Primetime: The First Chinese American Newspaperwoman: Mamie Louise Leung

Dr. Chang Zacher won third place for Faculty Paper-History Division at the 2022 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference.

This paper chronicles the early journalism career of the first Chinese American newspaperwoman, Mamie Louise Leung, who reported for the Los Angeles Record from 1926 to 1929.

From feeling insecure about her lack of journalism experience right out of college and intimidated by the idea of a Chinese girl not standing a chance among American news writers to building a journalism career that spanned on and off for five decades, Leung proved to be a successful newspaperwoman with her intellect, skills, mental capacity, ambition, hard work, and the unique asset of being a Chinese reporter. Even though she was typecast by her bylined stories as a minority reporter covering topics related to the Chinese community in Los Angeles, she took charge of reporting for the important court beat for the Record throughout her tenure.