Recently, the face of an Asian woman appeared for the first time on a new 25-cent coin issued in the United States.
According to the United States Mint, images are designed on coins to honor outstanding American women who have achieved extraordinary achievements in various fields but have been overlooked.
So, who is this Asian woman who received this honor? What kind of untold story does she have?
She is the only Chinese actress Huang Liushuang who was active in the golden age of Hollywood in the last century.
With her outstanding contributions in the film and television industry, she has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; Also with Marilyn. Monroe and other famous actresses together became statue figures on the "Hollywood Silver Cast Four Ladies Observatory".
It stands to reason that Huang Liushuang's life should be infinitely beautiful.
In fact, she lived her life in criticism, bitterness, and tears, and suffered both the exclusion of American circles and the spurning of Chinese at home.
With the iconic bangs, thin eyebrows, revealing and funny clothes, he scratches his head on the screen, either playing a dark-belly, vicious villain or an Asian woman abandoned by whites.
This is Huang Liushuang's original image on the screen.
Such a character undoubtedly carries a deep sense of humiliation, but as a young actor who has just stepped into the film and television industry, Huang Liushuang has no choice.
Huang Liushuang was born in Los Angeles Chinatown in 1905, and like many Chinese who traveled across the ocean to make a living, Huang Liushuang's grandfather was very hard-working, and three generations of grandchildren opened a small laundry shop in Chinatown to make ends meet.
However, no matter how hard the 8 children in the family try, life is still difficult.
Huang Liushuang is the second oldest in the family, and her outstanding figure and appearance make her particularly eye-catching in the crowd.
White students always found fault with her, pulled her braids, pricked her with needles, and mocked her skin color, and Huang Liushuang grew up in this atmosphere of discrimination. Her father had no choice but to transfer her to a Chinese school in Chinatown.
At that time, American films gradually paid attention to oriental culture, and many film crews would shoot in Chinatown, which has a strong oriental atmosphere.
Huang Liushuang looked at the fashionably dressed actors and photographers holding cameras from a distance, and felt extremely novel and liked.
As soon as she finishes school, she will run after the crew, and she is familiar with the director, and Huang Liushuang will beg the director to give her a role.
Over time, everyone noticed this beautiful Chinese girl and gave her the nickname CCC (Curious Chinese Doll).
In 1919, the crew of "Red Lantern" was missing an Asian actor, and director Albert Capellani immediately thought of Huang Liushuang.
When 14-year-old Huang Liushuang appeared on the screen, her beautiful and tall appearance and mysterious oriental temperament immediately attracted the favor of many directors.
Huang Liushuang definitely did not expect that a chance cameo actually opened the door to the Hollywood film and television industry for her.
Films came one after another, and Huang Willow Frost was overwhelmed.
But gradually, she found that all the protagonists in the movie are white, and as an Asian woman, she can only play some nameless and nameless roles, and these roles are all to please whites with the ugliness of the Asian nation.
What's more stringent is that she can't kiss white actors during filming, and even has a handshake time.
No one can see that this is naked ethnic discrimination, but Huang Liushuang has no choice, either not to wait to starve and suffer, or to be at the mercy of others.
In order to make money for the sisters to study, Huang Liushuang could only force his head to follow.
Two years later, at the age of 16, Huang Liushuang won the opportunity to play opposite Hollywood's top male stars with his excellent acting skills.
In the movie "Life", Huang Liushuang's thick black hair like seaweed, and the subtlety and mystery unique to oriental women dazzled Western audiences who like to hunt for curiosity.
Also amazing is her acting skills, people are extremely surprised, this girl with an eastern face, actually has such amazing explosive power.
For a time, Huang Liushuang's promotional photos appeared in major film magazines in the United States, and the New York Times and other mainstream media in the United States also hyped it. Huang Willow Cream has become popular since then!
But the white world's discrimination against her did not stop, and some journalists even published the title of "Yellow Peril! China invades the film screen" is a highly ironic report to express disdain for the rise of the Chinese actress.
Huang Liushuang was very angry, she said: "Why do you always ugly our Chinese like this, we have thousands of years of civilization, how can it be like this!" ”
When taking on the script, she will deliberately avoid those scripts that deliberately disparage the Chinese. Over time, she found that even if she didn't play these roles, there would be others to play.
"Instead of letting them act, it's better for me to act myself, at least I will deliberately restrain myself." But none of the roles I play can represent Chinese, don't misunderstand. ”
However, when the film returned to China, Huang Liushuang's approach was strongly disgusted by the domestic people. Even Huang Liushuang's family is ashamed of her daughter's actions, even if all the money earned by Huang Liushuang is subsidized to the family.
Just imagine, how can a person who "participates in the production of humiliating Chinese movies" be accepted by the Chinese people?
