Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong | ||
---|---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin Huáng Liǔshuāng | | |
Wade–Giles | Huang2 Liu3 Shuang1 | |
Yue: Cantonese | ||
Jyutping | Wong4 Lau5soeng1 | |
other Yue | ||
Taishanese | Vong3 Liu5song1 |
Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first
Born in Los Angeles to first-generation Taishanese Chinese American parents, Wong became engrossed with films and decided at the age of 11 that she would become an actress. Her first role was as an extra in the movie The Red Lantern (1919). During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first films made in color, and in Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon and had achieved international stardom in 1924. Wong had been one of the first to embrace the flapper look. In 1934, the Mayfair Mannequin Society of New York voted her the "world's best dressed woman."[3] In the 1920s and 1930s, Wong was acclaimed as one of the top fashion icons.
Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, Wong left for Europe in March 1928, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work. Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, and went on to appear in Daughter of the Dragon (1931), with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932), Java Head (1934), and Daughter of Shanghai (1937).[4]
In 1935, Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role of the Chinese character O-Lan in the film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth. MGM instead cast Luise Rainer to play the leading role in yellowface. One biographer believes that the choice was due to the Hays Code anti-miscegenation rules requiring the wife of a white actor, Paul Muni (ironically playing a Chinese character in yellowface) to be played by a white actress.[5] But the 1930–1934 Hays Code of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America insisted only that "miscegenation (sex relationship between the white and black races) was forbidden" and said nothing about other interracial marriages.[6] Other biographers have not corroborated this theory, including historian Shirley Jennifer Lim's Anna May Wong: Performing the Modern.[7] MGM screen-tested Wong for the supporting role of Lotus, the seductress, but it is ambiguous whether she refused the role on principle or was rejected.[8]
Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village, studying Chinese culture, and documenting the experience on film at a time when prominent female directors in Hollywood were few.[9]
In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese and Chinese Americans in a positive light.
She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to help the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances.
In 1951, Wong made history with her television show
Biography
Early life
Anna May Wong was born Wong Liu Tsong (黃柳霜, Liu Tsong literally meaning "willow frost") on January 3, 1905, on Flower Street in Los Angeles, one block north of Chinatown, in an integrated community of Chinese, Irish, German and Japanese residents.[11][12] She was the second of seven children born to Wong Sam-sing, owner of the Sam Kee Laundry, and his second wife, Lee Gon-toy.[13]
Wong's parents were second-generation Chinese Americans; her maternal and paternal grandparents had arrived in the U.S. no later than 1855.
In 1910, the family moved to a neighborhood on
About that same time, U.S. motion picture production began to relocate from the
Early career
Wong was working at Hollywood's
Wong worked steadily for the next two years as an extra in various movies, including
Finding it difficult to keep up with both her schoolwork and her passion, Wong dropped out of Los Angeles High School in 1921 to pursue a full-time acting career.[28][29] Reflecting on her decision, Wong told Motion Picture Magazine in 1931: "I was so young when I began that I knew I still had youth if I failed, so I determined to give myself 10 years to succeed as an actress."[30]
In 1921, Wong received her first
At the age of 17, Wong played her first leading role, in the early Metro
Despite such reviews, Hollywood proved reluctant to create starring roles for Wong; her
Stardom
At the age of 19, Wong was cast in a supporting role as a scheming Mongol slave in the 1924 Douglas Fairbanks picture The Thief of Bagdad. Playing a stereotypical "Dragon Lady" role, her brief appearances on-screen caught the attention of audiences and critics alike.[39] The film grossed more than $2 million and helped introduce Wong to the public. Around this time, Wong had a relationship with Tod Browning, who had directed her in Drifting a year earlier.[40]
