Starting October 24, the United States will introduce a new 25-cent minted coin, this time as part of the U.S. Mint's "Five American Women Pioneers" program, which honors pioneers in various fields, and four other 25-cent coins modeled on outstanding female images will also be released this year: famous poet and activist Maya Angelo, America's first female astronaut Sally Ryder, Native American Cherokee sheichess Wilma Mankiller, Hispanic women's suffrage activist and educator Nina Otero-Warren. Wilma Mankiller, Nina Otero-Warren and Huang Liushuang were voted for by the public. Anna May Wong is the only Chinese American selected for the program and the first Chinese woman to be engraved on an American coin.
Starting this year, Chinese Huang Liushuang will be listed on a 25-cent coin alongside President Washington, the founding father of the United States, to make history.
A legendary woman who sold all her family property to support China's War of Resistance, her whole life was devoted to the movies and motherland she loved!
Born in 1905 in Los Angeles, Huang Liushuang, his ancestral home is Taishan City, Guangdong Province, and his father runs a laundry in Chinatown to make a living. She has loved movies since she was a child, she often observes other people's movies on major sets, and for a long time, the local studios know this little Chinese girl. At the age of 14, he accidentally got the opportunity to play a supporting role in the movie "Red Lantern". After that, he successively starred in supporting roles in many movies, until 1924, "The Thief of Baghdad", playing a Mongolian slave in the play, became famous.
Excellent acting skills, unforgettable fragrant images, and cooperation with popular stars made this film one of the highest-grossing films of the year.
However, this sexy and seductive Mongolian slave girl is like a prelude, making it difficult for her to escape such a character setting. In the racist American society at that time, she could only play prostitutes, murderers, and slaves. Huang Liushuang famously said she "died a thousand times" because in every movie she starred in, her character died. Since American law at the time prohibited actors of different races from kissing each other on screen, she was often unable to play the lead role of a romantic movie.
Her naked dress and frequent negative Chinese film and television images have made her criticized by the Chinese people, and even Song Meiling will ask her not to attend banquets about stars when she goes to the United States. Even her family did not understand her, at that time the Chinese thought that making a movie would be ingested into the soul, and she refused the blind date her father arranged for her, so the relationship with her family has been very stiff, which has also become her regret.
She has led a new fashion trend full of oriental charm.
In 1928, tired of always playing roles that smear Chinese women, she left Hollywood, and first starred in the film "Song" as the protagonist in Germany, from England to the Netherlands, from Spain to Italy, from Hungary to Romania, etc., the media of various countries took the trouble to report her in large pages.
Huang Liushuang's photo book was published in Vanity Fair magazine distributed in France.
In 1929, she starred in "Chinatown Bustling Dream", which continued to sensationalize the world, and can be called one of the British film classics of the silent film era. With his performance in the play, he was invited to attend the British royal banquet.
In addition, she has been the statue figure of the "Hollywood Silver Cast Four Ladies Observatory" with Dorothy Delio, Dorothy Dandridge, Mae West and Marilyn Monroe. American history professor Grehan Ho Jie said: "Today, there is no Chinese actress whose achievements are comparable to Huang Liushuang." ”
She is also the first Chinese star to appear on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2020, Google's homepage was replaced with her classic image in honor of her.
Huang Liushuang, which was widely acclaimed in Europe, attracted the attention of Paramount Pictures in the United States, and this trip to Europe also improved her status in the United States, and then she participated in the Broadway stage play "On the Spot", which was very acclaimed. The New York Times called her an "incredible woman of pure love."
Before each stage starts, she will say a few words: "No matter what role I play, I cannot speak for the whole of the Chinese, I hope you are here not to misunderstand." ”
However, Huang Liushuang's rise to the sky did not mean that she was completely mainstreamed by Hollywood at that time.
She took a fancy to Pearl Buck's Nobel Prize-winning work "The Earth" early on, hoping to play the Chinese peasant woman Alan in it, which was the first time to show a positive image of Chinese on the big screen, so she tried her best and fought for it, but MGM chose a white actor to star. The reason for rejecting her was: "You are too "oriental". ”
German actress Louise Rena won the 10th Oscar for her outstanding performance in "The Earth".
Frustrated, she planned to return to China to find her roots, but at that time her "spy" image caused her to receive overwhelming curses, and Ta Kung Pao even criticized her: Huang Liushuang, who is ashamed of the Chinese and humiliates the Chinese, is also famous for acting as a Chinese film. She returned to China to visit relatives and visited many cities such as Shanghai and Tianjin, and actively connected with the domestic media and always explained herself to the public.
Huang Liushuang reluctantly explained: "Even if I don't play those roles, there will be other white people to play them, and instead of letting them play them, it's better for me to play them, it's just a drama." "And I will lose the only opportunity to 'Chinese act Chinese, and I will not have the opportunity to maintain the minimum image of the Chinese." She also taught herself Mandarin only in Cantonese, and the effect of her repeated public patriotic remarks was immediate, and the media praised her significantly.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, she not only actively participated in the filming of anti-fascist films, but also made speeches everywhere, calling on the US government and people to support China's Anti-Japanese War. In addition to hosting charity performances, she also publicly auctioned her jewelry, jewelry, and clothing, and remitted all the money to China. Her righteous deeds have been widely praised by people from all walks of life, and famous old newspapermen Zhang Hingshui, Ge Gongzhen and Zou Taofen have written many articles praising her patriotic deeds.
Such a kind act also reversed her negative image in one fell swoop, at this time the negative evaluation of her in the country was basically extinct, replaced by "Chinese daughter" and "patriot".
As with her tortuous career, which has not been accepted by mainstream American films. Her love was never consummated in her life, and her first love was filmmaker Mitch Neeland, a playboy who abandoned her on the pretext that "California law prohibits whites from marrying Chinese." After that, he also had many love experiences with white Americans, but they all failed. She also thought about marrying Chinese living in the United States, but they all disliked her as a joke.
She sighed helplessly: "Chinese men dislike me as a joke, and white people can't marry Chinese." ”
Failure to achieve success in career and life made Huang Liushuang depressed in his later years and lived with alcohol all day.
In 1961, Huang Liushuang died of a heart attack at the age of 56. From a woman at the bottom to a generation of legends in Hollywood, Huang Liushuang has created her own history.
This year coincides with the centenary of Huang's first starring role in a film, and the U.S. Mint said in an official press release, "She was a courageous advocate for more representation and more diverse roles for Asian-American actors." In her tragic life, she has done her best. Today, many years later, seeing this great woman a hundred years ago is worth remembering for each of us.