Miss Congeniality–1965 San Francisco Chinatown Pageant
I first met Felicia Lowe at the AAAM Retreat back in October 2021. Since then, I worked with her closely in our AAPI Film Series Committee planning and selecting films to show at our Film Series. I know that she is an award-winning independent filmmaker and have made several films including “Carved in Silence“, and that she is well known in the Chinese American community for her contributions and tireless work in preserving Chinese American history on film.
However, it is a little known fact that she also competed in the 1965 Miss Chinatown USA pageant, an amazing story that she is gracious enough to share with us all. I’d like to acknowledge Ben SB’s post on Facebook Chinese North American History Network that alerted me to this story.
Felicia in her own words:
As I dusted off the box of mementos from the 1965 Miss Chinatown U.S.A. Pageant, memories of the whirlwind couple of weeks spent in San Francisco as a contestant came alive again. It was a lifetime ago! I was 19 years old, a junior at San Jose State, majoring in journalism. Inside the box was my badge number, Miss Congeniality sash, program book, and the tattered remnants of the scrape book I had put together. The photos and yellowed newspaper articles documented visits to family associations, photo spreads with politicians, modelling fashions, the Pageant at the Masonic Auditorium (including a shot of me singing), the Coronation Ceremony, and of course, the New Year’s Parade. The coverage was non-stop, our images appeared in both the Chinese and mainstream press. The experience was exhausting and exhilarating. I enjoyed meeting my fellow contestants who came from different parts of the country. It was the first time I’d met Chinese American girls with a southern drawl, and a Philly accent. There was also lots of laughter to get us through each day’s grueling schedule. We bonded as a group and were happy for everyone’s success. It never felt competitive to me.
My new found friends voted me Miss Congeniality, which took me by surprise (far left in the photo). Revisiting the experience now 57 years later, I realize it had a greater impact on my 19 year old self than I had previously understood. I gained a greater respect and broader perspective about the Chinese community, its leadership, pride in being Chinese in America, being American. It laid the ground work for my future career in media and the subjects I would cover.
My then interest in journalism had morphed into broadcast journalism which I found more dynamic and could reach larger audiences. I moved to New York to study film and television production, while working on the children’s program, “The Electric Company.” Upon completion of a Broadcast Journalism Program at Columbia University, I was
hired as a news writer at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. I moved back to San Francisco to work at KGO-TV, becoming its first Asian female reporter. I also hosted the public affairs program, “Perspectives” and co-hosted two live broadcasts of the Chinese New Year’s Parade with David Louie. I learned a great deal working in breaking news, but I was eager to tell longer stories and the opportunity arrived with an offer to work on the PBS series, “Turnabout” as a field producer. The work prepared me well to make my first documentary in 1979, “China: Land of My Father” in which I went to China to meet my father’s mother for the first time.
The overwhelming positive response to seeing “our Roots story” inspired me to make other documentaries. “Carved in Silence” reveals the stories of Chinese immigrants detained at Angel Island Immigration Station during the Chinese Exclusion era and the poetry carved into the walls. For KQED, I produced “Chinatown” for their Neighborhood series, and “Chinese Couplets” traces my mother’s journey from China to America as a paper daughter. All my documentaries have been broadcast on PBS and used in classrooms across the country. I’m gratified that I’ve been able to share what I have learned about our unique histories and common humanity through my films.
I’m even more pleased that work I’ve been a part of through the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation these past 40 years has resulted in the preservation and restoration of the Immigration Station, a National Historic Landmark.
I’ll end with a short clip from “Chinese Couplets.” It’d been a long, long time since I last stood on that stage in the Masonic Auditorium! Click here to watch the clip.
For information about Felicia and all her films, please visit her website at https://www.lowedownproductions.com. Also, several of her films are available on Kanopy.com which is accessible for free through your library card at the Sonoma County Library.