APA Women's Wall of Fame

Women's History Month Edition

Editor's Note: We have recently begun to redesign our site and a number of the articles linked to the biographies below have been temporary removed. We are in the middle of rebuilding the page and apologize for any inconvenience, but hope you will still enjoy and share your responses and nominations to our annual commemoration at Asian-American Village.

About The Feature

For Women's History Month 1999, we invited Villagers to help us build a commemorative feature recognizing those Asian-Pacific Islander Americans who have made a meaningful impact on our lives, our communities, and our nation.  You took it in spirit -- not as a comprehensive, celebrity Who's Who, not as a horse-race, but as the informal, collective effort to remember, appreciate, and motivate that it is.  Your responsiveness and further suggestions were so inspiring we ran the project again in 2000, and then 2001, and once more so many of you sent us other names, stories, and tributes to help keep the "Wall" alive and growing.

So here we stand again at the APA Women's Wall of Fame, version Y2K+2, asking you to help us keep building this ... skyscraper ...  by sharing your own brainstorms.  Please help us make it educational and inspirational by telling us in a paragraph or two:

"Which APA women do you think have made the most real, lasting difference in shaping American history and culture, and our communities, and why?" Click below to dedicate your own brick now.

Meena Alexander - Author of The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience and the novel Manhattan Music, among many others. Her Musings on "Race" I & II from our Constructive Dialogue on Race Project reflects on the inseparable nature of race and gender, and includes her poem, 'Art of Pariahs' from River and Bridge. [top]

Ruth Asawa -Artist and muralist from the Black Mountain school, Asawa is admired by one Villager for her public art about the internment and as "a pioneer in bringing arts to the streets and the schools." [top]

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge - Poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge's books include The Heat Bird and Random Possession, both of which received American Book Awards; Empathy which received a PEN West Award; Sphericity; and Endocrinology, in collaboration with Kiki Smith, which was a finalist for the 1998 Independent Small Press Book Award for Poetry. She made news in the Village this year as the first recipient of the Asian American Literary Awards series poetry honors. See Berssenbrugge, Yamanaka Win First Annual APA Lit Awards. [top]

Tia Carerre - Filipina-American singer and actress introduced to mainstream audiences on General Hospital, moving on to roles in Rising Sun and True Lies, and, of course, as the tough love-interest in the Wayne's World movies. She currently appears in one of the Village's favorite TV series. See The Power of the Relic Hunter: The Pull of Real, Well-Rounded, Non-Stereotypical, and Rare Asian and Asian-American Characters on TV.  [top]

Iris Chang -   In his review of Iris Chang's The Chinese in America, George Koo remarked: "To read Iris Chang’s book is to understand that the only recourse is to stand for what is right and vigorously protect the principles that have made America a diverse nation from which its unique greatness sprang."  Indeed, known for her exhaustive research and courage in tackling serious, difficult subjects, the late Chang had truly international appeal as an investigator and narrator of ignored injustices.  As author of The Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang contributed hugely to motivating an international movement to pressure Japan to come to grips with its past war atrocities.  Raised in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, she was the granddaughter of a Chinese couple that had themselves been forced to flee Nanking to escape Japanese troops during the 1930s. Her other books include her debut, Thread of the Silkworm, and The Chinese in America, her last book published before she died in an apparent suicide at 36 in November 2004.

Lan Samantha Chang - Novelist Lan Samatha Chang, author of the books, Inheritance and Hunger: A Novella and Stories, was selected in the face of stiff competition to fill the legendary shoes of Frank Conroy as the head of the famed Iowa Writers Workshop in 2006. Among her writing honors, Chang was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and earned a Bay Area Book Award and literary awards from the Greensboro Review and the Transatlantic Review. Her work has also been nominated for the PEN Center USA West Award and the PEN/Hemingway Literature Prize.  Her other teaching credits have included Warren Wilson College and Stanford University, and conference workshops at Bread Loaf, Napa Valley, Sarah Lawrence,

Sarah Chang -The Philadelphia-born Korean-American violin virtuoso, began her performing career at age five; at age eight, her audition so wowed Zubin Mehta that he made her a guest soloist with the New York Philharmonic two days later. An internationally renowned performer and recording artist, she has soloed with countless major orchestras worldwide and received the Nan Pa award, Korea's top honor for a musical artist. [top]

Elaine Chao - A fellow at the Heritage Foundation and senior editor of Policy Review: The Journal of American Citizenship, conservative commentator Elaine Chao made the news and talk shows during the Clinton years as a member of the Citizens Initiative on Race & Ethnicity, a group spearheaded by Ward Connerly as an "alternative" to the President's Initiative on Race. Chao served as President of United Way America, director of the Peace Corps, deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Transportation, and in 2001 was named Secretary of Labor by President George W. Bush. [top]