After this second prominent role, Wong moved out of the family home into her own apartment. Conscious that Americans viewed her as "foreign-born" even though she was born and raised in California, Wong began cultivating a flapper image.[41] In March 1924, planning to make films about Chinese myths, she signed a deal creating Anna May Wong Productions; when her business partner was found to be engaging in dishonest practices, Wong brought a lawsuit against him and the company was dissolved.[42]
It soon became evident that Wong's career would continue to be limited by American
Wong continued to be offered exotic supporting roles that followed the rising "
In 1926, Wong put the first rivet into the structure of
Wong continued to be assigned supporting roles. Hollywood's Asian female characters tended toward two stereotypical poles: the naïve and self-sacrificing "Butterfly" and the sly and deceitful "Dragon Lady". In
Move to Europe
Tired of being both typecast and passed over for lead Asian character roles in favor of non-Asian actresses, Wong left Hollywood in 1928 for Europe.[55] Interviewed by Doris Mackie for Film Weekly in 1933, Wong complained about her Hollywood roles: "I was so tired of the parts I had to play."[56][57] She commented: "There seems little for me in Hollywood, because, rather than real Chinese, producers prefer Hungarians, Mexicans, American Indians for Chinese roles."[58]
In Europe, Wong became a sensation, starring in notable films such as Schmutziges Geld (aka Song and Show Life, 1928) and Großstadtschmetterling (Pavement Butterfly). Of the German critics' response to Song, The New York Times reported that Wong was "acclaimed not only as an actress of transcendent talent but as a great beauty". The article noted that Germans passed over Wong's American background: "Berlin critics, who were unanimous in praise of both the star and the production, neglect to mention that Anna May is of American birth. They mention only her Chinese origins."[59] In Vienna, she played the title role in the operetta Tschun Tschi in fluent German.[57] An Austrian critic wrote, "Fräulein Wong had the audience perfectly in her power and the unobtrusive tragedy of her acting was deeply moving, carrying off the difficult German-speaking part very successfully."[60]
While in Germany, Wong became a friend of Leni Riefenstahl, who was at that time an actor and had not yet taken up film directing. Her close friendships with several women throughout her life, including Marlene Dietrich and Cecil Cunningham, led to rumors of lesbianism which damaged her public reputation.[61] These rumors, in particular of her supposed relationship with Dietrich, further embarrassed Wong's family. They had long been opposed to her acting career, which was not considered an entirely respectable profession at the time.[62]
London producer
Wong made her last silent film, Piccadilly, in 1929, the first of five British films in which she had a starring role. The film caused a sensation in the UK.[65] Gilda Gray was the top-billed actress, but Variety commented that Wong "outshines the star" and that "from the moment Miss Wong dances in the kitchen's rear, she steals 'Piccadilly' from Miss Gray."[66] Though the film presented Wong in her most sensual role yet of the five films, once again she was not permitted to kiss her white love interest and a controversial planned scene involving a kiss was cut before the film was released.[67] Forgotten for decades after its release, Piccadilly was later restored by the British Film Institute.[68] Time magazine's Richard Corliss calls Piccadilly Wong's best film,[69] and The Guardian reports that the rediscovery of this film and Wong's performance in it has been responsible for a restoration of the actress' reputation.[50]
While in London, Wong was romantically linked with writer and broadcasting executive
Return to Hollywood
During the 1930s, American studios were looking for fresh European talent. Ironically, Wong caught their eye, and she was offered a contract with Paramount Studios in 1930. Enticed by the promise of lead roles and top billing, she returned to the United States. The prestige and training she had gained during her years in Europe led to a starring role on Broadway in On the Spot,[72] a drama that ran for 167 performances and which she would later film as Dangerous to Know.[73] When the play's director wanted Wong to use stereotypical Japanese mannerisms, derived from Madame Butterfly, in her performance of a Chinese character, Wong refused. She instead used her knowledge of Chinese style and gestures to imbue the character with a greater degree of authenticity.[74] Following her return to Hollywood in 1930, Wong repeatedly turned to the stage and cabaret for a creative outlet.
