Beulah Quo

Beulah Quo (April 17, 1923 – October 23, 2002) was an American actress and activist born in Stockton, California. The spelling of her last name changed from Kwoh to Quo because she was constantly asked if KWOH was a radio station. She starred in many films and television series beginning in the mid-1950s, and was best known for her appearances in General Hospital (1963), Chinatown (1974), and Brokedown Palace (1999). She was also an advocate of more and better screen roles for Asian actors, and founded several organizations in pursuit of that goal. Early life Beulah Quo was born Beulah Ong in Stockton, California as the only child of two Chinese immigrants. She received a bachelor's degree in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley and a master's degree from the University of Chicago. While completing her Master’s degree, Quo met her husband, Edwin Kwoh, who was then a Chinese doctoral student at Columbia University. She also published her master's thesis entitled “The Occupational Status of American-Born Chinese Male College Graduates” in the American Journal of Sociology. Both Quo and her husband were involved in Chinese Christian activism throughout their studies. Quo was particularly active in the Lake Tahoe Chinese Christian Youth Conferences during the 1940s. In the time she was involved in leading these conferences, Quo led discussions advocating for cross-racial cooperation and spoke out against the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. In the late 1940s, while she was working in China as a teacher, Quo escaped Communism on a U.S. destroyer along with her husband and infant son. After resettling, she also worked at the Chinese YWCA building, which is now the Chinese American National Museum and Learning Center.