Wong becomes first Asian on US Currency


The U.S. Mint will feature an Asian American actress Anna May Wong
on its currency for the first time when it issues a coin next week engraved with the image of the actress who worked in Hollywood during a time of open racism and stereotyping.

A quarter-dollar coin featuring a profile of Wong with her signature bangs and long fingernails will begin circulating as part of the American Women Quarters Program, the U.S. Mint said in a statement.

Wong was born in 1905 in Los Angeles as Wong Liu Tsong. She was cast in her first role as an extra in the film "The Red Lantern" in 1919 at age 14 and her first leading role in 1922 in the "The Toll of the Sea."

She went on to appear in more than 60 films including one of the first movies made in Technicolor. She became the first Asian American lead actor in a U.S. television show for her role in "The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong" in 1951.

Despite her success, Wong faced anti-Asian discrimination and racism in Hollywood where she was typecast, underpaid and passed up for leading roles, forcing her to go to Europe to act in films, and to London and New York to perform in theater. Wong died in 1961.

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