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List of Chinese Americans

This is a list of notable Chinese Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants who have made exceptional contributions to various facets of American society.

To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Chinese American or must have references showing they are Chinese American and are notable.

Art and design

Architecture

  • Poy Gum Lee (李錦沛) – Art Deco architect in New York City
  • Roger Lee – Modernist architect in California and Hawaii
  • Maya Lin (林瓔) – Minimalist architect (Vietnam Veterans Memorial)
  • Liu Jipiao (刘既漂) – Art Deco architect and painter in China and later in U.S.
  • I. M. Pei (貝聿銘) – Modernist architect based in New York City

Dance

  • Goh Choo San (吴诸珊) – ballet dancer and choreographer
  • Shen Wei (沈伟) – dancer, choreographer and visual artist; MacArthur fellow
  • Fang-Yi Sheu (許芳宜) – principal dancer of the Martha Graham Dance Company

Fashion design

  • Malan Breton (马兰·布莱顿) – fashion designer
  • Luly Yang – fashion designer
  • Angel Chang – fashion designer
  • Monika Chiang – fashion designer
  • Wenlan Chia (賈雯蘭) – fashion designer
  • Doug Chiang (江道格) – movie designer and artist
  • David Chu (朱欽騏) – co-founder of clothing company Nautica
  • Diana Eng – fashion designer
  • Joe Allen Hong – fashion designer for Neiman Marcus
  • Jen Kao – fashion designer
  • Jonathan Koon – fashion designer, business entrepreneur
  • Derek Lam – fashion designer
  • Phillip Lim – fashion designer
  • Peter Mui – fashion designer, actor, and musician
  • Mary Ping – fashion designer
  • Peter Som – fashion designer
  • Anna Sui (蕭志美) – fashion designer
  • Vivienne Tam (谭燕玉) – fashion designer
  • Yeohlee Teng – fashion designer
  • Alexander Wang (王大仁) – fashion designer
  • Kaisik Wong – fashion designer
  • Vera Wang (王薇薇) – fashion designer
  • Jason Wu (吳季剛) – fashion designer
  • Joe Zee – creative director of Elle magazine; host of fashion TV series All on the Line

Literature

  • Bette Bao Lord (包柏漪) – writer, novelist
  • Eileen Chang (张爱玲, a.k.a. 张煐) – writer
  • Kang-i Sun Chang (孫康宜) – writer and literary scholar
  • Lan Samantha Chang – writer; director of the Iowa Writer's Workshop
  • Victoria Chang – poet, children's writer, and essayist
  • Ted Chiang (姜峯楠) – speculative fiction writer
  • Frank Chin (趙健秀) – novelist, playwright, and essayist
  • Marilyn Chin (陈美玲) – poet
  • Ben Fee (张恨棠/木云) – writer and labor organizer
  • David Henry Hwang (黃哲倫) – playwright
  • Gish Jen (任璧蓮) – writer, novelist
  • Ha Jin (哈金) – novelist, winner of the National Book Award for Waiting
  • Maxine Hong Kingston – novelist, The Woman Warrior
  • R. F. Kuang (匡灵秀) – fantasy novelist, The Poppy War
  • Jean Kwok – writer, novelist
  • Edward Michael Law-Yone – writer, journalist; father of Wendy Law-Yone
  • Wendy Law-Yone – writer
  • Chin Yang Lee - writer
  • Gus Lee (李健孫) – writer
  • Carolyn Lei-Lanilau – writer
  • Yiyun Li (李翊雲) – winner of the 2006 PEN/Hemingway Award
  • Ed Lin (林景南) – writer, first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards
  • Tao Lin (林韜) – writer
  • Eric Liu (劉柏川) – author and speechwriter for former US President Bill Clinton
  • Malinda Lo – writer, young adult novels, Ash
  • David Wong Louie (雷祖威) – writer
  • Marie Lu (陸希未) – writer
  • Ling Ma – writer, Severance
  • Adeline Yen Mah (馬嚴君玲) – author and physician
  • William Marr (馬為義,非馬) – engineer, poet, translator, and artist
  • Chanel Miller – artist and author of '
  • Anchee Min (閔安琪) – author, Red Azalea
  • Celeste Ng (伍綺詩) – writer, novelist
  • Lisa See – writer
  • Sui Sin Far (水仙花) – late 19th/early 20th century Chinese-English American author and journalist
  • Arthur Sze - poet
  • Mai-mai Sze - writer and artist
  • Amy Tan (譚恩美) – best-selling author, The Joy Luck Club
  • Timothy Tau (謝韜) – writer, novelist, screenwriter, film director
  • Jade Snow Wong (黃玉雪) – writer
  • Shawn Wong – novelist, Homebase, American Knees; writer; professor
  • Timothy C. Wong (黃宗泰) – sinologist, translator, and literary theorist
  • Xu Xi (許素細) – English language novelist based in Hong Kong
  • Geling Yan (严歌苓) – novelist and screenwriter
  • Gene Luen Yang (楊謹倫) – graphic novelist, whose book American Born Chinese was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award
  • Laurence Yep (叶祥添) – two-time winner of the Newbery Honor
  • Connie Young Yu – writer, historian, lecturer, and 2016 "Woman of the Year" California Senate District 13
  • Judy Yung – writer
  • Kat Zhang – author of young adult and middle grade novels
  • Jenny Zhang – essayist, poet, novelist
  • Jenny Tinghui Zhang – novelist

