This year, a new 25-cent coin will be issued in the United States,
It has a regular George Washington portrait on the front and a woman with bangs on the back, holding her chin with her delicate hands.
This woman is Chinese-American movie star Huang Liushuang, who is also the first Asian American to climb the US dollar.
Huang Willow Frost is on board the U.S. 25-cent coin, which the mint will produce from next Monday, with an estimated 300 million nationwide issue.
The Yellow Willow Frost Coin is the fifth coin released by the American Women's Minting Program. Two years ago, Congressman Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, introduced a bill to improve coin design to honor American women who have achieved extraordinary things but are often overlooked.
These women cover space, literature, scientific research, politics and other fields, and Huang Liushuang represents art.
In the United States, Huang Liushuang's name is still heard from time to time, although young people have not seen her films. In China, most people have never heard of her name.
Today, we will tell the story of Huang Liushuang...
Born in Los Angeles in 1905, Huang Liushuang was a third-generation immigrant whose grandparents came from a small village in Taishan, Guangdong Province, and went to the United States in the mid-19th century to pan for gold.
By Huang Liushuang's father's generation, they opened a laundry in Los Angeles to make money. Huang's father gave birth to 8 children, Huang Liushuang is the second eldest child, but she does not have an eldest sister complex, she has always actively fought for what she wants, and does not like to give it to others.
(Sitting on my mother's lap, young yellow willow cream)
In 1910, the Huang family moved to Figueroa Street in the city center, where they were the only Chinese family and were discriminated against. But there is also an unexpected benefit of living here: the film crew is extraordinary.
At that time, the American film industry was gradually moving from the East Coast to Los Angeles, and the filming locations were often located in the city center.
The neighborhood of the Huang family is particularly lively, as soon as the curtains are opened, you can see the crew holding up equipment to shoot, and the actors are all radiant.
The young Huang Liushuang was quickly fascinated, she often did not go to school, ran to watch others film, and then saved money for lunch to go to the movies.
It's not enough to just watch it, she still wants to act. When she was 9 years old, she leaned her face back and begged people to give her a role.
Because she kept saying that the directors knew her, they gave her the nickname C.C.C., which means "Curious Chinese Child".
In 1919, when Huang Liushuang was 14 years old, a movie called "Red Lantern" was being filmed, and the crew needed 300 girls as extras. Huang Liushuang's father's friend introduced her to the crew and began her acting career.
Of course, the actor who just started in the industry started with a trick, and Huang Liushuang played many strange small roles, such as playing a Chinese mother at the age of 16 and playing dead people on various sets.
(Huang Liushuang's famous quote is "I have died 1,000 times", and the characters she plays will always die, including after becoming famous)
After acting like this for three years, Huang Liushuang became the heroine of "Passing of the Sea" with her acting skills and appearance.
The story of "Passing of the Sea" is similar to "Madame Butterfly", except that it is set in China and tells the story of a Chinese girl who saves an American man but is betrayed.
This film was the first Hollywood color film and quickly became popular, and when film magazines admired the technology, they also noticed Huang Liushuang, saying that her acting skills were very amazing.
Since then, Huang Liushuang has turned from actress to star, and her Mongolian slave girl in "The Thief of Baghdad" made the film $2 million at the box office, and audiences preferred to see her rather than the protagonist.
In their opinion, Huang Willow Frost is beautiful, exotic and mysterious, and such characters are very charming.
But the problem also arises here, because she looks so exotic that Hollywood only dares to give her such a role. Those more complex roles belong to white actors.
Huang Liushuang found that there were only two kinds of roles that found her:
One is called "butterfly woman", also called "lotus flower", which is a kind-hearted, introverted and simple East Asian woman, who will always be disappointed;
The other is called "dragon girls", they are the villains of the story, sinister and cunning, domineering and mysterious, and often show dangerous sexual charm.
Either extremely effeminate or extremely vicious, there is no middle ground between these two types of characters, and they are a complete collection of American stereotypes of Asian women.
"They only let me play those roles, I was so tired!" Huang Liushuang complained to reporters in 1933, "Hollywood can't seem to tolerate me." Even if there are Chinese roles, the producer would rather let Hungarians, Mexicans or Indians play them, just not let real Chinese play them! ”
In the 30s of the last century, Huang Liushuang, who was disappointed with Hollywood, ran to Europe to develop. Europe is less restrictive than the United States, and she soon won a number of starring opportunities, starring in films such as "Chinatown Bustling Dream" that caused a sensation in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Huang was invited to a British royal banquet and became close friends with European actresses such as Marie Dietrich (hence the gay scandal).
These news were transmitted back to the United States, making Huang Liushuang a fragrant food in the American entertainment industry. They lured her back to China with high salaries and starring roles, allowing her to play the heroine of the crime film "Dangerous Cognition".
While fame has grown, Hollywood restrictions remain. Many times, Huang Liushuang's role was taken away by white actors, and some producers even told her that she was "too Chinese to play Chinese".
What makes Huang Liushuang most uncomfortable is that she cannot play the heroine Alan in "The Earth".
