The First Miss L.A. Chinatown of 1963: Christine Lee

Bowman and Christine Lee at the September 1996 Emmy Awards Ceremony at Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Photos courtesy of Darrin Lee.

by Susie Ling, Posted on 23 September 2026

America’s 1950s Golden Age was a rat’s nest of contradictions – especially for Asian Americans. Similar to African Americans and Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans were in an ethnic niche that mirrored mainstream society. Because of social discrimination, it was like parallel universes that seldom intersected. After the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans in World War II, Chinese Americans knew to stay in their lanes.

Politically, Chinese were squeezed between Mao’s China and America’s McCarthyism such that Chinese American leadership could only be fervently anti-communist. Chinese Americans had been tracked into businesses such as laundries and restaurants. The one way out was through education, especially in engineering and medical fields. Social discrimination in the 1950s caused Chinese Americans to form their own social clubs and English-speaking churches. For example, the Los Angeles Chinese Golf Club was formed in 1947 partly because most golf clubs had exclusionary membership rules. There were Chinese fraternities such as Alpha Lambda in Los Angeles. Children were sent to Chinese-language schools but most everyone learned little; it was an unstated rule that the American-born children would speak English only. Chinese American social problems like shell shock – or PTSD – were grossly ignored.

For Chinese American women in the 1950s era, there were even more restrictions and barriers. Females were expected to marry young, nurture well-behaved children, and enjoy baking and sewing as “housewives”. Divorce and single parenting were taboo. To help their families, women often cleaned houses or became seamstresses for paltry wages. A few found ways to become nurses and teachers. Many Chinese women raised their daughters to be not like them.

It is no wonder that there was a bubble burst with the 1960-70s Asian American and feminist movements. Asian American feminists then talked about “triple oppression”, “personal is political,” and male chauvinism in their “CR” or consciousness-raising groups.

Christine Lee (1939-2022) would have or could have been such a role model. She was Los Angeles’ first “Miss Chinatown”. She was also a successful career woman in an unconventional field outside the Chinese American niche. She was an anomaly of her times. And maybe because of that, we didn’t know her story. We still don’t know much about her. Is she one of the first Chinese Americans to win an Emmy Award?

Her Beginnings[1]

Christine and her brother come to live with their father in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of Darrin Lee.

When Christine was born in rural China in 1939, her father was not home. Like so many others in Guangdong, he had gone to “gold mountain” in hopes of earning more for his family. While he worked in the wholesale produce industry in Los Angeles, China was in the midst of a ferocious war against the Japanese. Christine’s mother got sick and died near 1941, leaving two young ones.

Christine’s older brother says that as a young boy, he and Christine (then called Kai Shean) were living separately with relatives. He remembers that he was so hungry that he ate crickets.

Near 1949, Christine’s father, a U.S. citizen, was able to return to China for Christine and her older brother. Christine immigrated to the Los Angeles area when she was near ten. These children didn’t really know their father who was often working by pre-dawn hours. He had remarried, and there were younger half siblings who needed their diapers changed. When they first arrived, there were six people in a small apartment. It could not have been easy for Christine – or anyone. This wasn’t just immigrant culture shock. Interestingly, Christine lost most of her primary Chinese language.

The family moved to the East Hollywood area, and Christine was enrolled at Ramona Elementary, LeConte Junior High, and Hollywood High. As a teenager, Christine became defiant and started running away. She ended up in a boarding house, Frances de Pauw Industrial School on Sunset and Vermont. Opened in 1900, de Pauw is listed as a Methodist orphanage for “Spanish and Mexican” girls. Christine worked parttime, including as a switchboard operator. Christine’s son, Darrin, said, “Mom learned a little Spanish at de Pauw. Mom was tough. She would tell me stories about riding the bus with razor blades in her hands. She did have to deal with that kind of B. S.”

Estranged from her family, Christine graduated from Hollywood High near 1958. She put herself through beauty school. She learned to do hair. She lived in her own apartment. She built her own networks.