In November 1930, Wong's mother was struck and killed by an automobile in front of the Figueroa Street house.[75] The family remained at the house until 1934 when Wong's father returned to his hometown in China with Anna May's younger brothers and sister.[76] Anna May had been paying for the education of her younger siblings, who put their education to work after they relocated to China.[77] Before the family left, Wong's father wrote a brief article for Xinning, a magazine for overseas Taishanese, in which he expressed his pride in his famous daughter.[78]
With the promise of appearing in a Josef von Sternberg film, Wong accepted another stereotypical role – the title character of Fu Manchu's vengeful daughter in Daughter of the Dragon (1931).[80] This was the last stereotypically "evil Chinese" role Wong played,[81] and also her one starring appearance alongside the only other well-known Asian actor of the era, Sessue Hayakawa. Though she was given the starring role, this status was not reflected in her paycheck: she was paid $6,000, while Hayakawa received $10,000 and Warner Oland, who is only in the film for 23 minutes, was paid $12,000.[82]
Wong began using her newfound celebrity to make political statements: late in 1931, for example, she wrote a harsh criticism of the
Wong appeared alongside Marlene Dietrich as a self-sacrificing courtesan in Sternberg's Shanghai Express.[80] Her sexually charged scenes with Dietrich have been noted by many commentators and fed rumors about the relationship between the two stars.[86] Though contemporary reviews focused on Dietrich's acting and Sternberg's direction, film historians today judge that Wong's performance upstaged that of Dietrich.[80][87]
The Chinese press had long given Wong's career very mixed reviews, and were less than favorable to her performance in Shanghai Express. A Chinese newspaper ran the headline: "Paramount Utilizes Anna May Wong to Produce Picture to Disgrace China" and continued, "Although she is deficient in artistic portrayal, she has done more than enough to disgrace the Chinese race."[88] Critics in China believed that Wong's on-screen sexuality spread negative stereotypes of Chinese women.[89] The most virulent criticism came from the Nationalist government, but China's intellectuals and liberals were not always so opposed to Wong, as demonstrated when Peking University awarded the actress an honorary doctorate in 1932. Contemporary sources reported that this was probably the only time that an actor had been so honored.[90]
In both America and Europe, Wong had been seen as a fashion icon for over a decade. In 1934, the Mayfair Mannequin Society of New York voted her "The World's best-dressed woman" and in 1938 Look magazine named her "The World's most beautiful Chinese girl".[91]
Atlantic crossings
After her success in Europe and a prominent role in Shanghai Express, Wong's Hollywood career returned to its old pattern. She was passed over for the leading female role in The Son-Daughter in favor of Helen Hayes; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer deemed her "too Chinese to play a Chinese" in the film.[92] Wong was scheduled to play the role of a mistress to a corrupt Chinese general in Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933), but the role went instead to Toshia Mori.[93]
Again disappointed with Hollywood, Wong returned to Britain, where she stayed for nearly three years. In addition to appearing in four films, she toured Scotland and Ireland as part of a vaudeville show. She also appeared in the
In the 1930s, the popularity of
Nevertheless, the studio apparently never seriously considered Wong for the role. The Chinese government also advised the studio against casting Wong in the role. The Chinese advisor to MGM commented: "whenever she appears in a movie, the newspapers print her picture with the caption 'Anna May again loses face for China' ".[100]
According to Wong, she was instead offered the part of Lotus, a deceitful song girl who helps to destroy the family and seduces the family's oldest son.[101] Wong refused the role, telling MGM head of production Irving Thalberg, "If you let me play O-lan, I will be very glad. But you're asking me—with Chinese blood—to do the only unsympathetic role in the picture featuring an all-American cast portraying Chinese characters."[99]
The role Wong hoped for went to Luise Rainer, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Wong's sister, Mary Liu Heung Wong, appeared in the film in the role of the Little Bride.[102] MGM's refusal to consider Wong for this most high-profile of Chinese characters in U.S. film is remembered today as "one of the most notorious cases of casting discrimination in the 1930s".[103]
Chinese tour and rising popularity
After the major disappointment of losing the role in The Good Earth, Wong announced plans for a year-long tour of China, to visit her father and his family in Taishan.[76][104] Wong's father had returned to his hometown in China with her younger brothers and sister in 1934. Aside from Mei Lanfang's offer to teach her, she wanted to learn more about the Chinese theater and through English translations to better perform some Chinese plays before international audiences.[77][105] She told the San Francisco Chronicle on her departure, "... for a year, I shall study the land of my fathers. Perhaps upon my arrival, I shall feel like an outsider. Perhaps instead, I shall find my past life assuming a dreamlike quality of unreality."[76]
Embarking in January 1936, Wong chronicled her experiences in a series of articles printed in U.S. newspapers such as the New York Herald Tribune,[94] the Los Angeles Examiner, the Los Angeles Times, and Photoplay.[106] In a stopover in Tokyo on the way to Shanghai, local reporters, ever curious about her romantic life, asked if she had marriage plans, to which Wong replied, "No, I am wedded to my art." The following day, however, Japanese newspapers reported that Wong was married to a wealthy Cantonese man named "Art".[94][107]
During her travels in China, Wong continued to be strongly criticized by the Nationalist government and the film community.
