Firsts by Asian-Americans in various fields have historically marked footholds, often leading to more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for them is "breaking the color barrier".[4] One commonly cited example is that of
Wataru Misaka, who became the first person of color,[5] and the first Asian-American, to be a
National Basketball Association player (in 1947.)[6][7]
1919-1961:
Anna May Wong is considered to be the first major Asian-American film star in the world.[14]
2005:
Dayyan Eng becomes the first Asian-American director to have a film nominated for Best Picture at the Chinese academy awards[15] (for Waiting Alone).
2018:
John Cho becomes the first Asian-American actor to headline a mainstream Hollywood thriller, Searching.[16][17]
2022: Rose Lee, current CEO of
Cornerstone Building Brands, was elected by Honeywell International to be the newest member of their board of directors, becoming the first Korean American woman to sit on the board of a Fortune 100 company.
1927:
Kinjiro Matsudaira becomes the first Asian-American mayor of a city (Edmonston, MD) in the United States.
1946:
Wing F. Ong becomes the first Asian-American to be elected to a state legislative body in the United States, in the Arizona House of Representatives.[44][45][46][47]
1957:
Dalip Singh Saund becomes the first Asian-American elected to the United States Congress, as a Representative for California's 29th district.
1999:
Angela Warnick Buchdahl[74] becomes the first Asian-American to be ordained as a cantor upon being ordained by
HUC-JIR, an American seminary for Reform Judaism.[75]
2001:
Angela Warnick Buchdahl[74] becomes the first Asian-American to be ordained as a rabbi upon being ordained by
HUC-JIR, an American seminary for Reform Judaism.[75]
2020:
Younghoe Koo becomes the first Asian-American to lead the
NFL in scoring in a season. He also led the league in field goals made.[95]
2020: Koo becomes the first Asian-American named to the
NFLPro Bowl.[96]
Golf
1994:
Tiger Woods becomes the first Asian-American to win the
United States Amateur Championship. (Woods' mixed ancestry – ¼ Chinese, ¼ Thai, ¼ African-American, ⅛ white, and ⅛ Native American – also made him the first African-American to achieve this feat. He was also the first of only five golfers of primarily non-European descent to win a men's major, with the others being
Vijay Singh (an Indian Fijian),
Michael Campbell (a Māori from New Zealand),
Y.E. Yang (South Korean), and
Collin Morikawa (Japanese American).)
Olympics
1948:
Victoria Manalo Draves wins gold in platform and springboard diving in the 1948 Olympics, becoming the first Asian-American to win a gold medal in the Summer Olympics.[97]
Tennis
1989:
Michael Chang becomes the first Asian-American winner of a
Grand Slam tennis tournament in men's singles, winning the French Open. To this day, he remains the only male player of Asian descent, regardless of nationality, to win a men's singles Grand Slam event.
^Daryl (2012). Rethinking the Asian American Movement. New York: Routledge. pp. 9–13, 18, 26, 29, 32–35, 42–48, 80, 108, 116–117, 139.
ISBN978-0-415-80081-5
^Sekiguchi, Eugene (November 28, 2014).
"It Depends on Where You Are". Discover Nikkei.
Archived from the original on January 12, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
^"Kamala Harris' selection as VP resonates with Black women". Associated Press. August 12, 2020.
Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved August 12, 2020. making her the first Black woman on a major party's presidential ticket ... It also marks the first time a person of Asian descent is on the presidential ticket.
^Yau, Shing-Tung; Nadis, Steve (2019). The Shape of a Life: One Mathematician's Search for the Universe's Hidden Geometry. Yale University Press. p. 125.
Bibcode:
2019shli.book.....Y. Stephen Hawking invited me to discuss [the proof] with him at Cambridge University in late August 1978. I gladly accepted.... Travel was difficult, however, because the British Consulate had recently taken my Hong Kong resident card, maintaining that I could not keep it now that I had a U.S. green card. In the process, I had become stateless. I was no longer a citizen of any country.... until I became a U.S. citizen in 1990.