Kalpana Chawla - Chawla was the first Asian-American woman in space.  Born in Karnal, India, this pilot and aerospace engineer with PhD from the University of Colorado was a mission specialist astronaut on the space shuttle mission STS-87.  Her work involved studying the effects of weightlessness and operating robotics.  In 2002, she was again assigned to a crew, this time for the STS-107 mission.  Then, in 2003, she was assigned to be a mission specialist aboard STS-107, and was among those killed in the tragic disaster of the shuttle Columbia explosion.  [top]

Anna Chenault - A Chinese-American activist prominent in Republic Party during Nixon administration, advocate for APA political participation [top]

Lily Chin - The mother of slain Detroit autoworker Vincent Chin, Lily Chin would doubtlessly have preferred to not be thrust into role-model status, but Villagers write admiringly of her strength at the center of what was a violent flashpoint for a new Asian American civil rights movement. Journalist Helen Zia, a prominent spokesperson for the Chin case, admires Lily Chin's "courage and drive in going public with her pain in the movement for Asian American civil rights." Last year the play Carry the Tiger to the Mountain by Cherylene Lee dramatized some of that painful experience, to the instruction and inspiration of a younger generation of APAs. Also on the Village, Korean-American poet Woo Cho's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woo?" ends with a plaintive recollection of Lily Chin as a powerful symbol of strength amidst racial hostility (with photograph by Corky Lee). [top]

Margaret Cho - Comedienne/actress who achieved national attention doing stand-up on television specials and late night shows, has recently had roles in the animated program Rugrats and John Woo's action film, Face/Off, and her career shows no signs of stopping. Even if it did, though, Cho at a very young age made her lasting mark in APA history as the star of the ground-breaking though short-lived ABC sitcom, All American Girl.  See our interview, Cho-ing Her Flip Side: Getting Political with Funny Girl Margaret Cho. [top]

Amy Chow - The championship gymnast earned the 1994 Team World Championships Silver Medal and a 1996 Individual Event World Championships Semi-Final spot before becoming a household name at the 1996 Olympics, where she was a Gold and Silver medalist (Team & Bars). [top]

Christine Choy - Award-winning filmmaker behind the Oscar-nominated Who Killed Vincent Chin? Her films, which also include Homes Apart: Two Koreas and The Shot Heard Round the World, tackle complex, controversial topics, such as the killing of Japanese exchange student Yoshi Hattori, who was shot--in a tragic case of "cultural miscommunication," it was argued--by Rodney Peairs on October 17, 1992 when he mistook Peairs' house for the site of a Halloween party he was going to attend that evening. Choy is head of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts graduate film program. [top]

Connie Chung - "Highly successful news anchorwoman for CBS and NBC who hosted her own program and led the way for a numerous APA women to enter mainstream broadcasting"). See Growing up in the Shadow of Connie Chung by Contributing Editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, who recalls-and finally begins to appreciate-trying to live up to the expectations created by the "perfect older sister, Connie" [top]

Swati Dandekar - In November 2002, Dandekar became the first Indian-born American citizen to win a state legislature seat in the U.S. when she was elected as the State Representative from Iowa House District 36.  In that role, she has particularly distinguished herself through her dedication to improving education quality and access for the state's citizens, who re-elected her for another term in November 2004.  Facing a hard re-election race, Dandekar spoke in an interview with IMDiversity about her passion for education, for John Kerry, and for her state.

Chloe Dao - In 2006, Chloe Dao made her first step toward fame as the winning competitor on the "Survivor-style" fashion design program, Project Runway.  Ethnic Vietnamese born in Laos, Dao was already a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology and a working production manager for a clothing company.  Her designs for the show were notable for both their design appeal and their polished, professional-looking execution.  The prizes for the competition will give Dao a boost in setting up her own shingle as a designer, and we look forward to seeing more from  this promising young woman.

Shamita Das Dasgupta - Psychologist and professor of Women's Studies, she helped start Manavi, a volunteer feminist organization that provides services and aid to South Asian American women. [top]

Tammy Duckworth - Duckworth was the Democratic contender for outgoing Illinois 6th Rep. Henry Hyde's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 2007 midterms.  Although ultimately unsuccessful in her campaign against the GOP candidate Peter Roskam, the Thailand-born, ethnic Chinese American Iraq War veteran rose to national prominence as a strong candidate and outspoken critic of the Bush Administration's policies in Iraq. [top]

Vicki Manalo Draves - Filipina-American Olympic athlete and Hall of Fame inductee, Draves was the first APA woman to ever win a gold medal, the first woman to win golds in both platform and springboard diving. [top]

Ahn Duong - French-born fashion model of Spanish and Vietnamese descent, Ahn Duong moved to the U.S. in the 80s and quickly became part of the smart set on this side of the Atlantic, too.  In addition to modeling in the top fashion magazines, she has gone on to other productive career paths including painting, publishing, and acting in a number of films including High Art, The Mambo Kings, and Scent of a Woman, to name a few.

