The First Chinese Woman to Win an Oscar
Many celebrated the Malaysian actress’s win as a milestone for Asian women. Her triumph echoed calls for more middle-aged actresses to be given roles that challenge stereotypical images of women in film.
Yeoh’s performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once, which follows a laundromat owner who traverses multiple universes, was widely praised by moviegoers and critics. She is also the first Asian actress to win an Oscar in a lead role.
Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh made history in 2023 when she became the first Asian woman to win an Oscar for best actress, taking home the award for her role in the science fiction surreal comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once. Her character, Evelyn Wang, a laundromat owner who traverses the multiverse, required Yeoh to inhabit around 70 different versions of herself—from put-upon wife and mother to action hero—and demanded the actress’s emotional availability at the highest levels.
Born in Malaysia, Yeoh won a beauty pageant and studied ballet before a spinal injury forced her to rethink her career path. She enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dance in London, where she earned a B.A. with a specification in ballet dance. She later honed her physical skills in Hong Kong cinema, where she took on various action and martial arts roles. Yeoh often performed her own stunts, once dislocating a shoulder while shooting a scene in Magnificent Warriors.
In 1997, Yeoh reached a wider audience when she appeared as a Chinese agent in James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. The film was a departure from the traditional “Bond girl” stereotype and marked her breakout role. Yeoh went on to become one of the most respected action stars in China, starring in a string of martial arts movies including Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000.
The following year, Yeoh garnered a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her work in Star Trek: Discovery, where she played a character named Chandra West. She also starred as a crime-fighting matriarch in the box-office hit Crazy Rich Asians (2018), which was Hollywood’s first all-Asian-headlined production since 1993’s The Joy Luck Club.
During her acceptance speech, Yeoh dedicated her win to all mothers everywhere. “For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, I hope this is a sign that you can achieve anything you want in life, if you’re willing to work for it,” she said. She was joined on stage by director Daniel Kwan and co-stars Kim Woo-bin and Daniel Scheinert.
The Oscars
The Oscars may have a long way to go before they’re a truly inclusive celebration of film, but the ceremony took a bold step forward in that direction Sunday night when Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh won the best actress Oscar for her work in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Yeoh, 60, was the first Asian actress to win an Academy Award for her acting. She’d previously received Best Actress nominations from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and Independent Spirit Awards for her performance.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) presents annual awards to filmmakers for cinematic achievements in 24 categories, based on the merit of the film. Winners receive a gold-plated statuette that’s colloquially known as an Oscar. The ceremony has been held annually since 1929, with the first televised show in 1953. The winners are selected by AMPAS members, who vote for the nominees in each category.
Members of AMPAS are also the nominators and voters for the Academy Awards, which have led to criticism over the years, particularly with the 2015 #OscarsSoWhite hashtag that highlighted the fact that the majority of nominees and winners in the acting categories were white. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has worked to address the issue, but it takes time for the changes to take effect.
In her acceptance speech, Yeoh praised her family and friends who gathered to watch the ceremony from Kuala Lumpur, where she was born and raised. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim also congratulated Yeoh on behalf of the nation.
It’s a rare thing for an actor to be lauded by both peers and the general public, but Yeoh’s Oscar win prompted a wave of applause from both sides of the aisle. She attributed her success to the strength of her supporting cast, including director Jon M. Chu and co-writers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
Yeoh joins a small group of other actors of Asian descent to have won an Oscar. The most recent was Ang Lee for “Brokeback Mountain” in 2006, followed by Bong Joon-Ho for “Life of Pi” in 2012 and Chloe Zhao for “Nomadland” in 2021.
The statuette
The Oscar ceremony last night gave Michelle Yeoh a well-deserved win and brought to light the work of some truly remarkable film artists of Asian descent. But their stories began long before she or her fellow nominees walked up to receive their statuettes.
Here are five amazing Oscar winners of Asian descent.
Umeki was the first Japanese woman to win an Oscar for her performance in “Killing Fields.” Her son says she refused to accept roles that played into stereotypes about Japanese women, and etched her name on her statuette before throwing it away. She lived modestly in Los Angeles, where she used her acting skills to help Cambodian refugees after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
The history of the award
The Academy Awards, or the Oscars for short, are an annual award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honor outstanding achievements in the film industry. The ceremony and its statuette are regarded as one of the most prestigious events in filmmaking. The award was first presented in 1929 and has since undergone many changes to its rules, categories, and procedures.
The award was originally named the Academy Award of Merit, but it became known as the Oscars after a popular story involving Academy librarian Margaret Herrick. The story goes that upon seeing the statuette for the first time, she remarked that it resembled her uncle Oscar. The nickname stuck, and the Academy didn’t officially adopt it until 1939.
In its early years, the awards were largely an exclusive affair. Actors and studio heads were invited to the ceremonies, but the public was not allowed to attend. This changed in 1948 when the Academy decided to open the awards to the public. The event was also moved from the private home of the Academy to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and given its current name.
By the 1950s, the number of awards was expanded to 10. In 1953, a special award was added for best animated film, and in 1961 the category of best supporting actor was introduced. The following year, the Academy began presenting a separate award for directing.
The Oscar has become a symbol of excellence in cinema and continues to change and evolve with the times. It has also been a vehicle for addressing social issues and promoting racial, cultural, and gender diversity.
Michelle Yeoh’s win was a major milestone for Asian film and TV. She was the first actress of Asian descent to win an Oscar and the first person of color to win in a lead acting category. She was also the youngest actor of color to be nominated for an Oscar and the first to win a prize for portraying a character who speaks Mandarin and Cantonese.
She has had a long career in Hong Kong and Hollywood, but she is now recognized as a global film star thanks to her roles in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha, and more. She told NPR’s All Things Considered that she hopes her Oscar will encourage other people of color to strive for the top.