Firsts by Asian-Americans in various fields have historically marked footholds, often leading to more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for them is "breaking the color barrier".[4] One commonly cited example is that of
Wataru Misaka, who became the first person of color,[5] and the first Asian-American, to be a
National Basketball Association player (in 1947.)[6][7]
1919-1961:
Anna May Wong is considered to be the first major Asian-American film star in the world.[14]
2005:
Dayyan Eng becomes the first Asian-American director to have a film nominated for Best Picture at the Chinese academy awards[15] (for Waiting Alone).
2018:
John Cho becomes the first Asian-American actor to headline a mainstream Hollywood thriller, Searching.[16][17]
2022: Rose Lee, current CEO of
Cornerstone Building Brands, was elected by Honeywell International to be the newest member of their board of directors, becoming the first Korean American woman to sit on the board of a Fortune 100 company.
1927:
Kinjiro Matsudaira becomes the first Asian-American mayor of a city (Edmonston, MD) in the United States.
1946:
Wing F. Ong becomes the first Asian-American to be elected to a state legislative body in the United States, in the Arizona House of Representatives.[44][45][46][47]
1957:
Dalip Singh Saund becomes the first Asian-American elected to the United States Congress, as a Representative for California's 29th district.
1999:
Angela Warnick Buchdahl[74] becomes the first Asian-American to be ordained as a cantor upon being ordained by
HUC-JIR, an American seminary for Reform Judaism.[75]
2001:
Angela Warnick Buchdahl[74] becomes the first Asian-American to be ordained as a rabbi upon being ordained by
HUC-JIR, an American seminary for Reform Judaism.[75]
2020:
Younghoe Koo becomes the first Asian-American to lead the
NFL in scoring in a season. He also led the league in field goals made.[95]
2020: Koo becomes the first Asian-American named to the
NFLPro Bowl.[96]
Golf
1994:
Tiger Woods becomes the first Asian-American to win the
United States Amateur Championship. (Woods' mixed ancestry – ¼ Chinese, ¼ Thai, ¼ African-American, ⅛ white, and ⅛ Native American – also made him the first African-American to achieve this feat. He was also the first of only five golfers of primarily non-European descent to win a men's major, with the others being
Vijay Singh (an Indian Fijian),
Michael Campbell (a Māori from New Zealand),
Y.E. Yang (South Korean), and
Collin Morikawa (Japanese American).)
Olympics
1948:
Victoria Manalo Draves wins gold in platform and springboard diving in the 1948 Olympics, becoming the first Asian-American to win a gold medal in the Summer Olympics.[97]
Tennis
1989:
Michael Chang becomes the first Asian-American winner of a
Grand Slam tennis tournament in men's singles, winning the French Open. To this day, he remains the only male player of Asian descent, regardless of nationality, to win a men's singles Grand Slam event.
^Daryl (2012). Rethinking the Asian American Movement. New York: Routledge. pp. 9–13, 18, 26, 29, 32–35, 42–48, 80, 108, 116–117, 139.
ISBN978-0-415-80081-5
^Sekiguchi, Eugene (November 28, 2014).
"It Depends on Where You Are". Discover Nikkei.
Archived from the original on January 12, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
^"Kamala Harris' selection as VP resonates with Black women". Associated Press. August 12, 2020.
Archived from the original on August 12, 2020. Retrieved August 12, 2020. making her the first Black woman on a major party's presidential ticket ... It also marks the first time a person of Asian descent is on the presidential ticket.
^Yau, Shing-Tung; Nadis, Steve (2019). The Shape of a Life: One Mathematician's Search for the Universe's Hidden Geometry. Yale University Press. p. 125.
Bibcode:
2019shli.book.....Y. Stephen Hawking invited me to discuss [the proof] with him at Cambridge University in late August 1978. I gladly accepted.... Travel was difficult, however, because the British Consulate had recently taken my Hong Kong resident card, maintaining that I could not keep it now that I had a U.S. green card. In the process, I had become stateless. I was no longer a citizen of any country.... until I became a U.S. citizen in 1990.