Posted in: Movies | Tagged: American Women Quarters Program, Anna May Wong, US Mint

Anna May Wong Will Be First Asian American Featured on U.S. Currency

Published Wed, 19 Oct 2022 13:47:10 -0500

Anna May Wong was a trailblazing pioneer for the Asian American community, becoming its first Hollywood film star. The actress, who passed in 1961, will join other pioneering American icons like writer Maya Angelou and astronaut Sally Ride on the quarter when the U.S. Mint begins producing coins pressed with Wong's image featuring a close-up of her face resting on an elegant, manicured hand on October 24th. The actress, who developed a lifelong passion for the screen at an early age, secured her first film role at the age of 14 as the daughter of immigrants in Los Angeles' Chinatown. Her first two roles were uncredited appearances in the 1920's films Outside the Law and Dinty.

Anna May Wong Will Be First Asian American Featured on U.S. Currency — Paramount photo [Public domain]

"Decades before the civil rights-generated category of Asian American existed, Wong grappled with how to be an Asian American actress," Shirley Jennifer Lim, a Stony Brook University history professor, wrote in her book about Wong's career. Throughout Wong's career, the actress struggled to secure meaningful roles in an era where yellowface and anti-miscegenation laws existed. The U.S. Mint is expected to create more than 300 million Wong quarters, and she will become the first Asian American to be on U.S. currency. It's an honor that feels particularly meaningful given how much Wong struggled to be seen as American, Lim said. "When you get change," she said, "she could be there in the palm of your hand."

Wong's curiosity about the entertainment industry grew as productions were filmed in her neighborhood. "I would play hookey from school to watch the crews at work, though I knew I would get a whipping from my teacher, and later from my father, for it," Wong is quoted as saying in the book "Perpetually Cool: The Many Lives of Anna May Wong," by Anthony Chan. "I would worm my way through the crowd and get as close to the cameras as I dared. I'd stare and stare at these glamorous individuals, directors, cameramen, assistants, and actors in greasepaint, who had come down into our section of town to make movies."

The actress played bit roles until securing her first leading role in 1922's The Toll of the Sea at the age of 17. As her frustrations grew with Hollywood after continuously getting passed over for leading roles, she took her ambitions to Europe for better opportunities. She even acted in a play opposite Laurence Olivier. For more on Wong's life and the American Women Quarters Program, you can check out the piece in The New York Times.

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