10 Influential Asian Americans to Teach Your Kids About
Posted onUpdated on May 12, 2022
Learn more about some of the influential Asian American figures, past and present, who come from the countries where we work!
More than 30 years after President George H.W. Bush signed a law dedicating May 1990 the first national Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Asian American history remains relatively untaught. Asian American history lessons are usually limited to a few major historical milestones, with less of a focus on the influential Asian Americans that contributed to our country’s history. In a recent academic study conducted by the nonprofit Leading Asian Americans to Unite for Change (LAAUNCH), researchers found that 42% of respondents couldn’t name a single influential Asian American.
However, for an Asian American adoptee, seeing a successful figure who is also a “racial mirror” (someone who looks like the adoptee) is an important part of building a healthy racial and adoptee identity. By giving them people to look up to who share their same race and/or ethnicity, racial mirrors allow children to develop positive feelings about their race. Learning about influential Asian Americans who have accomplished great things in history can help our adopted children dream big about their futures.
Anna May Wong (1905 – 1961), actress Anna May Wong was an American actress and is widely considered to be the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star and the first Chinese American actress to gain international recognition. Wong was born in Los Angeles and began acting at an early age, landing her breakthrough role in The Toll of the Sea, one of the first movies in color, at just 17 years old. She starred in the first-ever U.S. television show with an Asian American series lead as a detective in The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong. {Image: Public domain}Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu (1912 – 1997), “The First Lady of Physics”
Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese-American particle and experimental physicist. Born in a small fishing town just north of Shanghai, China, she graduated at the top of her class from her university in China before continuing her education and work in the United States. She is best known for conducting the Wu experiment, a groundbreaking particle and nuclear physics experiment from 1956. Two of her colleagues were awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for the Wu experiment, while Wu herself was awarded the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978. She was also the first woman hired as faculty in the physics department at Princeton in 1942 and the first woman to be president of the American Physical Society (1975). {Image: Public domain}Corky Lee (1947 – 2021), Photographer
Young Kwok “Corky” Lee (September 5, 1947 – January 27, 2021) was a Chinese American photographer from New York City. Corky was inspired to become a journalistic photographer after seeing a 1989 image of laborers celebrating a completed railroad project. There are no Asian American laborers depicted in the photo, though they contributed heavily to the project. Growing up during a period when many Asian Americans felt invisible, Corky made it his mission to simply “photograph Asian Pacific Americans” — helping to ensure that the lives of Asian Americans like himself are documented and remembered in American history. {Image: La Guardia and Wagner Archives}Cristeta Comerford (1962 – Present), Chef
Cristeta Comerford was born in Manila, the Philippines, and studied food technology before immigrating to the United States when she was 23. She started her career working in hotels and fine dining restaurants. In 1995, White House Executive Chef Walter Scheib III recruited Comerford as an assistant chef. After Scheib’s resignation in February 2005, Comerford was appointed White House Executive Chef by First Lady Laura Bush. She is the first woman and Asian American to hold this position and one of the longest-serving White House executive chefs in history. {Image: Public domain}Dalip Singh Saund (1899 – 1973), Congressman
Dalip Singh Saund was the first Asian American and the first Indian American to be elected to the United States Congress. Saund was born in India, but he immigrated to the United States to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a master’s degree and a Ph.D., both in mathematics. He served three terms in Congress, where he became known as a champion of small farmers and civil rights legislation and worked to improve the United States’ relations with India. {Image: Public domain}Kalpana Chawla (1961 – 2003), Astronaut and Engineer
Kalpana Chawla was an American astronaut, engineer and the first Indian woman to go to space. She first flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997. Her role was mission specialist and the primary robotic arm operator. In 2003, Kalpana passed away, along with six other crew members, when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. {Image: Public domain}Kristen Kish (1983 – Present), Chef
Kristen Kish was born in Seoul, Korea, and adopted by an American family when she was four months old. After watching cooking shows as a young girl, Kish felt drawn to the culinary world. Kish attended Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago, earning an A.A. in culinary arts. She specializes in French techniques and creating new, unique takes on comfort food. Kish is best known for winning the tenth season of Top Chef (she was also the first woman of color to win). Today, Kish is the partner and chef of Arlo Grey in Austin, Texas, and has a published cookbook, Kristen Kish Cooking: Recipes and Techniques. {Image: Arlo Grey Facebook page}Michelle Phan (1987 – Present), Makeup Artist
Michelle Phan is a Vietnamese makeup artist from Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up in her mother’s nail salon, flipping through glossy fashion magazines and dreaming of seeing Asian Americans represented in the industry. Phan is known for becoming one of the first YouTube “influencers,” modeling for others how creating digital content could become a career. Phan made a name for herself through makeup tutorials for her following, now 8.85 million people. Today, Phan is still active on her YouTube and is the founder of several companies, including a makeup brand, EM Cosmetics. {Image: Michelle Phan at 2014 VidCon, photographed by Gage Skidmore}I. M. Pei (1917 – 2019), Architect
Ieoh Ming Pei, FAIA, RIBA, was a Chinese-American architect and said to be one of the most revered architects in the world. He is best known for designing the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the glass pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre in Paris. Pei was born in Guangzhou, China, and moved to the United States in the 1930s where he would go on to receive his graduate degree from Harvard University. In 1983, he won the Pritzker Prize, sometimes referred to as the Nobel Prize of architecture. His work can be seen all over the world, including structures in America, Qatar, Japan, Luxembourg and more.
Image: Public domainVictoria Manalo Draves (1924 – 2010), Olympic athlete
Victoria Manalo Draves was a Filipino American competitive diver from San Francisco. Due to anti-Asian sentiment during World War II, Draves often faced discrimination during practice and struggled to find a pool that would allow her to train. Despite these challenges, at the 1948 Summer Olympics, Draves became the first Asian-American woman to win an Olympic medal and the first woman to be awarded the gold for both the platform and springboard events. In 1969, she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. {Image: Public domain}
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