A new documentary by a Honolulu-based production company explores the history and future of the Chinese in Hawai'i.

While "Finding Sandalwood Mountain" is a complete, un-abridged story of the Chinese in Hawai'i, it appeals to audiences of all backgrounds, said director Greg Andermann.

"What happened here in Hawai'i among Asians who became Americans is very different than what happened on the U.S. Mainland," Andermann said. "So a lot of local people who have seen this film have commented to me — whether they're Japanese, Korean or Filipino — they say, 'This is our story, too.' "

"Finding Sandalwood Mountain" premieres tonight on PBS Hawai'i. The documentary examines the lives, stories and social impact of Hawai'i's Chinese immigrants and their modern-day descendants. Viewers will learn about the heritage and influence of the Chinese people in Hawai'i, how they overcame hardship and discrimination, and succeeded in changing the history of both Hawai'i and China, Andermann said.

The film profiles prominent local Chinese figures: Chun Ah Fong, nicknamed Hawai'i's Chinese merchant prince; Sun Yat Sen, the father of modern China; and Hiram Fong, the first Asian U.S. senator.

"The film presents, in addition to the background of how and why the Chinese came to Hawai'i, the influence Hawai'i's melting pot can have for all nations in their efforts to transcend individual cultures and ethnicities," said Roger K.S. Liu, president of the Hawai'i Chinese History Center.

The documentary is also the first and only one of its kind that examines important population movements of the last two centuries, added Daniel W.Y. Kwok, University of Hawai'i-Manoa professor emeritus of history.

"It tells not only what Chinese have done in and for Hawai'i, but also what Hawai'i has meant in the modern history of China," Kwok said.

The title of the film comes from the phrase that the Chinese have used to refer to Hawai'i — tan siang shang, Mandarin for "sandalwood mountain" — because Hawai'i was the source of most of the sandalwood that came to China, Andermann explained.

"It was the mythical, distant land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that offered opportunities," he said.

Making the documentary was a five-year process that "was like a labor of love," Andermann said. The project involved a lot of traveling between China and Hawai'i, doing hours of interviews and research, and collecting video footage, archived photos and memorabilia from various sources.

"When we started to do this, we originally thought we were just going to tell the stories of the Chinese in Hawai'i as seen through the eyes of ... the people who remembered the tales that their grandparents and parents told them," Andermann said.

"When we started to go deeper, we found that there were a lot of unanswered questions: Why had they come from China? What was the situation back in China? What did they find when they got here? We really wanted to find out ... and we realized we needed to tell the whole story."

It was produced by Andermann and his wife, Fawn, a native of Shanghai, through their production company, A2Media. The couple worked in cooperation with the Hawai'i Chinese History Center and the China Light Media Foundation, a Hawai'i-based humanitarian nonprofit organization. Most funding for the independent film came from grass-roots efforts within the local Chinese community.

"Finding Sandalwood Mountain" is much more than a history piece, Andermann noted.

"I believe the film is an impetus to look at where Hawai'i can go with China in the future, because China is clearly going to be the nation of the century," he said. ... "If you look at the amount of investment, amount of money, amount of activity in China, it supersedes the rest of the world, and so China is positioning itself to be the economic leader of the world."

If that's the case, Hawai'i needs to get ready, Andermann said. "And part of that is becoming culturally sensitive, part of that is learning some basic Mandarin, part of that is understanding and appreciating the history of the Chinese here."