WCW: Rosalind Chao

Growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, I saw precious few female Asian faces on American TV and almost never in historical costume movies. It’s still pretty rare, unfortunately, even with a smattering of inclusive stories and attempts at non-traditional casting. But two of my favorite shows, one historical and one sci-fi, featured Chinese-American actor Rosalind Chao as clever, decisive, fascinating characters, so it’s about time to give her some Woman Crush Wednesday love! While Star Trek‘s Professor Keiko Ishikawa O’Brien doesn’t fit into our site’s purview, her pivotal role in MASH does, and I hunted around for the obscure vaguely historical parts she played before and after those two. As she told Variety about taking part in Mulan and her career in general:

“If you were an Asian girl and this movie had come out when you were nine years old, wouldn’t that have made a difference if how you felt about yourself? When I was starting out, everyone would say, ‘Why would you do that? Do you see any other Asians in movies?’”

And while she’s played Korean and Japanese characters, she points out to Vanity Fair:

“It shouldn’t make a difference. Ethnicity shouldn’t make a difference, though race should. When I was on Star Trek they said they would change it to Chinese and I said “why?” I’m the same color, and the storyline has her as Japanese. Keep it the same.

It’s still a bit of an issue. Asians are already limited in the business, so if on top of that you say only Chinese can play Chinese? On Joy Luck Club we had Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, and it all worked beautifully. So long as we’re not painting our faces yellow or anything. I get a bee in my bonnet about this. Not everyone on The Bear is Italian.”

Chao started acting in commercials as a kid and has a long resume, with plenty more than these few frock flicks, like 3 Body Problem (2024)!