Christine found gigs as a hostess at Chinese dance parties. Her brother remembers she had a part in the movie, Flower Drum Song (1961), while he was in the Army. The movie was filmed in a Universal Studios sound set with dozens of Asian American artists credited and uncredited. In June of 1962, at the age of 23, Christine joined the first Los Angeles Miss New Chinatown pageant. Christine had the sponsorship of Chinatown’s General Lee’s Restaurant. And she wins!

Contestants for the 1963 Miss Chinatown USA pageant. Christine Lee, representing Los Angeles, is first on left. Photo courtesy of Darrin Lee.

History of Miss Chinatown Pageants

On July 4^th of 1948, San Francisco’s Chinese American Citizens Alliance had a “Bathing Beauty Pageant” in Pleasanton. Penny Lee Wong won and was given a cardboard crown.[2] Malinda Ko writes:

Starting in 1948, the C.A.C.A. added a beauty contest to its annual summer meeting as a way of demonstrating the organization’s Americanness. After the communist takeover of China in 1949, these events also provided an opportunity to show that Chinese Americans were anti-communist.

But the early beauty pageants revealed what should have been an unsurprising conflict. Traditionally, Chinese culture has valued modesty and self-effacement in girls, but beauty pageants demanded the opposite. Additionally, Chinese standards of feminine beauty differed from American standards.[3]

After a few years, San Francisco’s Chinese Chamber of Commerce incorporated the pageants into their Chinese New Year festivities. The key organizer was Chinatown entrepreneur, Henry Kwock “H.K.” Wong.

The image that organizers wished to project was that of a patriotic, assimilated community, compatible with American values. The first of the parades, in 1953, was led by a Chinese American veteran who had been blinded in the Korean War. He was followed by an Anti-Communist League car and Chinese school marching bands.[4]

The 2026 Miss Chinatown U.S.A. website gives a variation to this history:

Stories of beauties and legends such as the Moon Goddess were part of Chinese literature and history for over four hundred years. It was only after World War II that the concept of a public judging and acclamation of grace, beauty and talent of the celestial maidens became an official event. Perhaps returning Chinese-American [sic] GI’s, with a habit of looking at pin-ups, initially thought it was a good idea. In 1948, a Chinese organization, at a July 4^th picnic, had a “Miss Chinatown” bathing beauty contest. This continued through 1952.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce [in San Francisco] in 1953 decided to combine this contest in conjunction with the Chinese New Year Festival. The first ‘Miss Chinatown’, in the year 1953, was Miss Pat Kan, daughter of gourmet restaurateur Johnny Kan. Her first publicity photo, used by wire services internationally, showed her not wearing a traditional cheong-sam, but a string of firecrackers.[5]

New York Chinatown held a similar beauty pageant in 1955. Hawaii’s Chinese community followed the example starting in 1958. In 1958, the national “Miss Chinatown U.S.A.” pageant was born. Los Angeles’ Chinese Chamber of Commerce established their own contest. These pageants remain consistent and popular through its 80 years.

Herald Examiner dated 21 June 1962 reports “Queen Chris Lee” wins the first Miss L.A. Chinatown pageant. From Chris Lee’s album.

1963 Miss Chinatown USA contestants carry stuffed bunnies to welcome the Year of the Hare. Christine is 2nd from left.

Pageants, Hollywood, and an Emmy

As the first Miss L.A. Chinatown, Christine was invited to San Francisco to compete in the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. pageant in February of 1963. This would be part of the Chinese New Year festivities welcoming in the Year of the Hare. There were 15 Chinese American contestants from different parts of the country at the Fairmont Hotel. On February 3, Shirley Fong from the University of Hawaii was crowned Queen. Lillian Cheng from Chicago was First Princess, and our Christine is Second Princess!

Darrin Lee, Christine’s son, shares, “Mom tries acting. She was in a movie called Seven Women (1965), directed by John Ford and starring Anne Bancroft. It was a movie about seven missionary women in China.” And then, Christine met a nice Chinese American engineer at a dance near USC. They married in 1966 and moved to Monterey Park in 1968. Darrin is born in 1969, and he has a younger brother.

Our Christine continued working. “By the 1970s, Mom is doing hair in the Hollywood industry. Mom was not home a lot, often on location, and sometimes out-of-town. My dad was with my brother and I a lot. She would have strange hours. My mom often left early and came home late. But she was home all day in between gigs.”

