New Nominations to the APA Women's Wall of Fame

By L Hsu via Email

Hello,

Thanks for your great "Wall of Fame" webpage.  There are several individuals I would like to nominate:

Katherine Sui Fun Cheung

First Asian American woman pilot. Cheung left China at 17 to study music in Los Angeles. Her fascination with flying led her to take flying lessons at age 26, going on her first solo flight after only 12.5 hours of instructions. She was a member of the exclusive aviatrix-only "99 Club" presided by Amelia Earhart, whom she knew and flew with on several occasions. Cheung amazed crowds with sensational loops and rolls of her plane in air shows and often flew in air races. She intended to fly to China to train pilots there but a tragic accident which destroyed her plane and killed her cousin ended her plans to do so.

Nancy Kwan

The first Asian actress to achieve stardom in Hollywood, Nancy first won fame in the popular but controversial romantic classic "The World of Suzie Wong".  She played the leading role in the musical "Flower Drum Song", which was the first American film with an all-Asian cast.  She went onto to star in dozens more films, including many non-Asian and non-traditional roles.  She was a spokesperson for the Asian-American Voters Coalition and has also worked for various Asian-American cultural and charitable organizations.

Coco Lee

Coco grew up San Francisco before returning to Hong Kong, where she became a very successful singer. She innovated the Chinese music scene by combining R&B sounds with Taiwanese pop sounds. She has recorded over a dozen albums in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English including Di-Da-Di and Coco's Party. She did the voice of Mulan and sang the theme song in the Chinese version of Disney's movie. In the year 2000, she became the first Asian singer to break into the American pop scene with her album Just No Other Way. She sang Love Before Time for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Chien-Shiung Wu

After receiving her PhD in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, she taught at Smith College and Princeton University. Early in WW II, she joined the famed Manhattan Project, where she helped develop the uranium enrichment process needed to build the first atomic bomb. After the war, she taught at Columbia University, she conducted experiments that confirmed a theory proposed by fellow physicists Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee. She was also the first woman president of the American Physics Society. Her awards include the National Medal of Science and was the first living scientist having an asteroid named after her.

Other Recent Villager Additions Under Construction

"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."

"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.

Other Readings of Interest

• WHM 2005: Impressive Women
  By Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
  Noted author of the classic Farewell to Manazar and The Legend of Firehorse Woman, and a long-time Wall honoree discusses the APA women that have in turn impressed and inspired her in her work and life
• WHM 2005: Featured Books by Asian American Women Authors
• Women's History Month 2005 @ Asian American Village Section Home