Mariko Tse
Asian American Actress and Activist
Photograph © 1977 Janice Rubin www.janicerubin.com
Used with permission
Researched by Justine Trinh and Lauryn Chew
Mariko Kahn (née Tse) was a delegate and spokesperson for the Asian and Pacific Women’s Caucus at the 1977 National Women's Conference. Aside from her career as an actress, Kahn was deeply involved in community activism and fought for representation and inclusion of Asian Americans.
An Asian Girl in America
Born in Osaka, Japan in September 1947, Mariko was the eldest of five children. She was unable to immigrate to the United States with her mother and her younger brother until 1952 because her mother was considered a war bride despite having married a Chinese service man for the United States army. Her family settled in Northern California in 1962, where she first encountered anti-Asian sentiment as a student at Oceana High School.
Copyright © Diana Mara Henry / spiritofhouston.net
Activism through Acting
Five years after her high school graduation, Mariko attended the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and earned a BS in Cultural Anthropology. Her involvement in student politics at UCR allowed her to find solidarity with other Asian Americans on campus.
After graduating from UCR and studying indigenous populations in Venezuela, Mariko moved to San Francisco and joined the Asian American Theater Company as an actress. She was introduced to the Chinese Women in Action activist group by a fellow performer and was nominated to attend the 1977 National Women's Conference for her involvement with the organization.
"Speak up. So what if you're wrong? So what if you sound striking? At least you spoke up."
- Mariko Kahn, oral history interview with Judy Wu and Justine Trinh, Zoom, 2021
Contribution to the Conference
Mariko was delegate in the Asian and Pacific Women’s Caucus, and as its spokesperson, she raised concerns about sweatshop workers, war brides, and the model minority myth. While Asian American women were finally being represented on a national stage, she was frustrated that her caucus was overshadowed by larger caucuses and that the conference itself lacked organization.
Mariko, age 24 at the time, was living in San Francisco, which had a sizable LGBTQ+ community and a growing Gay Liberation Movement. However, her first experience socializing and intimately interacting with lesbians took place at the conference.
Lending a Hand for a Lifetime
Soon after the conference, Mariko moved to Los Angeles and starred in several movie and television roles. She joined East West Players, another Asian American theater company, and fought for more Asian American representation in the media.
However, her profession was not financially stable, so she re-enrolled in school and earned her MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University in 1987.
In the 1990s, she volunteered with the Chinese Historical Society of California and was the Program Director of the Wellness Community Westside, an organization that offered free psycho-social services to cancer patients and their families. She later served as the Executive Director of the Pacific Asian Counseling Services (PACS) from 2004 until 2021.
Since 2008, Mariko has been an active board member for Cambodia Town, Inc., a non-partisan and non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting Khmer culture in Long Beach's Cambodia Town. Her volunteer work focuses on grant writing and program coordination.
Bibliography
1977 National Women’s Conference: A Question of Choices. texasarchive.org/2013_02597?b=2444&e=2491.
Anderson, E, and Trinh, J. (2021, May 12). "Roundtable: Meet Delegates and Conference Attendees." In J. Wu (Organizer) Sharing Stories: the 1977 National Women’s Conference.
Board of Directors. (n.d.). Cambodia Town. Retrieved October 22, 2022 from cambodiatown.org/board-advisory-council/.
IMDB. (n.d.) Mariko Tse. IMDB. www.imdb.com/name/nm0874863/.
Kahn, M. (n.d.). Work and Education [Facebook]. Facebook. Retrieved October 22, 2022 from www.facebook.com/mariko.kahn/about_work_and_education.
Malloryk. “Coming to America: the War Brides Act of 1945.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, 27 Dec. 2020, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/war-brides-act-1945.
No Author. (1990 August) In Memoriam in Chinese Historical Society of California Newsletter
Reed, Christopher. “From the Archive, 25 June 1977: The Bay Goes Gay.” The Guardian, 26 Mar. 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/25/san-francisco-bay-homosexuals-politics-archive-1977.
Trinh, J. (2021, April 1). Interview with Mariko Kahn [Interview].
United States Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Services. (1952). Manifest of In-Bound Passengers.