Christine in her make-up trailer.

Christine often brought her boys with her on sets. Darrin explains, “I got a job as an actor’s stand-in – where I would stand there while the light, sound, and camera crews do technical preparations. I was on set everyday for Amityville Horror (1979). This was at the MGM sound stage in Culver City. We would have to get up very early and be on set very long until nighttime. My brother and I both did some print work. We were both members of the Screen Actors Guild – and I still get some royalties. In fact, my first role was on the M.A.S.H. movie (1970) with Elliot Gould. I was ‘playing’ an infant in some Japanese restaurant that needed doctor’s care. That was the first gig my mother got me. I was in another episode of the M.A.S.H. TV series in 1973. I also did some commercials because of mom’s connections.”

Christine was a Hollywood hairstylist from 1973 through 2001. She worked steadily on shows like the Bob Newhart Show (1974), The Amityville Horror (1979), The Jazz Singer (1980), Midnight Run (1988), Free Willy (1995), and Murder She Wrote (2001). She was often the head of the Make-Up Department. Her IMDb database lists 48 credits as hair stylist, and the list is incomplete.

The highest praise for her artistry and professional talents is that she won an Emmy in 1996 for her work on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Women. She was nominated again in 1997 and 1998.

Darrin continues, “My Asian American mother was a working mom in a nontraditional industry – from the 1970s on. The artists in Hollywood were more left-leaning and open-minded. But I asked Mom once, ‘Hey Mom, did you ever have to get on the casting couch?’ She said, ‘Well, Marlon Brando really liked me… He was flirting with me…’ I said, ‘Really, Mom? Marlon Brando?’”

Darrin said, “Of course, my mom and dad still wanted me to be a doctor or engineer or lawyer (laughs).” Christine’s atypical achievements may have encouraged her boys to pursue their own unique paths. Independently from each other, both became police officers. Darrin said, “Of the 58 officers in Covina, I was the only Asian. Even in the Rio Hondo Police Academy, I was one of very few Asian Americans; there was a Filipino American.”

When Darrin had twins, his mother retired to help raise the grandchildren in the suburbs. She probably never attended a Miss L.A. Chinatown reunion.

Who was the first Asian American to win an Emmy? Was it Archie Panjabi (2010), Anna Sawai (2024), Ali Wong (2024), or maybe Nena Erb (2016) for Creative Arts editing.

Well, Christine Lee won the Emmy for “Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series” in 1996. Darrin has the statuette to prove it. Although he does not know what happened to her Miss L.A. Chinatown Queen trophy, Darrin also has his mother’s 1963 Miss Chinatown U.S.A. trophy.

James Garner from Maverick TV series with Christine Lee, circa 1994. From Christine Lee’s personal collection.

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[1] This biographical information is excerpted from an interview by Susie Ling with Darrin Lee, Christine’s son, on 20 July 2026 in Chino Hills, California. Susie is with the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California (chssc.org).

[2] To watch a documentary embedded on Penny Wong, see “Miss Chinatown: Ambassadors of 75 Years” at Chinese American Museum D.C. YouTube, 26 March 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGrzsuLkVq0. Accessed 15 September 2026.

[3] Malinda Lo, “The Making of Miss Chinatown,” The Malinda Lo Blog (blog), 17 February 2021, https://www.malindalo.com/blog/2021/2/17/the-making-of-miss-chinatown. Accessed 15 September 2026. (Malinda Lo is a New York Times bestseller author of 7 novels.)

[4]Evelyn Chao. “Launched during the Cold War, Chinatown’s pageants were about much more than beauty,” CNN.com, 7 April 2021, https://www.cnn.com/style/article/miss-chinatown-history-hyphenated/index.html. Accessed 15 September 2026.

[5] “Miss Chinatown Origins”, Miss Chinatown U.S.A. Pageant (website), https://www.misschinatownusa.org/. Accessed on 15 September 2026.

H.W. Gim (1908-1973) as “Coolie” and Christine Lee as “Chinese Girl” in Seven Women (1965), directed by John Ford and starring Anne Bancroft.