{"id":64188,"date":"2023-03-13T02:27:11","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T02:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=64188"},"modified":"2023-03-13T02:27:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T02:27:12","slug":"she-had-to-hide-the-secret-history-of-the-first-asian-woman-nominated-for-a-best-actress-oscar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=64188","title":{"rendered":"\u2018She had to hide\u2019: the secret history of the first Asian woman nominated for a best actress Oscar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018She had to hide\u2019: the secret history of the first Asian woman nominated for a best actress Oscar<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a>
\n2023-03-07<\/p>\n

Andrew Lawrence<\/strong><\/a>
\nBeaufort, South Carolina<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>
Merle Oberon<\/a> was nominated for best actress in 1936 for The Dark Angel<\/em><\/a>. Photograph: Sasha\/Getty Images<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Merle Oberon<\/a>, a pick for best actress in 1936, was born in Bombay<\/a> and spent her career passing for white<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Magazine writers didn\u2019t know what to make of Merle Oberon<\/a> when she took Hollywood<\/a> by storm in the 1930s. One writer described her as \u201cbizarre, bewildering, and different\u201d, while others marveled at her \u201cdelicate\u201d oval face, \u201celoquent\u201d emerald eyes, \u201cbright red lips\u201d and \u201calabaster\u201d skin.<\/p>\n

Though her 1936 best actress Oscar nomination<\/a> for the coming-of-age drama The Dark Angel<\/em><\/a> affirmed her place in a league with Katharine Hepburn<\/a> and the eventual winner, Bette Davis<\/a>, the glamor paragons of the day, it was only later that the world discovered Oberon was a south Asian woman passing for white<\/a>…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merle Oberon, a pick for best actress in 1936, was born in Bombay and spent her career passing for white<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,16,1245,459,8,6462,20,25],"tags":[33768,28589,33432,1351,21846,2103],"class_list":["post-64188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-asia","category-biography","category-history","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","category-women","tag-andrew-lawrence","tag-cassandra-pybus","tag-estelle-merle-obrien-thompson","tag-india","tag-merle-oberon","tag-the-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64190,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64188\/revisions\/64190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}