Breaking Barriers: Amazing Chinese American Women in American History
From aviation and military service to Hollywood, academia, and women's suffrage
Hazel Ying Lee (20th Century) by Frances M. TongMuseum of Chinese in America
1. Hazel Ying Lee
Hazel Ying Lee (1912-1944) was the first Chinese American woman to fly for the U.S. military. Born in Portland, Oregon, Lee’s unquenchable thirst for flight began at age 19, when she first rode in a friend’s plane at an airshow.
Hazul Ying LeeMuseum of Chinese in America
Lee became one of the first Chinese American women to earn a pilot’s license despite prevailing sexist and anti-Chinese norms. When Japan invaded China in 1933, Lee moved to China to join the Chinese Air Force but was rejected due to her gender.
But in 1943 Lee was accepted into the groundbreaking Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program -- one of only two Chinese American women (alongside Maggie Gee). During WWII, Lee flew dangerous, critical missions, including training to fly fast, high-powered fighters.
Maggie Gee (21st Century) by Marissa MossMuseum of Chinese in America
2. Maggie Gee
Maggie Gee (1923-2013) spent countless Saturdays in the 1920s-30s of her childhood at Oakland airfield with her family watching the planes fly. Gee dreamed of becoming a pilot like her idol, Amelia Earhart, but flight training was expensive.
However, war broke out when Gee was 18, and the shortage of manpower enabled her to fulfill her dream while serving her country. She put her university studies on hold to work as a draftsman at a shipyard building "Liberty Ships" for the war effort.
Maggie Gee (21st Century) by Marissa MossMuseum of Chinese in America
When she learned that the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program was recruiting, she and two women coworkers saved their shipyard earnings for more than a year, then purchased a car they learned to drive along the way to flight school in Sweetwater, Texas.
Gee then applied to the WASP training program at Avenger Field, Texas and became one of 1,074 (out of 25,000 applicants) to pass and be accepted. She performed vital functions such as safety testing and transporting new planes to airbases, freeing up male pilots for deployment.
Katherine Cheung (21st Century) by Dottie LeschenckoMuseum of Chinese in America
3. Katherine Sui Fun Cheung
Katherine Sui Fun Cheung was born in Enping, China in 1904 but moved to the United States at the age of 17 on a student visa. It was during her time in California driving with her father around Dycer Airport, Los Angeles that she became infatuated with the idea of flying.
Katherine Cheung (21st Century) by Dottie LeschenckoMuseum of Chinese in America
In 1931, after marriage and motherhood, Cheung wanted to enroll in flight school in China, however, the Guangzhou flight school did not accept female pilots. Undeterred, she learned how to fly in the United States at the Chinese Aeronautical Association in Los Angeles.
In 1932, Cheung made history by becoming the first female pilot of Chinese descent in the United States. She would go on to make a name for herself as a stunt pilot, performing aerobatics for spectators all along the west coast.
For her pioneering career, Cheung was recognized as the nation’s first Asian aviatrix by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. In 2000, she was inducted into the Women in Aviation International’s Pioneer Hall of Fame.
Jadin Wong (1941/1941)Museum of Chinese in America
4. Jadin Wong
Jadin Wong (1913-2010) began dancing at the age of five and ran away from home at 17 to pursue her showbiz dream. She began headlining as a dancer at the Forbidden City nightclub in 1938, at the time one of the first and only venues in which Asian Americans could sing and dance.
Jadin Wong (20th Century) by Wally WongMuseum of Chinese in America
Her brassy wit, showgirl glam, and captivating dancing would make her a national sensation, landing her a feature in Life magazine and inspiring the role of Madame Liang in Flower Drum Song.
An unstoppable firecracker of a personality, Wong not only defied stereotypes to pave the way for Asian American entertainers but actively dedicated the rest of her career to supporting emerging Asian American performers as a talent manager.