The toll of international celebrity on Wong's personal life manifested itself in bouts of depression and sudden anger, as well as excessive smoking and drinking.[110] Feeling irritable when she disembarked in Hong Kong, Wong was uncharacteristically rude to the awaiting crowd, which then quickly turned hostile. One person shouted: "Down with Huang Liu-tsong—the stooge that disgraces China. Don't let her go ashore." Wong began crying and a stampede ensued.[111]
After she left for a short trip to the Philippines, the situation cooled and Wong joined her family in Hong Kong. With her father and her siblings, Wong visited his family and his first wife at the family's ancestral home near Taishan.[104][112] Conflicting reports claim that she was either warmly welcomed or met with hostility by the villagers. She spent over 10 days in the family's village and some time in neighboring villages before continuing her tour of China.[113]
After returning to Hollywood, Wong reflected on her year in China and her career in Hollywood: "I am convinced that I could never play in the Chinese Theatre. I have no feeling for it. It's a pretty sad situation to be rejected by Chinese because I'm 'too American' and by American producers, because they prefer other races to act Chinese parts."[104] Wong's father returned to Los Angeles in 1938.[114]
Late 1930s and further work films
To complete her contract with Paramount Pictures, Wong made a string of B movies in the late 1930s. Often dismissed by critics, the films gave Wong non-stereotypical roles that were publicized in the Chinese-American press for their positive images. These smaller-budgeted films could be bolder than the higher-profile releases and Wong used this to her advantage to portray successful, professional, Chinese-American characters.
Competent and proud of their Chinese heritage, these characters worked against the prevailing U.S. film portrayals of Chinese Americans.[115] In contrast to the usual official Chinese condemnation of Wong's film roles, the Chinese consul to Los Angeles gave his approval to the final scripts of two of these films, Daughter of Shanghai (1937) and King of Chinatown (1939).[116]
In Daughter of Shanghai, Wong played the Asian-American female lead in a role that was rewritten for her as the heroine of the story, actively setting the plot into motion rather than the more passive character originally planned.[117] The script was so carefully tailored for Wong that at one point it was given the working title Anna May Wong Story.[105] When the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2006, the announcement described it as "more truly Wong's personal vehicle than any of her other films".[118]
Of this film, Wong told Hollywood Magazine, "I like my part in this picture better than any I've had before ... because this picture gives Chinese a break—we have sympathetic parts for a change! To me, that means a great deal."[119] The New York Times gave the film a generally positive review, commenting of its B-movie origins, "An unusually competent cast saves the film from the worst consequences of certain inevitable banalities. [The cast] ... combine with effective sets to reduce the natural odds against any pictures in the Daughter of Shanghai tradition."[120]
In October 1937, the press carried rumors that Wong had plans to marry her male co-star in this film, childhood friend and
Paramount also employed Wong as a tutor to other actors, such as Dorothy Lamour in her role as a Eurasian in Disputed Passage.[104] Wong performed on radio several times, including a 1939 role as "Peony" in Pearl Buck's The Patriot on Orson Welles' The Campbell Playhouse.[126][127] Wong's cabaret act, which included songs in Cantonese, French, English, German, Danish, Swedish, and other languages, took her from the U.S. to Europe and Australia through the 1930s and 1940s.[128]
In 1938, after she auctioned off her movie costumes and donated the money to Chinese aid, the Chinese Benevolent Association of California honored Wong for her work in support of Chinese refugees.[129] The proceeds from the preface that she wrote in 1942 to a cookbook entitled New Chinese Recipes, one of the first Chinese cookbooks, were also dedicated to United China Relief.[130] Between 1939 and 1942, she made few films, instead engaging in events and appearances in support of the Chinese struggle against Japan.
