Jade Snow Wong

Jade Snow Wong
Born	21 January 1922 San Francisco
Died	16 March 2006 San Francisco
Nationality	Asian American
Period	1950-1980
Genre	autobiography
Notable works	Fifth Chinese Daughter

Jade Snow Wong (Chinese: 黃玉雪; pinyin: Huáng Yùxuě) (January 21, 1922 – 16 March 2006) was a Chinese American ceramic artist and author of two memoirs. She was given the English name of Constance, also being known as Connie Wong Ong.

Wong was born and raised in San Francisco; she was the fifth daughter of an immigrant family which grew to have nine children. She was raised with the traditional beliefs and customs of Chinese culture which her family and her elders imposed upon her. Because of these traditional beliefs, her father forbade her to date and refused to pay for her college education. She was determined to get higher education, first attending San Francisco Junior College, and later Mills College, where she majored in economics and sociology in hopes of becoming a social worker in Chinatown. Wong graduated from Mills College in 1942 with a hard-earned Phi Beta Kappa key. She worked as a secretary during World War II; she had discovered a talent for ceramics in a summer course at Mills and she joined a Ceramics Guild associated with the college. When she began to sell her work in a shop in Chinatown, it quickly found popularity. Wong married artist Woodrow Ong in 1950; they paired together in their art and later managed a travel agency together. Throughout her lifetime, Wong worked with many organizations including the San Francisco Public Library, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Chinese Cultural Center, the Chinese Historical Society of America, and Mills College. Wong was recognized and awarded by Mills College with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Arts in 1976.

Wong died on March 16, 2006 at the age of 84 of cancer; she was survived by two daughters, two sons, and four grandchildren.

In 1950, Wong published the first of her two autobiographical volumes, Fifth Chinese Daughter. The book described her troubles balancing her identity as an Asian American woman and her Chinese Traditions. The book was translated into several Asian languages by the U.S. State Department, which sent her on a four-month speaking tour of Asia in 1953. "I was sent," Wong wrote, "because those Asian audiences who had read translations of Fifth Chinese Daughter did not believe a female born to poor Chinese immigrants could gain a toehold among prejudiced Americans." Her second volume, No Chinese Stranger, was published in 1975.The book described her trip across Asian during her speaking tour and her visits to People’s Republic of China. In 1976, Wong’s first volume, Fifth Chinese Daughter, was made into a half-hour special for public television.

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