Asian American & Pacific Islanders: Famous Individuals

Six influential Asian Americans share their heritage and what it means to be Asian American in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

US astronaut. She was the principal operator of the robot arm on the space shuttle mission launched in November 1997 to carry out microgravity experiments. From 1988, Chawla worked for NASA's Ames Research Center for research into fluid dynamics before her selection as an astronaut in 1995. She died when the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry in February 2003 after a 16-day mission to the International Space Station.

(born Oct. 7, 1955, Paris, France) French-born U.S. cellist. Born to Chinese parents in France, he made his cello debut at age five. He attended the Juilliard School and then Harvard University. Praised for his extraordinary technique and rich tone, Ma performed and recorded the standard cello repertoire and received a large number of commissions from contemporary composers. He is known for his many recordings with the pianist Emanuel Ax (b. 1949), for his collaborations with an unusual range of other musicians and artists, and for his energetic work on behalf of music programs for young people and a variety of international causes. In 1998 he founded the Silk Road Project, an arts organization that explores the historical and current exchange of ideas between Asian and Western cultures.

(Ieoh Ming Pei)(pā), 1917–, Chinese-American architect, b. Guangzhou, China. Pei emigrated to the United States in 1935 and studied at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard, where he taught from 1945 to 1948. That year he joined Webb and Knapp, Inc.; there he designed such projects as Mile High Center in Denver (1954–59). He established his own firm in 1955. In his works, structure and environment are carefully integrated with precise geometrical design and a superb sense of craft, resulting in crisp, clear, sculptural structures. He is known for his sensuous use of such materials as marble, concrete, and glass and for his soaring interior spaces. Pei's involvement in urban planning includes the Government Center, Boston (1961), and Society Hill, Philadelphia (with Edmund N. Bacon, 1964).

Like many iconoclasts, Anna May Wong represents contradiction, the biggest being her duality as both a racial minority and a Hollywood star during a period of profound xenophobia in the United States. A popular Chinese American actress who made fifty-five films between 1919 and 1961, Wong was nevertheless a second-class citizen in an industry that capitalized on her exoticism, talent, and beauty. Above all, Wong is known as the first Asian American movie star who became an empowering symbol for marginalized artists.

Taiwanese entrepreneur and co-founder with David Filo of the Yahoo! Internet navigational guide, which was launched as a simple collection of his own favourite Web sites, while he was a graduate university student. US magazine Forbes estimated his net worth at US$2.2 billion in 2007.

Studying for a PhD in Stanford, California, USA, in 1993, he and Filo created a Web site called ‘Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web’. This classification of Web sites became a navigational guide for Web surfers, and was later renamed Yahoo! (Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle) in 1994. Their hobby very quickly turned into a business as Yahoo! became synonymous with finding information on the Web. Yahoo! Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and went public in 1996.

Democrat Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii entered the U.S. House of Representatives on January 3, 2013. Her chief priority has been environmental policy. Gabbard served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2002 to 2004. Elected at 21 years old, she is the youngest woman ever elected to a state legislature. She enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard in 2003 and completed her basic training between legislative sessions. Her unit deployed in 2004 and she withdrew from her election campaign and voluntarily deployed with them. She deployed a second time to Kuwait, in 2008. Gabbard worked for Senator Daniel Akaka between her deployments. She served on the Honolulu city council from 2010 to 2013. In 2019, she announced her campaign for U.S. president.

1890–1968, American swimmer and surfer, b. Honolulu. A native Hawaiian, he was an excellent swimmer, surfer, and canoeist, and by 1911 he was setting Amateur Athletic Union swimming records, some of which were not recognized until years later. He won the gold medal in the 100-m freestyle and a silver medal in the freestyle relay at the 1912 Stockholm Olympic games, gold medals in both events in 1920 at Antwerp, and silver in the 100-m freestyle in 1924 at Paris. Kahanamoku also traveled widely, giving swimming and surfing demonstrations and popularizing the latter, which had been little known outside Hawaii. Kahanamoku moved to California in 1923 and appeared in movies, then returned to Hawaii, where he served as sheriff of Honolulu (1934–60).

The last sovereign queen of the Hawaiian Islands, Liliuokalani took the throne in 1891, during a turbulent time in the islands’ history. Born in Honolulu, Liliuokalani attended a missionary school, where she learned English. She inherited the throne from her brother King David Kalakaua, who had ruled the islands from 1874 until his death in 1891. In 1887, he had accepted a new constitution, demanded by American interests, that forfeited much of the power of the monarchy to a Cabinet controlled by Americans. When Queen Liliuokalani ascended to the throne, she sought to restore some of the monarchy's power by issuing a new constitution, which was her historic right as monarch. Native Hawaiians supported her plan, but Americans who had financial interests in the islands’ sugar plantations wanted the United States to annex the islands. Her attempt to balance the interests of native islanders and of foreigners was interpreted as a capricious act by the Americans on the islands.

In honor of #AAPIHeritageMonth, we're celebrating a trio of actors who fearlessly blazed trails in Old Hollywood