Edith & Winnifred Eaton - Better known as Sui Sin Far and Onoto Watanna, these Eurasian sisters followed very different life paths in America, but both are among the earliest foremothers of Asian American literature as it exists today. See Creating Themselves and Asian American Fiction: Sui Sin Far and Onoto Watanna by Dr. Amy Ling. [top]

Mitsuye Endo - Defendant in the landmark legal case ex parte Endo, wherein the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled in December 1944 that Japanese Americans could no longer be held in the concentration camps or prohibited from moving back to their former communities along the West Coast. When she agreed to go forward with this constitutional challenge to the mass detentions, Mitsuye Endo was a 22-year old ex-clerical worker for the Sacramento Department of Motor Vehicles. See Remarks on Women in History by Dr. Elaine H. Kim. [top]

March Kong Fong Eu - A member of the California legislature from 1966-1974, she became California secretary of state in 1975, the first APA and only second woman to be elected to statewide office, before moving on to serve as ambassador to Micronesia. Saying she wanted to end the stigma that keeps elderly people out of political office, the 80-year-old Eu sought to regain the Secretary of State office in 2002, although she lost to the major upset by the well-funded Democratic primary challenger Kevin Shelley. [top]

Margaret Fung - Nominating Fung for the Wall of Fame, a Villager writes appreciatively of her 20-plus years of leadership as executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).  Founded in 1974, AALDEF is the first legal rights organization on the East Coast serving Asian Americans, providing advocacy services and other forms of assistance in the areas of civil rights, anti-Asian violence, APA reporting in Census 2000, voting, affirmative action education, and others. AALDEF has been particularly dedicated to tracking and providing assistance to targets of discrimination and hate violence in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. [top]

Jessica Hagedorn - Poet, multimedia artist, novelist who immigrated from the Philippines in her teens, whose novel Dogeaters was nominated for a 1990 National Book Award. Editor of Charlie Chan Is Dead - An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction, a landmark anthology of contemporary Asian American fiction. [top]

Irene Hirano - Executive Director and President of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles since 1988. She is responsible for making JANM a first-rate, internationally recognized institution. With degrees in Public Administration from the University of Southern California, Hirano has over twenty years of experience in non-profit administration, community and public education, and community affairs with culturally diverse communities nationwide. She served as a member of the Smithsonian Institution's Commission on the Future, and currently serves as a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the Cultural Tourism Council of Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau, a Trustee of the Marlborough School, Board of Governors for the University of Southern California, and as a Board member of the National Health Foundation, among other boards.

Mazie Hirono - The Lt. Governor of Hawaii, Hirono is America’s first immigrant woman of Asian ancestry (born in born in Fukushima, Japan) elected to statewide office. As Lt. Gov., she has focused on science, technology, education, and tourism issues for the state. Prior to this position, she had also served in the Hawaii State Legislature for 14 years, where she chaired the Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee. Although considered a strong candidate to follow Ben Cayetano as the state’s governor, Hirono decided instead to join the race for Honolulu mayor. [top]

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston - Co-author with husband James D. Houston of the pioneering memoir, Farewell to Manzanar-among the earliest and most widely read accounts of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Widely read in schools and among young adults, it is frequently compared to The Diary of Anne Frank, and has been the basis-both officially and unofficially-for television and feature films on the topic. See her contribution to our Constructive Dialogue on Race Project with husband James D. Houston. Her most recent book and first novel, addressing similar historical themes in fiction, is The Legend of Fire Horse Woman from Kensington Publishing.  Houston was also kind enough to contribute her own shortlist of Impressive Women to the Village's 2005 Women's History Month edition/  [top]

Shirley Hune - Shirley Hune is a professor of urban planning in the School of Public Policy and Social Research and an associate dean in the Graduate Division of UCLA. A third-generation APA of Chinese descent, she holds a Ph.D. in American civilization and has research interests in Asian American history, race and ethnic relations, minorities and women in higher education, and international migration and human rights policy. See Report: APA Women in Higher Education. [top]

Andrea Jung - The Toronto-born Jung made history when she became president in 1998 and CEO in 1999 of Avon Products Inc. -- making her one of the very few Fortune 500 women CEOs and giving her the reins of one of America's largest cosmetics and beauty product companies.  Prior to joining Avon, she was an executive VP at Neiman Marcus.

