Life in the Box: Valuing Women, Anna May Wong
August 21, 2024
You don’t see many women on U.S. coins. I pawed through my collection of change recently and found a few females. Helen Keller is etched into an Alabama coin. Lady “Commonwealth” is pictured holding a ribboned staff (they call it a ribbon mace,) on the Pennsylvania coin with their state slogan, “Virtue, Liberty, Independence.” And the Statue of Liberty is New York’s towering woman, a symbol which has also made it onto a quarter.
That’s three out of 50 states that chose a female representative. So, women’s faces really do stand out.
And isn’t it weird that women are the symbols of liberty? Independence? I’m just saying. I’ve been reading historic novels lately, and women were not independent libertarians if they wanted to eat.
In my recent batch of quarters, I found Anna May Wong and Eleanor Roosevelt. I’m not going to profile Eleanor; she’s so well loved and documented. But who is Ann May Wong? Simply stated, an actor!
Her story is so sadly typical: beautiful and talented Chinese-American girl given stereotypical small parts while white actors get the money and fame by having their eyelids taped back. Did you know that it was illegal for Chinese and whites to kiss on screen? And to marry off screen? We’re talking the early half of the 1900s in Los Angeles.
Despite it all, she stood firm and became a glamour figure, hiring her own filmmakers and eventually getting roles on stage and screen in Europe. Of course, she had to become fluent in German and French, which, it seems, she did rather easily. She and Marlene Dietrich became friends and starred in Shanghai Express together.
Returning to America, she did star in early television, too. The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong gave her a chance at a starring TV role in the 1950s.
She was someone with many firsts, both for Asian-American women and in the beginnings of Technicolor, sound films, and television.
It’s good that she was chosen to be on an American coin; her story is a reminder of our shared history and herstory. And it’s funny that I found her coin next to Eleanor Roosevelt’s. Symbolically, a certain new Presidential candidate has a blend of both of those women in her bearing and wisdom.
I know I’m rushing things a bit, but if Kamala wins the 2024 election, wouldn’t it be something!?
And wouldn’t a creative thinker like me enjoy seeing a woman’s face on the FRONT of the coin, not just the back? Go, America, Grow!
Nancy Heather Brown is a retired, Emmy Award-winning television producer whose career has included interviewing, writing, narrating and editing for a span of four decades. Today, she enjoys learning new things and reflecting upon the creative process and life issues, both inside and outside the box. Her opinions are her own, and are not necessarily those of this web site. She’s now showing photos on Smug Mug.
Some movie clips and interview audio from Anna May Wong are in this video.
And another good bio video.
Anna May Wong’s Write-up for Women’s History dot org.
More stories of Women on Quarters:
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