Being sick of the negative typecasting that had enveloped her throughout her American career, Wong visited Australia for more than three months in 1939. There she was the star attraction in a vaudeville show entitled 'Highlights from Hollywood' at the Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne.[131][132] On July 25, 1940, Wong's sister Mary committed suicide by hanging herself in California.[133][134]
Later years and 1942 film success
Wong attended several socialite events at the Mission Inn in Riverside, California, in 1941.[135]
Wong starred in
A
Later in life, Wong invested in real estate and owned a number of properties in Hollywood.[138] She converted her home on San Vicente Boulevard in Santa Monica into four apartments that she called "Moongate Apartments".[139] She served as the apartment house manager from the late 1940s until 1956, when she moved in with her brother Richard on 21st Place in Santa Monica.[140]
In 1949, Wong's father died in Los Angeles at the age of 91.[114] After a six-year absence, Wong returned to film the same year with a small role in a B movie called Impact.[141] From August 27 to November 21, 1951, Wong starred in a detective series that was written specifically for her, the DuMont Television Network series The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong,[141] in which she played the title role that used her birth name.[128] Wong's character was a dealer in Chinese art whose career involved her in detective work and international intrigue.[142] The ten half-hour episodes aired during prime time, from 9:00 to 9:30 pm.[143] Although there were plans for a second season, DuMont canceled the show in 1952. No copies of the show or its scripts are known to exist.[144] After the completion of the series, Wong's health began to deteriorate. In late 1953 she suffered an internal hemorrhage, which her brother attributed to the onset of menopause, her continued heavy drinking, and financial worries.[145]
In 1956, Wong hosted one of the first U.S. documentaries on China narrated entirely by a Chinese American. Broadcast on the ABC travel series Bold Journey, the program consisted of film footage from her 1936 trip to China.[146] Wong also did guest spots on television series such as Adventures in Paradise, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.[147]
For her contribution to the film industry, Anna May Wong received a star at 1708
In 1960, Wong returned to film in Portrait in Black, starring Lana Turner. She still found herself stereotyped, with one press release explaining her long absence from films with a supposed proverb, which was claimed to have been passed down to Wong by her father: "Don't be photographed too much or you'll lose your soul",[50] a quote that would be inserted into many of her obituaries.[128]
Later life and death
Wong was scheduled to play the role of Madame Liang in the film production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song, but was unable to take the role owing to her health problems.[151] On February 3, 1961, at the age of 56, Wong died of a heart attack[149] as she slept at home in Santa Monica, two days after her final screen performance on television's The Barbara Stanwyck Show in an episode entitled "Dragon by the Tail". (Wong had appeared in another story in the same series the previous year.) Her cremated remains were interred in her mother's grave at Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles. The headstone is marked with her mother's Anglicized name on top, and the Chinese names of Anna May (on the right) and her sister Mary (on the left) along the sides.