Carol Kawanami - The first Japanese-American woman to serve as mayor, elected to the office in 1980 in Villa Park, California. [top]

Elaine Kim - Professor of Asian American Studies and Chair of the Comparative Ethnic Studies Department at the Univ. of California, Berkeley, she has written and co-authored numerous works including Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context and East to America: Korean American Life Stories. She has also been active in television, as the Associate Producer for Slaying the Dragon: Asian Women in U.S. Television and as co-producer of Sa-I-gu: From Korean Women's Perspectives. Dr. Kim served as President of the Association for Asian American Studies and as a member of the National Council of the American Studies Association. She is also a co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of the Asian Women United of California, a co-founder of Asian Immigrant Women Advocates, and was named last year to the President's Commission on Women in History. See Professor Kim's Remarks on Women in History and Visible but Marginal: Changing the Status of APAs at Berkeley, or view her books at Amazon.  [top]

Maxine Hong Kingston - Author of The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, and Hawai'i One Summer, recipient of the National Book Award, a "Living Treasure of Hawai'i," and probably the first APA writer to achieve truly international acclaim. As significant for her part in the defining controversy over Asian American cultural representation in literature, she has had an enormous effect on both the evolution of Asian American literary studies, Asian American representation in the general English curricula, and, as one Villager writes, "introducing strong Asian American women to the American mainstream (as well as to APAs)." In 2004, her long-awaited title, The Fifth Book of Peace, was finally released to relieved and eagerly awaiting fans, delayed for years after an earlier draft was lost in a terrifying house fire. [top]

Michelle Kwan - The graceful figure skating champion won the 1998 US Nationals, with eight perfect sixes in both her long and short programs, a Silver in the Olympics, and a Gold in the World Championships and Goodwill games. In 2002, she was a favorite at the Salt Lake City Olympics, although she ended up taking home the bronze medal.  Despite her bad luck streak specifically in Olympic competition, Kwan remains a highly popular champion athlete, and in 2002 signed a three-year contract to serve as a spokeswoman for the Walt Disney Company. [top]

Daphne Kwok has served as the Executive Director of the Organization of Chinese Americans, a member of the Asian-American Village Honorary Advisory Board, a founding member of the Conference on APA Leadership, and an executive in a host of organizations that seek to enhance political awareness and improve the daily lives of all APAs. Through OCA and through other initiatives, Kwok's outspoken devotion to civil rights has always been matched by a devotion to community service. This year, she became Executive Director of the Asian-Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.  Learn about both APAICS and OCA in our Village Partners Directory. [top]

Yuri Kochiyama - After her experience of the WWII internment camps, Kochiyama was primed for an activist career in the growing Civil Rights movement when she and her family moved to Harlem in the early 60s. She began with neighborhood educational struggles, then met Malcolm X in a courthouse one day after she'd been arrested at a labor protest. She joined his Org. for Afro American Unity, injecting a pan-Asian element such as the hibakusha (Japanese A-bomb survivors) and a strong anti-Vietnam War stance, and was with Malcolm X when he died. "A radical Asian American presence for over 50 years, esp. in the Black Liberation movement," writes one Villager, Kochiyama has continued to devote her life to political causes and been an inspiration to young APA activists including Renee Tajima-Pena, who featured Kochiyama in her film, My America or Honk if you Love Buddha. See also, Sam Cacas' A Third World Celebration of APA Heritage Month. [top]

Padma Lakshmi - The Indian American renaissance woman has taken turns as a model, actress, award-winning cookbook author, and international TV personality, among others. However, Lakshmi has really hit her stride as the host of Bravo TV's popular reality show series, Top Chef 2.  Married to renowned novelist Salman Rushdie, Lakshmi was expected to release her own second book this year, and to appear in a BBC mini-series and a new big screen film, Mistress of Spices, with Bollywood superstar Aishwarya Rai.

Brooke Lee - Of Hawaiian, Korean, Chinese, Dutch, English, French and Portuguese heritage, Lee was not only Miss Universe, 1997, but one Villager wrote in appreciation for Lee's using her notoriety to speak out on race issues in a mainstream forum. [top]

Jeanette Lee - The most (to us) elegant player on the professional women's billiards circuit, the hawk-eyed, steely-cued champ may have turned a whole generation of APAs to misspent youths in smoky pool halls. [top]

Maya Lin - Architect, designer of the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, AL, and, of course, the career-launching Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, which she designed as a student at Yale, and which has become one of the most visited sites in Washington, D.C. [top]

Amy Ling - Professor Amy Ling is author/editor of numerous books and anthologies in the fields of English and Asian American literature, and the first Director of the University of Wisconsin - Madison Asian American Studies Program, known as the first such official program in the Midwest. Prof. Ling's scholarship has promoted understanding of literature by and representation of Asian American women in particular, including works by the pioneering Eurasian writer Sui Sin Far and critical analyses of the "Butterfly" figure in western arts. She contributed the article, Creating Themselves and Asian American Fiction: Sui Sin Far and Onoto Watanna to the Village. Sadly, Dr. Ling passed away in August 1999 after a long struggle with cancer, and we remembered her along with a feature on her wonderful new arts anthology, Yellow Light: The Flowering of Asian-American Arts. [top]

Midori - Internationally renowned violinist who sold out Carnegie Hall at her 1990 soloist debut. [top]

Patsy Mink - The Hawaii Democrat was not only the first APA woman elected to Congress, but is also appreciated by Villagers "for her role in the battle for the Equal Rights Amendment" as well as her leadership in environmental affairs. [top]