Anna May Wong (1937/1937)Museum of Chinese in America
5. Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong (born Wong Liu Tsong) was the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star and the first Chinese American actress to gain international stardom. She became infatuated with film at a young age, and pursued acting, landing her first major role at seventeen.
While critics took great note of her talent and star power, Hollywood deemed her race as unfitting for a leading lady. The studio system consistently capitalized on her fame while only casting her in racist supporting roles.
Anti-miscegenation laws forbade her from even sharing an on-screen kiss with a white leading man. Tired of her career being stymied by racial discrimination, Wong moved to Europe in 1928, where her talent and beauty turned her into an overnight sensation.
Ever proud of her heritage and insistent of her worth, Wong used her celebrity to speak out on political issues, including the mistreatment of Chinese in America. In 2022, the United States Mint issued the Anna May Wong quarter, the first coin minted of a Chinese American.
Christine Choy (21st Century) by Christine ChoyMuseum of Chinese in America
6. Christine Choy
Filmmaker Christine Choy is best known for her Oscar-nominated, Peabody-winning documentary that she co-directed with Renee Tajima-Peña, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” (1987).
Choy immigrated to the U.S. at a time when the country was embroiled in protests for civil rights and demonstrations against the Vietnam War. She credits a film showing the human beings behind the war by Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens for opening her eyes to the power of the medium.
In 1972, Choy helped found Third World Newsreel, an alternative media arts organization supporting filmmakers who spotlighted voices and issues of communities of color often caricatured or ignored by mainstream media.
The stories her films have shed light on include a history of Chinese American organizing, from railroad to garment workers; the resettlement of refugees after the Vietnam War; the 1992 L.A. riots, and of course, the murder and subsequent fight for justice for Vincent Chin.
Betty Lee Sung (21st Century) by Cynthia SungMuseum of Chinese in America
7. Dr. Betty Lee Sung
Dr. Betty Lee Sung (1924-2023) was a pioneering scholar of Chinese American and Asian American studies. A laundryman and paper son’s daughter, Sung broke ceilings by being one of the few Chinese American women with limited means to graduate from college in this era.
Here, Sung is seated front and center at the first national conference for scholars in the then nascent field of Chinese American Studies held in 1975. Sung had pioneered the first course and program in Asian American Studies on the east coast at City College in 1970.
This first course drew on Sung's seminal book on the history of Chinese in America, Mountain of Gold, which filled a knowledge vacuum in being one of the few sources at the time from the perspective of Chinese Americans.
This photograph shows Sung in attendance at a 1978 AFL-CIO Civil Rights Department conference with civil rights and labor activists A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and Ernest Green (one of the Little Rock Nine). She was brought here by her work on Chinese American employment.
Grace Typond (21st Century) by Douglas J. ChuMuseum of Chinese in America
8. Grace Typond
Recent scholarship by Cathleen D. Cahill has rediscovered that for a brief time, Grace Typond was one of the most famous voices and faces in the American women’s suffrage movement, alongside Mabel Ping-Hua Lee.
Grace Typond (21st Century) by Douglas J. ChuMuseum of Chinese in America
In 1912, rumors that Republican China would soon recognize Chinese women’s right to vote prompted white suffragettes to urgently seek out feminists in Chinatown. Among those accepting the invitation to speak was Grace Typond, wife of community leader and merchant, Yip Typond.
Grace Typond (21st Century) by Douglas J. ChuMuseum of Chinese in America
Typond likely marched in the historic 1912 women's suffrage parade in New York with fellow Chinese women, who, though deemed racially ineligible for citizenship, nevertheless actively supported more equitable citizenship rights for American women.
Images are courtesy of Frances M. Tong, Alan Rosenberg, Marissa Moss, Dottie Leschencko, Edmund Moy, Wally Wong, Alex Jay, Josh Hamerman, Christine Choy, Betty Lee Sung, Cynthia Sung, and Douglas J. Chu, and are drawn from the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Collections