Theater

  • Ping Chong (張家平) – contemporary theater director
  • Dan Kwong – playwright
  • BD Wong – Tony Award-winning actor, M Butterfly, '

Visual arts

Business

Financial

  • Gerald Chan (陳樂宗) – son of T.H. Chan, property investments
  • Ida Liu (劉宏敏) – Global Head of Citi Private Bank
  • Tim Chen – co-founder and CEO of NerdWallet
  • Yan Huo (霍焱) – co-founder of Capula Investment Management, 8th largest hedge fund in Europe by assets
  • Alfred Lin (林君叡) – venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital
  • Ken Lin – founder and CEO of Credit Karma
  • Norman Liu (柳澈漯) – CEO and president of GECAS (2008–2015)
  • Look Tin Eli (陸潤卿) – co-founder of the Canton Bank of San Francisco (1907-1926) and one of the prime movers in the rebuilding of Chinatown after the 1906 quake
  • Li Lu (李录) – hedge fund manager and founder and chairman of Himalaya Capital
  • Dominic Ng (吴建民) – CEO and president of East West Bank (1992– )
  • Lou Pai (白露龍) – CEO of Enron Xcelerator, a venture capital division of Enron
  • Donald Tang – former vice-chairman of Bear Stearns
  • Oscar Tang (唐騮千) – financier and philanthropist
  • Gerald Tsai (蔡至勇) – financier, former chairman and CEO of Primerica
  • Gary Wang – co-founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX
  • Mun Charn Wong (黃門贊) – former executive of Transamerica Corporation
  • Peng Zhao (赵鹏) – CEO of Citadel Securities

Food

  • Roger H. Chen (陳河源) – founder of Tawa Supermarket Inc., also known as 99 Ranch Market
  • Andrew Cherng (程正昌) – co-founder of Panda Express, billionaire
  • Bob Chinn – owner of Bob Chinn's Crab House, highest grossing restaurant in America
  • Johnny Kan – founder of Kan's Restaurant
  • Ping Tom (譚繼平) – Chicago-based food industry businessman; uncle of Lauren Tom