Legacy
Wong's image and career have left a notable legacy. Through her films, public appearances and prominent magazine features, she helped to humanize Chinese Americans to mainstream American audiences during a period of intense racism and discrimination. Chinese Americans had been viewed as perpetually foreign in U.S. society, but Wong's films and public image established her as a Chinese-American citizen at a time when laws discriminated against Chinese immigration and citizenship. Wong's hybrid image dispelled contemporary notions that the East and West were inherently different.[152]
Among Wong's films, only Shanghai Express retained critical attention in the U.S. in the decades after her death. In Europe and especially England, her films appeared occasionally at festivals. Wong remained popular with the gay community, who claimed her as one of their own and for whom her marginalization by the mainstream became a symbol.[153] Although the Chinese Nationalist criticism of her portrayals of the "Dragon Lady" and "Butterfly" stereotypes lingered, she was forgotten in China.[154] Nevertheless, the importance of Wong's legacy within the Asian-American film community can be seen in the Anna May Wong Award of Excellence, which is given yearly at the Asian-American Arts Awards;[155] the annual award given out by the Asian Fashion Designers group was also named after Wong in 1973.[153]
Wong's image remained as a symbol in literature as well as in the film. In the 1971 poem "The Death of Anna May Wong", Jessica Hagedorn saw Wong's career as one of "tragic glamour" and portrayed the actress as a "fragile maternal presence, an Asian-American woman who managed to 'birth', however ambivalently, Asian-American screen women in the jazz age".[156] Wong's character in Shanghai Express was the subject of John Yau's 1989 poem "No One Ever Tried to Kiss Anna May Wong", which interprets the actress' career as a series of tragic romances.[157] Sally Wen Mao wrote a book called Oculus, published in 2019, with a series of persona poems in the voice of Anna May Wong. In David Cronenberg's 1993 film version of David Henry Hwang's 1986 play, M. Butterfly, Wong's image was used briefly as a symbol of a "tragic diva".[158] Her life was the subject of China Doll, The Imagined Life of an American Actress, an award-winning[159] fictional play written by Elizabeth Wong in 1995.[160]
In 1995, film historian Stephen Bourne curated a retrospective of Wong's films called A Touch of Class for BFI Southbank.
As the centennial of Wong's birth approached, a re-examination of her life and career took shape; three major works on the actress appeared and comprehensive retrospectives of her films were held at both the
In 2016, the novelist Peter Ho Davies published The Fortunes, a saga of Chinese-American experiences centered around four characters, one of whom is a fictionalized Anna May Wong, imagined from childhood until her death. In a conversation published in the 2017 paperback edition, Davies described his novel as an exploration of the Chinese-American quest for authenticity—a third way of being Chinese American—with Anna May Wong representing an iconic example of that struggle.[165]
On January 22, 2020, a Google Doodle celebrated Wong, commemorating the 97th anniversary of the day The Toll of the Sea went into general release.[166][167]
In 2020, actress
In 2021, the United States Mint announced that Wong would be among the first women depicted on the reverse of the quarter coin as a part of the American Women quarters series.[170] When the quarters with her depicted on them went into circulation in 2022, Wong became the first Asian American depicted on American coinage.[171][172]
In Damien Chazelle's film Babylon (2022), Li Jun Li played Lady Fay Zhu, a role inspired by Wong.[173]
In 2023, Mattel released a Barbie doll modeled on Wong in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.[174]
A biopic from Working Title Films is in development, with British actress Gemma Chan set to portray Wong.[175]
The first-ever exhibition of her career using film advertising featuring lobby cards from The Dwight M. Cleveland Collection and curated by Katie Gee Salisbury author of Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong (Dutton) will be at The San Diego Chinese Historical Museum, March 1 through 10, 2024.[176]
Partial filmography
- The Red Lantern (1919) debut – uncredited
- Bits of Life (1921)
- The Toll of the Sea (1922) as Lotus Flower
- The Thief of Bagdad (1924) as a Mongol Slave
- Peter Pan (1924) as Tiger Lily
- A Trip to Chinatown (1926) as Ohati
- Old San Francisco(1927) as A Flower of the Orient
- Piccadilly (1929) as Shosho
- Elstree Calling (1930) as Herself
- The Flame of Love (1930) as Haitang
- The Road to Dishonour (1930) as Hai-Tang
- Hai-Tang (1930) as Hai-Tang
- Daughter of the Dragon (1931) as Princess Ling Moy
- Shanghai Express (1932) as Hui Fei
- A Study in Scarlet (1933) as Mrs. Pyke
- Limehouse Blues (1934) as Tu Tuan
- Daughter of Shanghai (1937) as Lan Ying Lin
- When Were You Born (1938) as Mei Lee Ling
- Dangerous to Know (1938) as Lan Ying
- King of Chinatown (1939) as Dr. Mary Ling
- Island of Lost Men (1939) as Kim Ling
- Bombs Over Burma (1942) as Lin Ying
- Lady from Chungking (1942) as Kwan Mei
- Impact (1949) as Su Lin
- Portrait in Black (1960) as Tawny
See also
- Anna May Wong: In Her Own Words
- Tsuru Aoki, Japanese-American silent film actress, married to Sessue Hayakawa
- Nancy Kwan, the next famed Chinese-American Hollywood actress, from the mid-20th century
- Portrayal of East Asians in Hollywood
- Racism in early American film
- Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians in American media
- James Wong Howe
- Nellie Yu Roung Ling, first modern dancer of China and fashion designer of Chinese-American descent
References
Citations
- ^ Chan 2003, p. xi.