Mee Moua – After a special run-off election for the St. Paul, MN Senate District 67 seat, Moua became on Feb. 4, 2002 the first Hmong American elected to state office. Defeating her GOP opponent by a 21% margin, Moua’s platform focused heavily on education, housing, and pro-choice issues. She received strong support from minority voters in a city that is home to the nation’s largest Hmong population, even though no S.E. Asian candidate had yet been elected to state office. For many commentators, Moua is both a beneficiary and leader of a new level of political organization among Hmong Americans, and her election and high voter suggest that other S.E. Asian candidates may soon follow in her footsteps. [top]

Bharati Mukherjee - Writer, professor, recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Middleman and Other Stories. [top]

"Mulan" - Whatever her relationship to the authentic Chinese legendary heroine Fa Mu Lan, Disney's animated singing warrior has been called a feminist hero by some commentators in these pages and praised by the Media Action Network for Asian Americans as "a positive role model who is able to overcome tremendous odds to accomplish her goals by being herself." [top]

Karen Narasaki - Activist, lawyer, and Executive Director of the National APA Legal Consortium, whose annual Audit of Anti-Asian Violence has appeared on the Village in past years. She was a lobbyist for the Japanese American Citizens League in Washington, D.C., and was recognized by Northwest Asian Weekly as one of the "Top 10 Contributors to the APA Community" in 1996. [top]

Irene Natividad - Villagers appreciate this activist and academic for "taking on the presidency of the bipartisan National Women's Political Caucus" in 1985--the first APA woman to undertake the task. Named by Ladies Home Journal among the 100 most influential women in America, she was later appointed by President Clinton to be the director of Sallie Mae, the government branch in charge student funding.  She has also served as executive director of the Philippine American Foundation, and co-chair of Corporate Women Directors International, advocating increased participation of women on corporate boards.  In 2004, she was named among the Enterprising Women of the Year by the business magazine, Enterprising Women.  [top]

Josie Natori - Starting out as a V.P. at Merrill Lynch before beginning her own fashion house, Natori International, the Filipina-American designer is most widely known for intricately detailed intimate wear. Often regarded as the very model of an American entrepreneurial success story, she served as commissioner to the White House Conference on Small Business. [top]

Indra Nooyi - became President & CFO for PepsiCo, Inc. in May 2001, making her one of the great success stories among women in corporate America -- and certainly the most influential desi.  She holds degrees from Madras Christian College, the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, and the Yale School of Management, and has been credited with having a tough-minded, "bulldog" leadership style.  She has been ranked #4 on Fortune Magazine's list of "50 Most Powerful Women in Business," and #24 on its 2005 list of "100 Most Powerful Women in the World". Since that time -- and her first listing on the Wall of Fame -- Nooyi's rise has been meteoric: Climbing quickly to the role of Pepsco's CEO, she quickly jumped to the #1 on Fortune's list, and in February 2007, Pepsico announced that Nooyi would take on the additional title of Chairman, upon the retirement of Executive Chairman Steven S Reinemund in May.

Rose Ochi - Ochi is a widely respected figure in the justice and law enforcement community whose "accomplishments are too many to list," says one Villager.  However, some highlights might include serving as director of the Community Relations Service of the Department of Justice under the Clinton Administration, a Senate-confirmed position, making Ochi the first APA woman appointed to an assistant A.G. level role. In this, she represented the President and the A.G. before Congress, with state and local governments, and the general public regarding improving police community relations, police integrity and accountability, hate crimes, and race relations.  She is currently VP of the Los Angeles County Police Commission. Her impressive bio appears here.

Angela Oh - Active spokeswoman during 1992 L.A. riots and the only APA representative to the President's Initiative on Race Advisory Board, Oh's numerous professional and community involvements include serving as Special Counsel to the Assembly Special Committee on the L.A. crisis following the 1992 riots, serving as Commissioner to the L.A. City Human Relations Commission, President of the Korean American Bar Association of Southern California, Board member of the California Women's Law Center, Board member of Lawyers' Mutual Insurance Company, and Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. See Angela E. Oh on the National Dialogue on Race and its Importance to the APA Community. Starting January 2000, Oh contributed frequently to AAV as a featured columnist whose work is archived here. [top]

Sandra Oh - Riding high on her somewhat surprising casting and stellar performance in Sideways, Sandra Oh not only landed a primo role on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy, but took home the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Best Actress honor for a television drama series, along with Supporting Actress honors from the Golden Globes, and nominations for the Emmy and other awards.