Industrial

Internet

Technology

Other

Entertainment

Actors

Directors

Musicians

Other

Journalism and news media

Military

Politics and government

National politics

Congress

Local and state

Law and judiciary

Community and civil rights

  • Grace Lee Boggs (陳玉平) – community activist in African-American community; leftist writer
  • Chin Lin Sou – community leader
  • Hung Wai Ching – community leader and businessman
  • Goo Kim Fui (古今辉) – President, United Chinese Society in Hawaii, 1892–1898; played an instrumental role in uniting the Chinese and fighting for their rights during the anti-Chinese agitation in Hawaii in the 1880s
  • Charles Goodall Lee – first licensed Chinese American dentist in the United States, financier of Chinese American Citizens Alliance in Oakland Chinatown, spouse of Clara Elizabeth Chan Lee
  • Clara Elizabeth Chan Lee – first Chinese American woman voter in the United States
  • Mabel Ping-Hua Lee – Chinese advocate for women's suffrage in the United States, community organizer in New York City's Chinatown, and leader of the First Chinese Baptist Church in Chinatown.
  • Wong Chin Foo (王清福) – 19th-century civil rights activist and journalist
  • Wong Kim Ark (黃金德) – his lawsuit established the principle of citizenship by virtue of birth on US soil
  • Harry Wu (吴弘达) – human rights activist, focuses on Laogai prison camps and human rights in China
  • Sherman Wu – civil rights activist, famous racial discrimination incident by university fraternity
  • Xiao Qiang (萧强) – MacArthur Fellowship for human rights activism, publisher of China Digital Times covering rights and censorship in China, journalism professor
  • John C. Young (容兆珍) – San Francisco Chinatown leader
  • Helen Zia (謝漢蘭) – community activist and writer

Science and academia

Nobel Prize

  • Chen Ning Yang (楊振寧) – 1957 Nobel laureate, Physics, Yang–Mills theory
  • Tsung-dao Lee (李政道) – 1957 Nobel laureate, Physics
  • Samuel C. C. Ting (丁肇中) – 1976 Nobel laureate, Physics
  • Yuan T. Lee (李远哲) – 1986 Nobel Prize, Chemistry
  • Steven Chu (朱棣文) – 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics, US Secretary of Energy (2009)
  • Daniel Chee Tsui (崔琦) – 1998 Nobel laureate, Physics
  • Roger Y. Tsien (錢永健) – 2008 Nobel laureate, Chemistry
  • Charles K. Kao (高锟) – 2009 Nobel laureate in Physics who pioneered the development and use of fiber optics in telecommunications

Mathematics award winners

Chemistry

Computer science

Engineering

  • Huajian Gao – Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Engineering at Brown University
  • Tung Hua Lin (林同驊) – professor (UCLA), aerospace and structural engineer
  • Tung-Yen Lin (林同棪) – (Berkeley) structural engineer who was the pioneer of standardizing the use of prestressed concrete, founded T. Y. Lin International
  • Lee Yuk-Wing (李郁榮) – Professor of Electrical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mathematics

Medicine and biosciences

Physics

Economics, Finance, Statistics, OR

Social sciences

Humanities

  • Wing-tsit Chan (陳榮捷) – professor in Chinese philosophy, wrote influential translations
  • Him Mark Lai (麥禮謙) – professor of Chinese American studies
  • Lin Yutang (林語堂) – Hokkien Chinese writer
  • Huping Ling (令狐萍) – professor of History at Truman State University, author
  • Liu Kwang-ching (劉廣京) – Historian of late imperial China; University of California, Davis.
  • Betty Lee Sung (宋李瑞芳) – former professor of Asian-American Studies at City College of New York; 'leading authority' on Chinese Americans
  • Andrew Lih (酈安治) – associate professor of Journalism at American University
  • Teng Ssu-yu (鄧嗣禹) – Historian of late imperial China, at University of Indiana.
  • Tim Wu (吳修銘) – professor at Columbia Law School, in 2014 ran to become the first Chinese-American lieutenant governor of New York State but lost.
  • C.K. Yang (楊慶堃) – Sociologist at University of Pittsburgh.
  • Yang Lien-sheng (楊聯陞) – Sinologist. Harvard University.
  • Yu Ying-shih (余英時) – Historian of China; Harvard, Yale, and Princeton Universities.
  • Zhao Yuanren (Yuen Ren Chao) (趙元任) – Linguist at Harvard and University of California, Berkeley.