- ^ Gan 1995, p. 83.
- ^ Wong, Brittany (March 12, 2019). "8 Badass Asian-Americans We Can't Overlook This Woman's History Month". HuffPost. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
- ^ Zia 1995, p. 415.
- ^ See Hodges, Graham Russell. Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 44, 60–67, 148.
- ^ See the Production Code of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., 1930–1934, II, Item 6. No mention is made of miscegenation between whites and any race other than Black Americans.
- ^ Lim, Shirley Jennifer. Anna May Wong: Performing the Modern. (PA: Temple University Press, 2019).
- ^ Hodges, Graham Russell. Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 44, 60–67, 148, 154.
- ^ Lim, Shirley J. (March 7, 2022). "After Hollywood thwarted Anna May Wong, the actress took matters into her own hands". The Conversation.
- ^ UCLA Today, 2008.
- ^ Hodges 2012, pp. 1, 5.
- ^ Corliss January 29, 2005, p. 2.
- ^ Finch and Rosenkrantz 1979, p. 231.
- ^ a b Hodges 2012, p. 1.
- ^ Hodges 2012, p. 6.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 13.
- ^ Hodges 2012, pp. 1, 7–8, 10.
- ^ Turner 2018, p. 152.
- ^ Hodges 2012, p. 5.
- ^ Hodges 2012, pp. 13–14.
- ^ Hodges 2012, p. 21.
- ^ a b Wollstein 1999, p. 248.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 31.
- ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Chan 2003, pp. 145–146.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 225.
- ^ Busch, Henry (May 22, 2023). "Was the actor Anna May Wong a Christian Scientist?". Mary Baker Eddy Library.
- ^ Lim 2019, p. 51.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 41.
- ^ a b Wollstein 1999, p. 249.
- ^ Gan 1995, p. 84.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 35.
- ^ Jacqui Palumbo (October 19, 2022). "Groundbreaking movie star Anna May Wong to be first Asian American featured on US currency". CNN. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
- ^ The Toll of the Sea (film review) December 1, 1922.
- ^ The Toll of the Sea (film review) November 27, 1922.
- ^ Anderson, Melissa (March 2–8, 2006). "The Wong Show". TimeOut: New York. No. 544. Retrieved March 14, 2008.
- ^ Parish 1976, pp. 532–533.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 58.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 49.
- ISBN 978-0810945357.
- ^ Chan 2003, pp. 37, 139.
- ^ Chan 2003, pp. 37–38.
- ^ Leong 2005, pp. 181–182.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 64.
- ^ Claire Love; Jen Pollack; Alison Landsberg (2017), Silent Film Actresses and Their Most Popular Characters, National Women's History Museum
- ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 45–46.
- ^ Bergfelder 2004, pp. 61–62.
- ^ Forty Winks (film review), February 3, 1925.
- ^ Wollstein 1999, p. 250.
- ^ a b c d Sweet 2008.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 66.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 185.
- ^ Liu 2000, p. 24.
- ^ Rohter, Larry (2010). "The Crimson City (1928)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 10, 2010.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 42.
