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people you should know but don't |
Hidden in Plain Sight
Tyrus Wong created the look of the film Bambi.
[obstacle: never received recognition for his work]
Wu worked on the Manhattan Project, developing the process for separating uranium into uranium-235 and uranium-238 isotopes. She was nicknamed the Chinese Marie Curie, the First Lady of Physics and the Queen of Nuclear Research.
[obstacle: discrimination by race/gender] The Wu Experiment in 1956 validated the theoretical proof by Yang and Lee (below) that contradicted the law of conservation of parity, directly resulting in the two men receiving the 1957 Nobel Prize (of course).
Yang and Lee received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on the violation of parity law in weak interaction, showing theoretically that it is possbile to distinguish right from left and clockwise from counterclockwise. They were the first Chinese laureates.
Pei's career spanned 5 decades with works on multiple continents, with the most notable being the John. F. Kennedy Library in Massachusetts, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, and the most controversial Louvre Pyramid in Paris. He won the prestigious Pritzker Prize for Architecture in 1983.
Yitang Zhang, working completely on his own, established the first finite bound on gaps between prime numbers, making substantial progress in proving the Twin Prime Conjecture.
[obstacle: prof refused to recommend for any post after PhD, could not find work in mathematics]
Bruce Lee needs no introduction. He is one of the most influential martial artists of all time and changed the way Asians were presented in pop culture, creating heroic characters admired by many around the world. He sparked a craze for martial arts in the West for a whole generation in the 1970s and was established as an icon among the Chinese for the promotion of Chinese patriotism and strength, upending China's stereotype of being the "sick man of Asia".
Few Star Trek fans know him by name, but they all know Wah Chang's creations: the phaser, the communicator, the tricorder, the Gorn, the first Romulan ship, the tribble, and so many more. It's hard to imagine that his name never appeared in the series's credits.
[obstacle: discrimination, lack of recognition]
Grace Lee Boggs dedicated her life to the struggles in the African-American community.
Wong was the first Chinese American Hollywood star.
[obstacle: discrimination; typecast as oriental vixen; lost role in the good earth to white actress]
Fong was the a Republican senator from Hawaii from 1959 to 1977, making him the first Asian American and Chinese American to be elected to the US Senate. To this day, he is still the only Republican to have ever held a Senate seat from Hawaii. He made more history in 1964, by becoming the first Asian American to run for the Republican party's nomination for President, and held that record until 2016.
Chang, at 17 years and 110 days, became the youngest male athlete to have ever won a Grand Slam at the 1989 French Open. He was the youngest athlete to have won a Grand Slam until Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004 at the age of 17 years 75 days.
Wang joined Vogue right after her graduation from Sarah Lawrence, making her the youngest editor at the top fashion magazine. She designs custumes for figure skaters (having been an accomplished skater herself), but she is best known for her bridal wear and evening gowns, which have been worn by Victoria Beckham, Alica Keys, Michelle Obama, Ivanka Trump and the Kardashians.