As a result, her films, while popular in the United States, have been criticized in China.
And she soon learned the fact that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't change Americans' racial discrimination against her.
In the movie "Passing of the Sea", she played the story of an oriental girl Lotus who was tricked by fate, who was abandoned by the white male protagonist, sad and angry, and then committed suicide.
Because coming from the bottom, Huang Liushuang empathized with the heroine's story, and the interpretation was delicate and poignant, which deeply moved the audience, and the limelight once overshadowed the male protagonist.
Even the Japanese who have always been harsh, when they saw Huang Liushuang's performance, said in amazement: "Huang Liushuang is better than all Japanese actresses' acting skills." ”
Immediately afterwards, Huang Liushuang starred in films such as "The Thief of Baghdad" and "Dragon Girl", all of which were applauded and applauded.
Huang Liushuang suddenly became a famous actor in the American film and television industry!
But you can find that these characters that made her famous all have a strong "discriminatory" color.
Either the weak, submissive Eastern woman waiting for the redemption of Western men, called the "butterfly woman" by the West; Either a lowly slave girl or an evil villain full of scheming, known in the West as the "dragon girl".
She will never be able to enter the mainstream film and television industry, and can only show the ugliest side of her own race in movies. In almost every movie, she ends up dying with hatred.
Hollywood not only does not give her the respect she deserves, but even her salary is not as good as that of white actresses. For the same role, her salary is only one-tenth that of a white actress, and the makeup is also very different.
All kinds of discrimination make Huang Liushuang bitter, act, the role will always be like this, if you don't act, you can only quit the industry. Her heart was painfully torn and torn.
Later, she founded her own production company in an attempt to secure a place for her ethnicity, but the company eventually collapsed due to financial difficulties.
In desperation, she chose to leave Europe and use this way to express her silent struggle.
In 1928, Huang Liushuang went to England to find a way out, starring in movies such as "Song" and "Chinatown Bustling Dream", in order to improve her acting skills, she also learned English, German and French and other Chinese languages.
Unlike treatment in the United States, Europe welcomed her almost with open arms.
Her unique look often appears in magazines, billboards, and is imitated by European girls. Even Elizabeth . Taylor's style in "Cleopatra" also borrows from Huang Willow Frost's classic hairstyle. Huang Liushuang was also invited to a banquet by the British royal family.
After seeing Huang Liushuang on fire overseas, Hollywood turned on the leek cutting mode.
In 1930, Paramount Pictures invited Huang Liushuang to return to Hollywood and let her appear as a heroine in movies such as "Shanghai Express" and "Grand Hotel".
With the help of Huang Liushuang, these movies sold well at the box office.
However, returning again still did not change everything she wanted.
In 1932, Hollywood's first movie "Grand Hotel" with Shanghai as the story background was released in Shanghai, and Huang Liushuang, as the female number two actor in the film, did not even deserve to print a poster.
Chinese fans and audiences still reject her, feeling that as a Chinese, she keeps smearing the image of Chinese, what is the use of an unpatriotic person, no matter how famous she is?
So in China, the craze to resist yellow willow frost is higher than wave.
On the international stage, even if Huang Liushuang is an international superstar, he cannot shake the existence of racial discrimination.
In 1936, a film based on Pearl Buck's novel The Earth was recruiting a female lead. This is one of the few films in that era that can objectively evaluate Chinese women, and Huang Liushuang is very satisfied with the positive and three-dimensional roles in it, and as a Chinese, she has an innate advantage over the heroine who plays it.
However, the crew would rather invite a German actress to play the heroine (Chinese farmer) than give this opportunity to Huang Liushuang, but let Huang Liushuang play the villain role, on the grounds that she could not have a rivalry with a white man.
Huang Liushuang was extremely disappointed in Hollywood, and said angrily:
"Let Americans play Chinese, but let me have a real Chinese to play the only unsympathetic role, I don't do it."
She categorically refused any role, and as a result, after the film was released, the heroine Rena won this year's Oscar.
This incident hit Huang Liushuang deeply, if it were not for the prejudice of Hollywood, it would have been her who won this honor.
Hollywood has always turned her away, they only use her as a tool to please Western audiences, but they are full of contempt for her in their bones. I don't even want her to be a real actress.
However, it was not only Huang Liushuang's career that was ruined by racial discrimination, but also her love.
Huang Willow Frost, which has a superior appearance, naturally has no shortage of suitors around him. She used to fall in love with a filmmaker, Michnyland, who was also a white male. Although he is more than 30 years older than her, his talent deeply attracted Huang Liushuang.
Huang Liushuang longs to marry him, have children, and spend his life together.
And this white man is extremely perfunctory to Huang Liushuang, he likes Huang Liushuang's charm and gentleness, but he never plans to enter into marriage with Huang Liushuang, but plays with Huang Liushuang's feelings like a plaything.