University administration

Earth Sciences

Sports

  • Nathan Adrian (倪家骏) – Olympic medal winner, swimming
  • Shayna Baszler – professional wrestler and mixed martial artist
  • Johnny Chan (陳金海, 陳強尼) – professional poker player
  • Michael Chang (張德培) – youngest male tennis player to win a Grand Slam tournament
  • Ray Chang – baseball player
  • Karen Chen (陳楷雯) – figure skater
  • Nathan Chen (陳巍) – figure skater, 2022 Olympic gold medalist
  • Andrew Chin – professional baseball player
  • Tiffany Chin (陳婷婷) – figure skater and 1985 U.S. national champion
  • Brian Ching (程拜仁) – soccer player for Houston Dynamo and the United States national team
  • William Kwai-sun Chow – martial arts instructor
  • Mark Chung – first American-Chinese soccer player to play for the United States national team
  • Patrick Chung – Strong Safety for the New England Patriots
  • Amy Chow (周婉儀) – gymnast and Olympic medal winner
  • Norm Chow (周友賢) – UCLA Bruins offensive coordinator
  • Julie Chu (朱慧雯) – Olympic medal winner, ice hockey
  • Mark Foo – professional surfer
  • Christina Gao (高昊) – figure skater
  • Chau Giang – poker player
  • Eileen Gu (谷爱凌) – Free style skier and Olympic gold medalist
  • Rudy Gunawan (郭宏源) – badminton player
  • Tony Gunawan (吳俊明) – badminton player
  • Ivana Hong – gymnastics
  • Jerry Hsu – skateboarder
  • Michelle Jin (米歇尔·金) – professional bodybuilder
  • John Juanda – poker player
  • Phillip King – tennis player, brother of Vania King
  • Vania King – tennis player who won both the 2010 Wimbledon Women's Doubles and 2010 US Open Women's Doubles titles
  • Jonathan Klinsmann – soccer goalkeeper for LA Galaxy
  • Theodore Ku-DiPietro – soccer player
  • Karen Kwan – former figure skater, sister of Michelle Kwan
  • Michelle Kwan (關穎珊) – Olympic medal winner, figure skating
  • Alice Lee – chess player, FIDE Master
  • Jeremy Lin (林書豪) – professional basketball player, NBA (NY Knicks, Toronto Raptors, etc.), Linsanity
  • Alysa Liu – figure skater and 2026 Olympic champion
  • Corrie Lothrop – gymnastics
  • Tyson Mao – speedcuber
  • Kim Ng (伍佩琴) – Major League Baseball executive
  • Karlee Perez – professional wrestler known as Catrina and the WWE as Maxine (Chinese ancestry)
  • Chuck Sun – professional Motocross racer
  • Kevin Tan (谭凯文) – Olympic medal winner, gymnastics
  • Ed Wang – professional American football player
  • Lisa Wang – rhythmic gymnastics
  • Joey Wong – professional baseball player
  • Kevin Wong – professional beach volleyball player and Olympian
  • Raymond Wu (吳紹綱) – professional poker player
  • Don Yee – sports agent
  • Al Young – World Champion drag racer
  • Jennifer Yu (于潤荷) – U.S. women's chess champion in 2019 and 2022
  • Caroline Zhang (张圆圆) – figure skater
  • Lily Zhang (张安) – table tennis player
  • Rose Zhang – professional golfer on the LPGA Tour

Other

Astronauts

  • Leroy Chiao (焦立中) – NASA astronaut
  • Kjell N. Lindgren (林其兒) – NASA astronaut
  • Edward Lu (盧傑) – NASA astronaut
  • Taylor Wang (王赣骏) – first ethnic Chinese scientist to go into space, in 1985 on space shuttle Challenger

Gang leaders and criminals

Crime victims

  • Bow Kum – her murder was the precipitating event for infamous New York Tong war
  • Vincent Jen Chin (陳果仁) – beaten to death in 1982 racial hate incident by two White men considered by Chinese-American advocacy groups to be miscarriage of American justice
  • Wenjian Liu – first Chinese American officer in the New York City Police Department to die in the line of duty in 2014
  • Betty Ong (鄧月薇) – flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, alerted ground crews and kept the world informed of the hijacking in progress

Religious leaders

Other

  • Bei Bei Shuai (帅贝贝) – Prosecuted for murder and feticide due to a pregnancy loss after a suicide attempt.

References