Actress Anna May Wong will be the first Asian American on U.S. currency. The Anna May Wong Quarter will be the fifth quarter in the American Women Quarters Program, following quarters featuring Maya Angelou, Dr. Sally Ride, Wilma Mankiller, and Nina Otero-Warren, all of which were released earlier this year. Wong was the first Chinese American movie star, starring in films like The Thief of Bagdad and The Toll of the Sea, one of the first ever Technicolor films, which she starred in at age 17. The quarter will begin shipping out on Monday, October 24. “The fifth coin in our American Women Quarters Program honors Anna May Wong, a courageous advocate who championed for increased representation and more multidimensional roles for Asian American actors,†said Mint director Ventris C. Gibson in a statement. “This quarter is designed to reflect the breadth and depth of accomplishments by Anna May Wong, who overcame challenges and obstacles she faced during her lifetime.â€
Wong faced intense racism in Hollywood, including from anti-miscegenation laws that prevented her from being cast opposite white actors as love interests. This included Wong being passed over for a potential role in The Good Earth, an adaptation of the story by Pearl S. Buck that was set in China. Wong was not allowed to play the lead because white actor Paul Muni was cast as the male lead, and Wong was not allowed to be married onscreen to a white man, who would be in yellowface. The role went to Luise Rainer, who received an Oscar for her performance.
One of the highlights of Wong’s career was the film Shanghai Express. She starred in the film with Marlene Dietrich, a friend she’d originally met in Germany. One of the great successes of Shanghai Express was that Wong’s character lived through to the end. One of Wong’s other great successes was the 1951 television show The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, which saw Wong as the first ever Asian American lead of an American television show. Seventy-one years later, she is still making “firsts.â€