Not Your Conventional Chinese Woman: Li Lingai and Cultural Activism in the Transpacific Making of Modern Chinese American Womanhood

Gladys Li, a Hawaii-born Chinese woman also known as Li Lingai, was the unsung hero behind the 1941 documentary film Kukan about China’s experience during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The film was awarded with a special Oscar in 1942, a remarkable achievement prior to the end of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the U.S. in 1943. Although Li initiated and produced the film, her contributions went largely unacknowledged. The film’s Oscar was instead awarded to Rey Scott, the film’s white male photographer. Li was only acknowledged as a “Tech Assistant” in the Oscar award document.

Why did this happen? And who was Li Lingai? In this study I examine the rich history of transpacific cultural engagement throughout Li’s life and explore the gendered and racial dynamics navigated by Chinese American women like Li Lingai. As a Hawaii-born Chinese American woman, Li embodied both Chinese and American cultures. A free spirit, she was a never-married actress, book author, filmmaker, and social activist. Enacting her cultural activism, her film and other cultural engagements helped attract American public attention to China’s war against Japan in the 1940s and helped create a positive and heroic image of wartime Chinese people. It advanced the cause of United China Relief, a New York based organization supporting Chinese war efforts. I argue that this type of transpacific cultural activism was essential to precipitating the end of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the US in 1943. Most importantly, it empowered Li to defy the conventional image of a “proper” Chinese woman and redefined modern multi-cultural Chinese American womanhood.