Virginia Wing
Virginia Wing (born September 11, 1937) is an American actress, singer, and writer of Chinese descent. Born during the Chinese Exclusion era and raised in the segregated Jim Crow environment of Marks, Mississippi, Wing broke regional and cultural barriers in the 1960s when she became the first non-white contestant to compete in the Miss Mississippi pageant. Over a professional performing career spanning more than six decades, she accumulated over 200 theater, film, and television credits, becoming a prominent pioneer for Asian American representation in the entertainment industry.
Wing began her career as a high-profile model and singer in the 1960s, gaining international recognition as a "Breck Girl" model and appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. As an actress, she was an early contributor to the Inner City Cultural Center in Los Angeles, the first minority-owned, multi-racial performing arts institution in the United States. Her career, activism against racial stereotyping, and upbringing in the Mississippi Delta are the central subjects of the documentary film Who's Afraid of Virginia Wing?
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