Susan Oki-Mollway - The first-ever APA woman to serve on the federal district court, Oki-Mollway was named by Congress the U.S. District Court Judge for Hawaii on June 22, 1998. [top]

Yoko Ono - At one time among the most famous or infamous Asian American women, the Japanese-born experimental artist and once top-ten recording artist not only owns one of the most...um, distinctive singing voices around, but has driven a number of good causes and good business ventures. Whether or not she "broke up the Beatles," she probably saved John Lennon's life (in his own words) and a good deal of his hemorrhaging fortune through her business investments. Perhaps her most lasting contribution to America, though, was her collaboration with Lennon in such anti-Vietnam War spectacles as the "Bed-In," which earned her a prominent place on President Nixon's doo-doo list. At the Village we also liked her self-effacing sense of humor in a cameo on Mad About You. See Gil Asakawa's "The Ballad of John and Yoko and Me," a personal reflection about "the first famous Japanese woman" most of us ever heard of. [top]

Coral Wong Pietsch - Coral Wong Pietsch, the daughter of an immigrant restaurateur from Canton, had already made military history early in her career when she became the first woman chief judge in the history of the Army Judge Advocates General (JAG) Corps -- the legal arm of the U.S. Army. Commissioned as a judge advocate general officer in 1974, she served in Korea and in Hawaii for six years on active duty, then went into the Army Reserve. From 1986 to 1991, she served as Labor Counselor for the U.S. Army Support Command Hawai`i, and was responsible for providing training to managers and supervisors on Title VII, the Rehabilitation Act, and sexual harassment.  In the spring of 2001 she was confirmed the JAG Corps' first woman general, and the Army's first-ever Asian American woman general.  She later went on to serve as a commissioner for the Hawaii Civil Right Commission, from 2003-2007. Read more about Coral Wong Pietsch.

Lea Salonga - This  Manila-born, Tony-winning actress and singer became an international star for her work in the role of Miss Saigon's Kim, which she originated in the London version in 1989 and played on both sides of the Pond.  Moving onto high profile roles in other hit Broadway shows such as Les Miserables, this multitalented, multigenre performer also sang the Academy Award-winning song, A Whole New World, in the animated hit Aladdin, was featured on TV (ER, As the World Turns), and has toured nationally with her own one-woman musical concerts.  In 2002, she starred in the Broadway revival of the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic, Flower Drum Song.

Anna Sui - Haute couture fashion designer known on the world's snazziest runways, Detroit-raised Sui is a graduate of New York's Parsons School. Called by one reviewer "Culturally omnivorous, celebrity-beloved," she's known for her eclectic fashion "sampling" of styles ranging from Chanel suits to Summer of Love-wear to Bloomsbury to glam rock. [top]

Renee Tajima-Pena - Filmmaker, with Christine Choy, of the Oscar-nominated Who Killed Vincent Chin? Tajima-Pena won a 1997 Sundance Film Festival award for her road-trip documentary, My America...or Honk if you Love Buddha. Its subjects range from long-time Louisianan Filipinas to a pair of Seattlite Korean rappers to a NY fortune cookie-maker to Japanese American civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama. Said one critic, "The real road that [she's] traversing is the delicate one separating public and private, group identity and individual personality, and she ain't no tourist. If Asian Americans have too often been cast as spectators in the drama of black/white America, My America restores their centrality." [top]

Amy Tan - Novelist, whose 1989 Joy Luck Club became a run-away best-seller, a major motion picture, and the springboard for a upwelling-or renaissance-of APA publishing activity that hasn't quite gone away yet and hopefully never will. [top]

Donna Tanoue - As the 17th Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) since May 26, 1998, Tanoue oversees the agency that provides $100,000 in insurance for accounts at banks and thrift institutions. Under Ms. Tanoue's leadership, the FDIC has taken an aggressive approach to supervising banks to ensure their readiness for the Year 2000 date change. She also has directed the agency's staff to focus attention on emerging risks to the banking industry, and to explore refinements to the deposit insurance system. From 1983 to 1987, she was Commissioner of Financial Institutions for the State of Hawaii. She also served as Special Deputy Attorney General to the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs for the State of Hawaii from 1981 to 1983. [top]

Shaie-Mei Temple - This New Orleans-based businesswoman and activist devoted herself to strengthening an APA political voice in the south and nationwide until her untimely death in Jan. 2002. As president of the Crescent Pacific Group, she was a successful consultant to Fortune 500 energy companies who also leveraged her business acumen and leadership skills to the service of Louisiana’s APA community. Temple founded the N.O. chapter of the Org. of Chinese-American Women, published the bilingual Hua Fong News, and donated time and financial support to a number of charitable organizations and Asian-American businesses and community projects. Setting aside her GOP affiliation to the cause of building APA political coalition and clout, she was an active and eloquent spokesperson for the non-partisan 80-20 Initiative, which ultimately voted to endorse Al Gore’s 2000 presidential bid. (See her Village commentary.) When sadly Ms. Temple died of meningitis at age 52, AsiaWeek reported that over 200 diverse mourners gathered to commemorate her accomplishments at her funeral. [top]

Iva Toguri d'Aquino - Nisei accused of being the infamous "Tokyo Rose," Toguri was stuck in Japan at the outbreak of WWII and compelled to serve the government as one of 14 English-speaking announcers at Radio Tokyo. Upon her return, she was convicted of treason-largely at the instigation of Walter Winchell and the white supremacist group, Native Sons of the Golden West-and sentenced to a $10,000 fine, 10 years' jail-time, and revocation of her citizenship, even though she was born in Los Angeles. Only after a concerted APA movement was launched on her behalf was she pardoned by President Gerald Ford on his last day in office. [top]