Huang Liushuang was extremely sad, watching Fang Hua fading, she went on a blind date with some Chinese who settled in the United States at the urging of her family, but these seemingly well-educated Chinese could not look at her as an actress at all.
"Chinese dislike me as a joke, and white people see me as an anomaly."
Throughout his life, Huang Liushuang was alone.
She seems to have a glamorous life, but behind the scenes is full of unbearability and disappointment.
When people are most painful, they always miss their hometown and their loved ones. Huang Liushuang decided to return to his homeland to find his roots.
At that time, Huang Liushuang's family had returned from the United States to settle in Taishan, Guangdong.
The family feeling is more timid, and what he sees and feels along the way makes Huang Liushuang have mixed feelings.
Although the attitude of fans towards her is still not friendly enough, Hu Die, Mei Lanfang, Lin Yutang and other people in the art world warmly welcome her return.
Liangyou magazine also interviewed her, and a large photo of Huang Liushuang's name was published on the cover of the magazine.
The respect and enthusiasm of the people in his hometown made Huang Liushuang, who was discriminated against in a foreign land, doubly moved.
"I wish I had been born in China, I have never complained about my nationality."
This sentence expresses the infinite sadness and sentimentality of a Chinese actress who has worked hard in the American film industry.
Huang Liushuang, accompanied by his family, visited China's great rivers and mountains. Everywhere she went, the villagers came all the way to see her as a big star and talked with her cordially, and the long-lost respect aroused her patriotism.
At that time, when the Anti-Japanese War broke out, Huang Liushuang felt the pain of his compatriots.
She soon returned to the United States, where she gave speeches denouncing the heinous crimes of fascism and calling on the American people to support China's war of resistance. She also sold her jewelry and costumes for charity, and all the proceeds were sent back to China to support the Anti-Japanese War.
In 1942, she starred in two anti-Japanese films "Bombing Burma" and "Mrs. Chongqing", increased publicity about the crimes of the Japanese army, and donated all the remuneration she received to China's anti-Japanese cause.
In a press release, she wrote: "Although I was born in the United States, I have Chinese blood flowing in my body and I love China more than ever." ”
She is also actively seeking out investors and planning to make some films that show the positive image of Chinese.
But even so, it seems difficult to change her "inherent image" in the hearts of Chinese audiences.
In particular, Chiang Kai-shek's wife Song Meiling once blocked it.
In 1943, in order to seek the support of Americans for Chinese, Song Meiling held a large welcome tea party in the United States, inviting many influential overseas Chinese and entertainment figures, but she especially advised the staff not to invite Huang Liushuang.
In Song Meiling's eyes, Huang Liushuang's role in the film is either a female slave, or a woman who betrays her appearance, or a weak woman who is submissive, which is simply a Chinese shame.
Inviting her is a recognition of her, and even more so of these roles, which is impossible.
And Chinese public opinion is also very unfriendly to her. Whenever she appeared on Western screens, Chinese newspapers accused her of "tarnishing the image of her countrymen." ”
Huang Liushuang could not squeeze into the upper class of the United States, nor could she be recognized by her domestic compatriots, and she was separated between the two cultures, making her almost collapse.
In his later years, Huang Liushuang's life has been depressed and unhappy.
She no longer wants to play anyone, and the only TV series she starred in was "Mrs. Willow's Gallery" adapted from her autobiography, which can be regarded as the end of her acting career.
In 1960, the world environment improved, and Hollywood finally recognized Huang Liushuang's contribution to the film industry, and at the inauguration ceremony of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Huang Liushuang was the only Asian woman with her own star.
Soon after, she died of a heart attack at the age of 56.
She has made more than 50 films in her life, and is both a pioneer of Chinese actresses in Hollywood and a victim of racism.
Behind the brilliance is the shadow period of nearly a decade, she is depressed and drunk all day. And it was precisely after her death that word of mouth and influence gradually improved.
Throughout her life, she repeatedly played the two negative roles of "Dragon Girl" and "Butterfly Girl", and each time she ended in death in the story.
According to her last wishes, her epitaph was impressively written with the following big words: "She has died a thousand times".
This is Huang Liushuang's helpless summary of his fate, and it is also a silent protest against living in that era.
Before her death, she never gave up the struggle, and made a lifelong effort to get rid of Asian stereotypes and fight for the right to speak of Chinese identity.
Now, Huang Liushuang's story finally has a new ending, becoming the only Chinese woman on the American coin, which is the pride of Chinese women and the judgment of racism.
I think that's exactly what Huang Liushuang wants to see the most!
I just don't know, 61 years have passed since her death to be recognized by the world today, for Huang Liushuang, will it be too late?
-END-
Author: Xuan Ji
Editor: Grass
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