would have a Hawai'i connection. "Raising Cane," the series' third installment, airs at 5 p.m. July 14 on KIPO 89.3.

To get it right, Roberts had a lot of local help — author and Pidgin scholar Lee Tonouchi; Chris Conybeare of Rice & Roses Video; Robynn Takayama, a Los Angeles radio producer whose grandfather Kazumi worked for the Wailuku Sugar Co.; "Pidgin Grammar" authors Kent Sakoda and Jeff Siegel; the staff of Hawaii's Plantation Village; and East-West Center fellow and independent radio producer Jenny Dunn, not to mention the dozens of old-timers who shared their plantation experiences for posterity with the producers of "Crossing East."

The nitty-gritty of plantation life won't come as a surprise to longtime Hawai'i residents, but undoubtedly a great deal of it will be news to the listeners of the approximately 200 public radio stations airing "Crossing East" on the Mainland.

"It's really meaningful to know it won't just be heard here," said Takayama, "because this is part of American history — the sweat and hard labor of Asian immigrants." Takayama's grandfather died at age 92 in 2004, just before "Crossing East" went into production. "It was really meaningful to hear these stories not just from him but from people who knew him," she said.

STAR POWER

Part of the unusually high profile of "Crossing East" is due to its content, but the media attention also comes as an unusual coincidence involving one of the show's hosts — actor George Takei, best known as Sulu on the original "Star Trek." Takei, a longtime activist for Asian-American causes, suddenly found himself in the national news last fall when he made public his homosexuality. He used a little of his subsequent face time on MSNBC and other venues to plug "Crossing East."

Takei hosts the series' first four episodes, including "Raising Cane." According to Roberts, he was a natural choice for the episodes dealing with earlier Asian-American history.

"George has this old-time 'Voice of God' delivery," said Roberts, "so that was perfect for the first four episodes, the early stuff."

Comedian Margaret Cho hosts the latter four episodes, dealing with more contemporary matters, such as the flight of Southeast Asian refugees to the U.S. in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the illegal bombing of Laos and Cambodia, and the plight of Korean and Chinese store owners during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

"Crossing East" does not pull punches. While it acknowledges the opportunities for social advancement that Asians have gained in the U.S., it never loses sight of the fact that for most of its history, America's policy toward Asian immigration has been one of systematic exclusion. And those that made it in the largest numbers were brought for thankless tasks such as laying railroad tracks and cutting sugar cane.

But to what end? Are Asian-American immigrants walking the path toward assimilation taken by immigrants from Ireland and Southern and Eastern Europe?

"When you go to another country," says the half-Japanese Roberts, "you try to fit in. That's the American dream, to some extent. But can you ever really assimilate? I don't think so."

Unsurprisingly, Hawai'i's influence on the series extends beyond "Raising Cane." The first episode, "First Contacts," which airs June 30, devotes a segment to Kanaka Village, a fur-trapping settlement in what is now Washington state that drew large numbers of Native Hawaiians.

For Roberts, Hawai'i is an integral part of the Asian-American experience. "Hawai'i is unique because it's the most multi-ethnic state in the country. It's a microcosm of what happened in the rest of the country," she says. "Instead of just assimilating, people take on the good parts of each other. Hawai'i is the model for what America should be."

Freelance writer Joel Tannenbaum covers art and history.