Legends. Pioneers. Innovators who strive for equality, social justice, and inclusion. They never truly fade from history. To pave the way in different fields for minorities or the oppressed is a legacy that will eventually see its time in the sun and famed Asian American actress Anna May Wong’s legacy is being shined upon by those rays as she is celebrated by the United States Mint. Their American Women Quarters Program, starting just this year, calls for five new quarters every year for five years from now until 2025.  According to the U.S. Mint, these coins will feature “contributions from a variety of fields, including, but not limited to, suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space, and the arts. The women honored will be from ethnically, racially, and geographically diverse backgrounds.” The U.S. Mint is reported, by the New York Times, to put more than 300 million Wong quarters into circulation, becoming the first Asian American to be featured on U.S. currency. The other quarters that have been released herald poet and activist Maya Angelou, the first American woman in space Sally Ride, Cherokee Nation leader Wilma Mankiller, and suffragist Nina Otero-Warren. (CNN)

Anna May Wong will be the fifth face to adorn the coin with grace this year. It depicts her head resting upon her hand surrounded by marquee bright lights. A delicate yet strong image, it is representative of her style and poise that captured many but also of her strength during a very difficult time. Throughout her career, she appeared in over sixty films, also performing in plays and TV shows, both in the U.S. and Europe. Her origins were in the Chinatown area in Los Angeles, California. Wong Liu Tsong was her given name, never changed but tweaked to Anna May Wong as a stage name at age eleven, an infusion of her English and Chinese names. She knew her goal at such a young age, her passion and she chased after it without hesitation, but with grace and determination.

Anna May Wong was born on January 3^rd, 1905. She was a third-generation immigrant, her grandfather having emigrated in the 1850s, who worked in her parent’s laundromat and on learning Chinese after school in language classes, but her time was mostly spent skipping school for film. The movies moved west in 1910, many filmmakers and production companies packing up their equipment in New York for the better locations available in California. Wong grew up and was privy to the blossoming of Hollywood in the west. She realized her ambitions as early as nine and visited sets often, staring at the movie magic and dreaming. In the PBS special about Anna May Wong, Shirley J. Lim talked about those early years where the young stargazing Wong would watch actors, directors, and producers bring stories to life. “Legend has it that Anna May Wong would hang around Hollywood film sets and that producers and directors would notice this curious Chinese child there.” Shirley said. The special also included commentary from Anna May Wong, voiced by Lisa Ling. “I would worm my way through the crowd and get close to the cameras.” Wong said. “I’d stare at these glamorous individuals and then I would rush home and do the scenes I had witnessed before a mirror.” Her love of the art was instant. Wong obtained her first role as an extra in 1919 in Red Lantern.

Her talent was natural and despite many of her early films being silent ones, Wong was able to bring so much emotion and elegance to the screen through her facial expressions, dramatism, and strength. She dropped out of high school in 1921 to pursue her career full time. The same year she played Toy Ling’s wife in Bits of Life and by seventeen she landed her first leading role in the silent film The Toll of the Sea (1922). But Hollywood, even America, was not friendly nor welcoming of Asians during that time. Wong auditioned for countless lead roles but was often pigeonholed into being a supporting character or donning the typical Asian character that film and media is so well known for. This was a direct result of Asian specific exclusionary laws, and a very racially segregated time. The PBS special also provided commentary from Wong about that time itself and the atmosphere she grew up in with her sister. “The great game was to gather around my sister and myself and torment us.” Wong said. 

The mindset toward Asian migration at the time was negative in every way and the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act came about as a result. Wong’s seeking of leading roles took a hit because of this. The Anti-miscegenation laws at the time not only prevented interracial marriages, but it also forbade the kissing of interracial actors on screen. Because the majority of actors, especially leading ones, were white, Wong could never get into a leading romantic role either. Any movies that had an Asian focused contained actors painted up with eyes pulled back to attempt to look Asian. “It was ghastly and horrifying.” Lim said when describing Hollywood at that time. The discrimination present didn’t allow to film much in America, but what she did perform in left people stunned nonetheless but those early years were nearly impossible when it came to getting roles. “There seems little for me in Hollywood,” Wong said in the special. “because rather than real Chinese, producers prefer Hungarians for Chinese roles. Pathetic dying seemed to be the best thing I did.” She didn’t give up, however. From the beginning her will was stronger than the laws and views made to separate and belittle her. 

She tried a hand at her own production company before eventually moving to Europe. The scene was different there and Anna was able to star in many films in Paris, Berlin, and London. She learned French and German, going far for her craft and showing her strength. Needless to say, the opportunities presented to her in Europe were those she had not encountered in America. And her ability and tact to take on two new languages so she could fluently speak and film in them gives depth to her as a person and helped to represent Asian Americans in a positive light. She was also in plays, even working alongside Laurence Oliver until Paramount Studios offered her leading roles if she came back to the States. Her dedication and refusal to be contained in harmful stereotypes and be bogged down by discrimination paved the way for so many more Asian Americans breaking into film today. Once she returned to the states, she garnered different roles, some of which she took on because she was promised better roles. Her most famous of which was Shanghai Express where she played opposite Marlene Dietrich and she went on to act in different American shows later in her career. 

Wong thought about her roles, what they implied and how they came across. When asked to adopt Japanese mannerism for a Chinese character, she refused. When asked to be the one villain in one of the biggest films about China at the time, The Good Earth, she refused. The leading roles were given to white actors, once again changing appearances and using make-up to look Asian. Meanwhile, Wong was offered the one negative role of the villain. Wong had commented on the situation at the time, her response to it being, “You are asking me to play the only unsympathetic role in the picture featuring an all-American cast portraying Chinese characters… I had to refuse.” She had made strides, incredible ones, but Hollywood wasn’t ready for her and there are those still working to bring more Asian Americans into less stereotypical roles, into more positive ones that promote inclusion and celebration of diversity. 

Wong went off to create her own film after that. She hired a cinematographer and filmed a documentary of her travels in China in 1936. Se early and still so present with discrimination, she accomplished something so paramount. She pushed past all of the harmful noise and started work that people continue today; to share experience and promote understanding. That monumental step in standing up for not only herself but for other Asians and Asian Americans by carefully choosing her roles and filming her documentary created not only a path for actors in the future, but for people to look past differences and try to respect if not try to understand someone different from themselves. Anna May Wong was criticized for some of the stereotypical roles she had taken on but compared against those she turned down and the work she put in for American audiences to see China through her eyes speaks volumes to who she was as a person and what she stood for. She went on to become the first Asian American to lead a US television show on The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong in the 1950s. She also raised money for Chinese refugees during World War II. In 1960, Wong was awarded her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was slated to appear in Flower Drum Song by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1961. However, the trailblazing, headstrong, and phenomenal actress suffered a heart attack and died on February 3^rd, 1961. Her legacy is forever, now fully cemented in US memory and appreciation on the quarter but always remembered by those who have risen in her footsteps, continuously grateful and furthering what she started as more Asian culture, actors, and stories are brought to the screen. One might wonder that if Anna May Wong were still around today, if she would step onto film sets again, see other Asian Americans, and smile.