Anna May Wong lands leading role on U.S. coin
Hollywood trailblazer fought discrimination and stereotyping throughout her career.
Hollywood trailblazer and international film star Anna May Wong will be the first Asian American featured on a United States coin.
Wong rose to stardom in the 1920s, breaking barriers while facing entrenched discrimination as America’s first movie star of Asian descent. She will be the fifth woman this year honored in the American Women Quarters Program.
The quarter honoring Wong, to be released Monday, will feature a close-up image of her face, chin in hand, “surrounded by the bright lights of a marquee sign,” according to the U.S. Mint. The coin’s launch will be celebrated Nov. 4 at the Paramount Theatre, with a special screening of Wong’s 1932 movie “Shanghai Express.” There will also be a panel discussion featuring her niece.
A third-generation Chinese American and Los Angeles native, Wong was first cast as an extra at age 14 in the 1919 film “The Red Lantern” and landed her first leading role in 1922’s “The Toll of the Sea.” She went on to appear in more than 60 movies, including silent films and the first shot in color; she also worked on television and in theater productions and became known as a fashion icon.
Wong challenged the film industry’s perception of leading actors, earning fame in the U.S. and abroad, despite Hollywood’s typecasting and tunnel vision for Asian characters.
Almost always relegated to minor or stereotyped roles, Wong relatively early in her career decided to relocate to Europe, where her prominence grew.
In a 1933 magazine interview, later quoted in The Times, she explained the frustration that pushed her to leave the U.S. and explore roles elsewhere.
“I was so tired of the parts I had to play,” Wong said. “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.”
Nancy Wang Yuen, sociologist and author of “Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism,” said the significance of Wong’s selection for the U.S. quarter — and her contributions to improving representation in the entertainment industry — cannot be overstated.
“What’s modern and still relevant about Anna May Wong is she spoke out about the racism she faced,” Yuen said Wednesday. “She was really ahead of her time.”
Yuen said the roles Wong was offered were “one-dimensional villains and exotica” — typical for Hollywood depictions of Asian women in the 1920s and 1930s. But it’s impressive how Wong responded, she said, choosing an independent path that went “outside of the constraints of a whitecentered Hollywood in order to discover and create roles that were more complex, fully human.”
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) said he was “thrilled” to see Wong honored.
“As the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood, she faced constant discrimination, frequently being typecast and passed over for lead roles in favor of non-Asian actresses,” Lieu said in a statement. “She is remembered not only as a great actress, but also as an advocate for increased representation of Asian Americans in film and media.”
Wong is the fifth woman, and the final of 2022, to be featured as part of the fouryear program that “celebrates the accomplishments and contributions made by women to the development and history of our country.” Also featured on quarters this year: writer Maya Angelou; astronaut Sally Ride; the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller; and New Mexico suffrage leader Nina OteroWarren.
There has been “overwhelming demand” for the coins featuring Wong, according to the U.S. Mint, with many options to preorder them already sold out.
Born Wong Liu Tsong before her family gave her the English name Anna May, Wong was the first Asian American to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, awarded in 1961, the year before she died at 56.
When Lucy Liu in 2019 became the second Asian American woman to receive the honor, she talked about how Wong had paved the way.
“A hundred years ago, she was a pioneer while enduring racism, marginalization, and exclusion,” Liu said.
But progress on representation of Asian and Pacific Islanders in popular films remains limited, according to a 2021 study from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Institute. The study, coauthored by Yuen, found that in 1,300 reviewed films, 44 featured API lead or colead characters, while nearly 40% had no API representation at all. Only six of the 44 API leads or co-leads were women.
“We’re still in these historical firsts, because we still haven’t seen the milestones that white folks in Hollywood have enjoyed,” Yuen said, noting that no Asian woman has won an Oscar for lead actress.
She said it’s important to process how meaningful it is to see Wong featured on U.S. currency, alongside other American icons.
“To have Anna May Wong, a Chinese American woman, an Asian American woman, to be the face of that — that’s really significant, because we’re not seen as American sometimes,” Yuen said. “In this rise of antiAsian hate telling us that we are enemies and we don’t belong here, having an Asian American woman’s face on the quarter really signifies we do belong here.”
‘I was so tired of the parts I had to play. 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.’ — Anna May Wong, in a 1933 interview