Celebrating Asian Americans for #WomensHistoryMonth

It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way by Kyo Maclear, illustrated by Julie Morstad

Growing up in California, Gyo Fujikawa always knew that she wanted to be an artist. She was raised among strong women, including her mother and teachers, who encouraged her to fight for what she believed in. During World War II, Gyo’s family was forced to abandon everything and was taken to an internment camp in Arkansas.

Far away from home, Gyo worked as an illustrator in New York while her innocent family was imprisoned. Seeing the diversity around her and feeling pangs from her own childhood, Gyo became determined to show all types of children in the pages of her books. There had to be a world where they saw themselves represented. [picture book biography, ages 4 and up]

Anna May Wong: Born January 3, 1905

She’s Chinese American.

Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story by Paula Woo, illustrated by Lin Wang

Anna May Wong was the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American actress to gain international recognition. Despite facing racism in 1920s Hollywood, her career was long and varied and included silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.

She rose from humble beginnings growing up in Los Angeles’ Chinatown where her family ran a laundry business. Breaking into Hollywood was especially tough for an Asian American woman, and she took what little roles were offered to her to get started including those that included yellowface and Anti-Asian stereotyping. In 1929, her role as a dancer in Picadilly made her a star in Europe. She vowed never to take roles that demeaned Asians again, even if it meant limited work opportunities. [picture book, ages 8 and up]

Chien-Shiung Wu: Born May 31, 1912

Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom by Teresa Robeson, illustrated by Rebecca Huang

When Wu Chien Shiung was born in China 100 years ago, most girls did not attend school; no one considered them as smart as boys. But her parents felt differently. Giving her a name meaning “Courageous Hero,” they encouraged her love of learning and science. This engaging biography follows Wu Chien Shiung as she battles sexism and racism to become what Newsweek magazine called the “Queen of Physics” for her work on beta decay. Along the way, she earned the admiration of famous scientists like Enrico Fermi and Robert Oppenheimer and became the first woman hired as an instructor by Princeton University, the first woman elected President of the American Physical Society, the first scientist to have an asteroid named after her when she was still alive, and many other honors. [picture book biography, ages 5 and up]

Hazel Ying Lee: Born August 24, 1912

The Fearless Flights of Hazel Ying Lee by  Julie Leung, illustrated by Julie Kwon

“No one could see her eyes, hair, or skin color when Hazel was thousands of feet above. Up here, people were just tiny specks against a vast land. And inside her cockpit, Hazel felt like a dragon chasing down the sun. She leaned into the wind, pushing her plane to go faster. She looked at the horizon, and willed the world to move forward.”

During a time of rampant racial discrimination, Hazel, nevertheless, achieved what seemed impossible. Hazel Ying Lee was the first Chinese American woman to fly for the U.S. military. She joined the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots during WWII, testing planes after they came off the assembly line to discover manufacturing defects. It was dangerous work but it allowed her to do what she loved most, fly!  [picture book biography, ages 4 and up]

Joyce Chen: Born September 14, 1917

Dumpling Dreams: How Joyce Chen Brought the Dumpling from Beijing to Cambridge by Carrie Clickard, illustrated by Katy Wu

When I was in college in the 1980s, I remember seeing her restaurant on Mass. Ave in Cambridge near MIT. I never ate there because my friends, Denley who grew up in NYC’s Chinatown, John who grew up in Queens, viewed her restaurant as inauthentic. I grew up eating Chinese food in Los Angeles’ Chinatown.

In rhyming text, this is the story of the first celebrity Asian American chef, Joyce Chen. Her TV show, Joyce Chen Cooks, won a Reader’s Digest educational television award, but only lasted one season.

The picture book covers her name change from her given name “Liao Jia-ai” to “Joyce.”

“Let’s call her Joyce,”

the teachers say.

She likes the name.

“Jia” is gone

and she is Joyce from that day on.

I wish there was more clarification about the name change. Was she at an American school? It seems like her teacher is Chinese. Why would she switch to an Anglicized version of her name, particularly if she was still living in China? I personally don’t like the message that her Chinese name somehow wasn’t good enough and needed to be changed. And I also wonder if her parents called her Joyce at home and if she used the English alphabet to spell her name while living in China versus the actual Chinese characters of her given name.

Chinese parents choose their children’s names very carefully around the meaning of the name for both the sound and the character. If you didn’t know, Mandarin has four pronunciations for each sound so there can be four different characters that mean completely different things for one sound. A good example is the sound “ma”, mā; má; mǎ; mà.

妈 (mā) first tone, meaning “mom”

麻 (má) second tone, meaning “numb”

马 (mǎ) third tone, meaning “horse”

骂 (mà) fourth tone, meaning “to curse”

Related post: Children’s Books About the Importance of One’s Name

I also wish that other issues of her background were covered. Was she supposed to be in the kitchen with Cook? As a child of privilege, was she supposed to be in the kitchen learning how to cook? Likewise with education. Was it unusual for a girl to get a formal education in China in the 1920s or was her father unusual for that time?

Finally, I wanted to note that Buckingham School where Joyce Chen participated in the bake sale is an elite private school in Cambridge. I think it’s safe to say that she introduced Chinese food to wealthy white people who didn’t venture into Boston’s Chinatown, but I think it’s safe to say that dumplings were sold in the various Chinatown restaurants across America as part of Dim Sum and tea culture long before Joyce Chen immigrated to America. For example, Hang An, a dim sum restaurant in San Franciso is over 100 years old.

I would give Joyce Chen credit as the first person of color to be on television hosting a cooking show. Also, an American icon in food and the first Asian American chef to be featured on a commemorative stamp. I would even say that she’s the first Chinese restauranteur to bring Chinese food to the American masses as sophisticated rather than working-class food. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

Eugenia Clark: Born May 4, 1922

She’s half Japanese American.

Swimming with Sharks: The Daring Discoveries of Eugenie Clark by Heather Lang, illustrated by Jordi Solano

In the 1930s, few people studied the ocean and none were women. At 9 years old, Eugenie Clark dreamed of studying sharks and went on to get a master’s degree in zoology. She became the first person to study sharks in their natural habitat. Her research shed new light on sharks; they were intelligent creatures, not voracious killers. She experienced discrimination as a woman and racism as a Japanese American, but she never let it slow her down. She passed away in 2015 at the age of 92, still researching and diving into the depths of the ocean! [picture book biography, ages 5 and up]

Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating, illustrated by Marta Alvarez Miguens 

Eugenie Clark fell in love with sharks from the first moment she saw them at the aquarium. She couldn’t imagine anything more exciting than studying these graceful creatures. But Eugenie quickly discovered that many people believed sharks to be ugly and scary―and they didn’t think women should be scientists. [picture book biography, ages 4 and up]