Tamlyn Tomita - Actress who has filled featured and starring roles in films ranging from the big budget Come See the Paradise and Joy-Luck Club to the small independent Sundance jewel, Picture Bride, and to the television series Babylon-5 -- and a favorite covergirl at A. Magazine. [top]

Urvashi Vaid - One Villager writes appreciatively that "[Vaid] probably exemplified the in-your-face style of AIDS activism when she headed the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force." [top]

Vera Wang - Fashion designer who began early on at Vogue and Ralph Lauren before establishing her own line of affordable and attractive ready-to-wear bridal and evening dresses. She first received widespread notice, though, designing costumes for skater Nancy Kerrigan at 1994 and has since then been a brand-name "designer to the stars," as is apparent from watching any Oscar Awards pre-show. [top]

Padmasree Warrior - As EVP, Chief Technology Officer, of Motorola, the 46-year-old Indian American engineer and executive oversees some $3.7 billion in R&D, and was flagged by Fortune as one of 2006's 4 "rising stars" to watch. Read an interview with WITI Women.

Michi Weglyn - Several Villagers wrote admiringly of her hard-hitting book, Years of Infamy, which first exposed so many Americans to the long-hidden details of the internment of Japanese Americans. Ms.Weglyn passed away on April 25 and is remembered here by writer Phil Tajitsu Nash. [top]

Michelle Wei - In 2003, Honolulu teenager Wei became the youngest golfer to win the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship, which was just the start for the 13 year old. The following year, she went to become the youngest player ever to participate in a PGA Tour event, when she hit the 2004 Sony Open in Hawaii. In February 2005, at age 15, she tied for second at the year's LGPA Opener (although officially still playing as an amateur, she was ineligible to receive the prize money she earned).  Wei's youth (currently 15) and size (she's nearly 6 feet and probably still growing) have stirred some controversy as she has considered if/when to turn pro. Fifty-six percent of the more than 1,700 Butt-in-skys in a Sport Illustrated reader poll voted that Wei should only turn pro after she's finished college (just a guess that a lot of these must be Asians), while only 17% wanted to her turn pro now, and 30% "after high school". Whenever Wei does go professional, we can bet that many more accomplishments and "firsts" lay ahead of this talented athlete.

Anna May Wong - Legendary silver screen actress best known for sultry dragon lady temptress roles in Fu Manchu thrillers such as 1931's Daughter of the Dragon. However, Villager Jen Ro writes: "While she was indeed made famous for her dragon-lady film persona, I think it would be nice if APA women could remember her as the ONLY Asian-American actress ever to have been a contract player with a major studio (Paramount) during the era of the "studio system," instead of the flimsy character type the short-sighted, small-minded studio execs concocted for her...Her groundbreaking achievements during one of Hollywood's more tumultuous periods is colossal, and I think it would be appropriate to remember her as the pioneer she was. From what we know, she was a woman of integrity and insight who had the chance to be a superstar, but chose to leave it behind when she realized that Hollywood would never get beyond its racist ways. Her story is a potential gold-mine of inspiration for APA women in all fields."  Thanks Jen! [top]

Mitsuye Yamada - Author of Camp Notes and Other Poems and Desert Run, Yamada was born in Kyushu, Japan, and raised in Seattle. At the outbreak of WWII her family was uprooted and interned at Minidoka camp in Idaho. Also a devoted educator and human rights activist, she is a founder and coordinator of the MultiCultural Women Writers organization. She has written frequently on APA feminism, and has also served as a board member of Amnesty International, U.S.A., and chair of Amnesty's Committee on International Development. See A Call for More Grass-Roots Multicultural Arts, her contribution to our Constructive Dialogue on Race Project, as well as her remembrance of late Asian-American literature scholar, Dr. Amy Ling. [top]

Kristi Yamaguchi - Olympic gold medalist, two-time World Championships winner, who exposed the lameness of the commercial endorsement game but was an inspiration to APA kids everywhere as (maybe, questionably) the first APA woman to be featured on a breakfast cereal box. [top]

Hisaye Yamamoto - Stories from her collection, 17 Syllables, were 5 times included in Best American Stories. Born in California, she was interned and wrote from Poston, AZ, during WWII. From 1945-1948, she worked for the black weekly, LA Tribune. She took some time off to write and volunteered at Catholic worker rehabilitation farm in NY. Then in 1955 she married and became a self-described "housewife" while managing very handily to earn an American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1986. [top]

Lois-Ann Yamanaka: Author of Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers and Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre, Yamanaka made news in the Village a couple of times last year. Her novel, Blu's Hanging, caused a controversy at the Association for Asian American Studies when it was given the 1997 literary award, but protests within the organization led to the dissolution of its Board. Later in the year, the book was the first recipient of the Asian American Literary Awards series fiction honor. See Berssenbrugge, Yamanaka Win First Annual APA Lit Awards. [top]

