Mia Elliott

Mia Elliott was a groundbreaking character and the first protagonist on the American soap opera Love is a Many Splendored Thing. She was played for the show's first few months by Nancy Hsueh, an American actress of Chinese and Scots-Irish origin.

To San Francisco from Hong Kong

Mia was the Amerasian daughter of the late War correspondent and Korean War veteran, Mark Elliott and Eurasian doctor, Dr. Han Suyin. She was born from the relationship that her parents had. Like her mother, she too wanted to be a doctor, and to this end, she moved to San Francisco, California to attend Medical School.

While on the ship that would take her to her new home. She met Paul Bradley, who was also en route to San Francisco. When she arrived, she met her father's brother, Phil and his wife, Helen, who took her in. She bonded well with her cousin and her father's namesake, Mark Elliott. She also met the Elliotts' friends, the Donnelly family.

While in San Francisco, she had met and fallen in love with Dr. Jim Abbott. However, during their relationship, she had discovered that Jim had performed an illegal abortion. Because of this, he lost his license to practice medicine, (abortion was still illegal at this time) and he also lost Mia.

Understandably, because of her upbringing and her Asian heritage, she was disgusted by this, and so left San Francisco to return to Hong Kong. Presumably, Mia is still there to this day, and working as a doctor, much like her mother.

Trivia

Mia was one of the first, and at that time, the only Eurasian character who was involved in a front-burner storyline. Mia was meant to be the main focus of the show, since the show was a sequel to the movie of the same name, and she was the daughter of the movie's main characters; however, the story was quite controversial, (interracial love, which had been the main plotline of the movie) and that had offended several older viewers and the story was censored. This situation had forced the show's creator, Irna Phillips to quit the show.