"The Earth" is a Chinese rural novel written by Pearl Buck, and the heroine is a positive and rare three-dimensional Chinese, which is very different from the "butterfly woman" and "dragon girl".
Since the publication of the novel in 1931, Huang Liushuang has told the American media that she wants to play Alan, and many media have also said that she is the best candidate for the role.
However, the producers never considered playing Alain, and they gave the role to German actress Luise Rainer.
The character given to Huang Liushuang is the female villain "Lotus", who is a scheming prostitute who destroys the protagonist's family.
"If you let me play Alain, I'm happy. But you ask me, a person with Chinese ancestry, to play the only cold-blooded and ruthless character in the whole film?! This is still an all-Chinese character film! Huang Liushuang questioned MGM's producers at the time.
MGM did not change his mind, and in the end Huang Liushuang refused to star.
Louise Reina won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Alan.
Obviously there are Asian actors, but let white people play Chinese, which seems very grotesque today.
But at the time, it was commonplace.
During the period when Eastern culture was popular, Americans created many stories describing East Asia. All the characters are Asian (except for the male lead, probably except), and it is reasonable to use Asian actors, but in order to ensure the box office, the producers will let more famous white actors play them.
Thus, we can see white singers in Madame Butterfly.
See a white anti-Japanese heroine in "Dragon Race".
See a white Japanese landlord in Breakfast at Tiffany.
A search for "The Earth" reveals that almost all the important characters are white people, who conscientiously play rural Chinese people.
This painting style is really...
In addition to thinking about the box office, another big reason for insisting on white actors is that the American film code "Hays Code" prohibits actors and actresses of different races from kissing on the screen.
In the 20s of the last century, a number of scandals broke out in Hollywood, causing American society to question the film industry. To salvage its image, Hollywood asked William Hays, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, to write film censorship rules.
Hayes wrote the rules in particular detail, including no kissing for more than three seconds, no white slaves, no interracial marriages, and no mockery of clergy.
Among them, there is also a ban on interracial kissing.
This rule prevents Huang Liushuang from playing the protagonist of romance films, and she is often restricted in non-romance films.
In decades of acting career, Huang Liushuang has only kissed the male lead in one film, which is still a British movie.
In "The Earth", the male and female protagonists are husband and wife and have kissed, because the male protagonist has selected a white actor, and the female protagonist naturally has to be white.
After losing the role of "Alan", Huang Liushuang was disheartened and began a year-long trip to China.
The trip was also not very happy, because the government of the Republic of China at the time repeatedly criticized her, saying that she "participated in the production of films that humiliated China".
MGM's China adviser told the media: "Every time Huang Liushuang appeared on the screen, Chinese newspapers wrote 'Huang Liushuang has disgraced China again' next to her photo." ”
This is not to blame them, because some of the characters played by Huang Liushuang are "dragon girls", which belong to the stereotypical evil Chinese.
In order to participate in the very good team of "Shanghai Express", Huang Liushuang once promised the producer to play Fu Manchu's daughter in "Daughter of the Dragon". That character further strengthens the image of the "dragon girl".
While traveling in China, Huang Liushuang has been criticized by the Republic of China government and the Chinese film industry, and has some nervous breakdowns.
Once, when she disembarked from the ship in Hong Kong, she heard someone on the shore shouting "Down with Huang Liushuang" and instantly cried.
Huang Liushuang also doesn't want to play "Dragon Girl", but Hollywood roles go back and forth. If you want to act, either accept it or leave the industry.
She complained to the media in 1933: "Why are Chinese always villains on the screen, and so cruel villains." Murderous, treacherous, like a snake in the grass! We are not like that. How can we be like this? We are a much older civilization than the West. ”
Although not very popular, Huang Liushuang contributed a lot to China's anti-Japanese cause.
Just after the 918 incident, Huang Liushuang wrote an article in an American newspaper criticizing the Japanese invasion. In order to draw attention to Japanese aggression in American society, she made many anti-Japanese movies, in which Chinese characters were more positive than in Hollywood.
In her "Chongqing Girl", Chinese is rarely portrayed as a hero, rather than a victim rescued by the Americans.
Huang Liushuang donated the remuneration of many films to the China Aid Federation, and also auctioned off his film costumes to help Chinese refugees.
From 1939 to 1942, she rarely filmed, mainly participating in the anti-Japanese movement.
At the end of the 40s of the last century, Huang Liushuang began to invest in real estate, and his career changed from actor to apartment manager. A few years later, she made a TV series tailored for her, "Lady Willow's Gallery", which became the final glory.
Huang Liushuang, who is in her 50s, is not in good health, and she has experienced severe internal bleeding because of heavy alcoholism.
In 1960, Huang Liushuang left her star on the Avenue of Fame, becoming the first Chinese actress to win this honor.
A few months later, she died of a heart attack at home at the age of 56.
In the era when white people are absolutely dominant, Huang Liushuang single-handedly entered the American film hall, which is really powerful.
Decades after her death, her starring in "Shanghai Express" still received a lot of attention.
Huang Liushuang never married in her life because she said she was married to art.
Her greatest passion is indeed art.
In the end, she is just a girl who wants to act, but the unfairness of the environment has caused her to suffer all kinds of setbacks...