Wakako Yamauchi - Wakako Yamauchi's And the Soul Shall Dance is among the most celebrated works of Asian American drama. Following its long evolution from a short story that appeared in Aiiieeeee!, it became one of the "biggest hits ever in the history of East West Players," earned the LA Critics' Circle Award in 1977, and was produced for television. In light of her 1994 Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award and her recent collection, Songs My Mother Taught Me, it's astonishing to think that Yamauchi once wondered if she was "good enough" to write for the LA-based newspaper, Rafu Shimpo. She was good enough-and formed a long-term relationship with Japanese American readers in the Rafu's pages, both as a writer and illustrator, that has continued until this day. [top]

Francey Lim Youngberg - Not only did she do an exceptional job as the founding Executive Director of the APA Institute for Congressional Studies--an invaluable community resource that makes it seem incredible that we ever managed to live without it--but she's further impressed Villagers by giving up that position to become the Project Director for the Access to Justice Initiative being mounted by Asian American LEAD and the D.O.J. A lawyer, she was also President of the APA Bar Association of D.C. and Founding President of the APA Bar Educational Fund. [top]

Diane C. Yu - Attorney, national bar leader, and Chief of Staff and Deputy to the President of New York University, Diane Yu has seen several "firsts" in her career, only the most recent becoming the first woman of color to serve as Chair of the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession (a position also once held by Hillary Rodham Clinton).  Also reportedly the first Asian American to chair any section or division in that Association, she had previously held high-level legal positions at Monsanto Company and the California State Bar, and was the first Asian-American Superior Court Commissioner in California.  She was also appointed by the President of the United States as a White House Fellow.

Jessica Yu - Film and TV director/writer/producer/editor Yu earned the 1996 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for her moving film, Breathing Lessons, about the life of Mark O'Brien, a writer who has lived for decades confined in an iron lung.  Among her many other kudos are Emmy and Cable Ace awards for her documentary work, and as the first director selected for the John Wells Director Diversity Program, she has directed episodes of the NBC dramas “The West Wing,” “Lyon’s Den,” “ER,” and “Mr. Sterling,” as well as “The Guardian” for CBS.  Her 2005 film, In the Realms of the Unreal, detailing the curious life of outsider artist Henry Darger, opened to enthusiastic critical reviews and predications that it may well be another strong Oscar contender. Also a well published writer, Yu has written contributions for the LA Times Magazine and the Pacific News Service, and earned media honors including the ACV’s Asian American Media Award.

Helen Zia - An award-winning journalist and contributing editor of Ms. Magazine, Zia has been an activist on social justice and feminist issues for more than two decades. She served as Editor-in-Chief for M&C magazine and as board member of numerous organizations including the Asian American Journalists Association, San Francisco Asian Women's Shelter, APIs for Choice, Out! magazine, and the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence. A role-model for several surveyed Villagers, Zia was described by one Village editor as "an out-and-out hero, and probably the coolest APA woman I know." Since this initial posting, Helen contributed frequently to AAV as a featured columnist. She is author of the book, Asian American Dreams, and co-author of My Country vs. Me, with Dr. Wen Ho Lee. [top]

Other Recent Villager Additions Under Construction -

"I nominate Cheng Imm Tan. In 1997, Cheng Imm began the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, which opened up one of the first battered women’s shelters to specifically operate for Asian women. It offers outreach, legal assistance, counseling, and a variety of services to women from many, many Asian ethnic groups. I worked with Cheng Imm, who lives in Boston, in 1995-96, and she is still one of the most phenomenal women I have ever met. Please look at the October/November issue of Audrey magazine (http://www.audreymagazine.com/oct2005/Living01.asp) for more background on Cheng Imm. In the article, I noticed that she also began the first all-women lion and dragon dance troupe. If I am not mistaken, she was also very involved in organizing the all-women’s dragon boat race team in Boston in the 1990s. Anyway, Cheng Imm was, and obviously still is, an incredible woman. As the mother of an adopted daughter, 9 years old, from China, I am thankful to have Cheng Imm to hold up as a role model for her." - Suzanne Baker, Livonia, MI

Added by a Villager: "For more information on Cheng Imm Tan, please go to www.gundkwok.org to view the Gund Kwok Lion & Dragon Dance Troupe website.  The group is still very alive, active and growing in Boston."

"Subject: APA women who have made a difference. Please add to your list the following women: Helen Huang, Jackie Huey, Margaret Chin, Betty Sung, Rose Tan - Shirley Mow"

"You forgot Ahn Duong!"

"Does it have to be just about the American culture?  What about APA women who have influenced other cultures and are just great role models for women around the world?  One name comes to mind is Isabel Preysler, former wife of Julio Iglesias and mother to Enrique Iglesias."

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