Classic Hollywood actor Anna May Wong makes history as first Asian American minted on U.S. currency
Anna May Wong sought better representation for Asians on screen
Hollywood legend Anna May Wong continues to make history as her image is cast into more than 300 million U.S. quarters in celebration of her life and as a testament to her arduous career in the spotlight. Considered the first Asian American film star, Wong is the first Asian American ever minted into U.S. currency.
Mint Director Ventris Gibson calls Wong “a courageous advocate who championed for increased representation and more multi-dimensional roles for Asian American actors.”
Wong rose to prominence in the early 1920s, during a time when white actors were often cast in “yellowface” to play Asian characters. Anti-miscegenation laws (which prohibited interracial relationships) and the Chinese Exclusion Act were still in full effect, forcing Wong to navigate xenophobia and racism in the film industry.
Wong rallied against the limited, stereotypical roles she was offered. She was often underpaid and cast in villainous roles, or that of a slave or maid. Throughout her career, she became known as “the actress who died a thousand deaths” due to her characters’ propensity to die on-screen.
“I was so tired of the parts I had to play,” Wong said in a 1933 interview, per the Los Angeles Times. “Why is it that the screen Chinese is nearly always the villain of the piece, and so cruel a villain—murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass. We are not like that.”
She would eventually depart from Hollywood to take on roles in English, French and German films. She notably appeared in films such as Daughter Of Shanghai, King Of Chinatown, Piccadilly, and The Toll Of The Sea. Her career would end in 1961, when she died at the age of 56.
“Wong sought to be valued as an actress, a woman with vision and ambition, and an American, all at a time when U.S. society could not imagine a Chinese American woman beyond the limits of racialized and gendered stereotypes of Asian women as exotic and foreign,” says Karen Leong, a professor of Asian Pacific American studies at Arizona State University, per Washington Post.
Wong would be honored in 1960 with her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—marking another first for the Asian American community. Actor Gemma Chan will soon appear as Wong in a forthcoming biopic from producer Nina Yang Bongiovi and screenwriter David Henry Hwang.