- ^ a b Leong 2005, pp. 83, 187.
- ^ a b c Wollstein 1999, p. 252.
- ^ Parish 1976, p. 533.
- ^ Song (film review). August 22, 1928.
- ^ Parish 1976, p. 534.
- ^ Wollstein 1999, pp. 252, 253, 256.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 87.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 97.
- ^ Motion 1986, p. 161.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 92.
- ^ Piccadilly (film review) July 24, 1929.
- ^ Chan 2003, pp. xiii, 213, 215, 219.
- ^ a b Hsu 2004.
- ^ Corliss January 29, 2005, pp. 1, 3.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 178.
- ^ Chan 2003, pp. 51–53.
- ^ Lim 2019, p. 56.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 187.
- ^ Lim 2019, p. 57.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 112.
- ^ a b c Chan 2003, p. 90.
- ^ a b Hodges 2004, p. 155.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 148.
- ^ Lim 2019, pp. 116-117.
- ^ a b c Wollstein 1999, p. 253.
- ^ Lim 2019, p. 59.
- ^ Corliss February 3, 2005, p. 4.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 118.
- ^ Chan 2003, pp. 95–96.
- ^ Lim 2019, p. 58.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 232.
- ^ Lim 2019, p. 60.
- ^ Leong 2005, p. 74.
- ^ Leong 2005, p. 75.
- ^ Mein Film 1932, p. 333. Cited in Hodges 2004, p. 125.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 33.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 128.
- ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 127–128.
- ^ a b c Gan 1995, p. 89.
- ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 144, 217.
- ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 150, 155.
- ^ Leong 2005, pp. 75, 94.
- ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 150–151.
- ^ a b Hodges 2004, p. 152.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 151.
- ^ Leong 2005, p. 76.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 261.
- ^ Berry 2000, p. 111.
- ^ a b c d e Parish 1976, p. 536.
- ^ a b Liu 2000, p. 29.
- ^ Liu 2000, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 97.
- ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 159–160.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 99.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 134.
- ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 165–167.
- ^ Chan 2003, pp. 122–123.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 168.
- ^ a b Chan 2003, p. 280.
- ^ Lim 2019, pp. 47, 63, 67.
- ^ Leong 2005, p. 94.
- ^ Lim 2019, p. 66.
- ^ "Librarian of Congress Adds Home Movie, Silent Films and Hollywood Classics to Film Preservation List" (Press release). Library of Congress. December 27, 2006.
- ^ Leung, Louise (June 1938). "East Meets West". Hollywood Magazine. pp. 40, 55.
Quoted in Leong 2005, p. 94
- ^ Crisler 1937.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 180.
- ^ Wollstein 1999, p. 256.
- ^ Crowther 1938.
- ^ Lim 2019, p. 47.
- ^ Nugent 1939.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 191.
- ^ "The Campbell Playhouse". Internet Archive. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
- ^ a b c Corliss January 29, 2005, p. 1.
- ^ Leong 2005, p. 95.
- ^ Hodges 2004, p. 203.
- ^ "Oriental stardust: Anna May Wong in White Australia".
- ^ "Anna May Wong's Lucky Shoes:1939 Australia through the eyes of an Art Deco Diva".
- ^ "MARY WONG HANGS SELF; Sister of Anna May Wong Ends Life in California (Published 1940)". The New York Times. July 26, 1940. Retrieved August 23, 2023.
- ^ Hodges 2012, p. 182.
- ^ Anthony, Sharon, ed. (1989). "Camp Haan Papers Collection". Riverside Public Library.
- ^ a b Leong 2005, p. 101.
- ^ "Motion Picture and Television Magazine". Ideal Publishers. November 1952. p. 33.
- ^ Finch and Rosenkrantz 1979, p. 156.
- ^ Parish 1976, p. 538.
- ^ Wollstein 1999, pp. 257–258.
- ^ a b Chan 2003, p. 78.
- ^ Camhi 2004.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 80.
- ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 216–217.
- ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 217–218.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 124.
- ^ Chan 2003, pp. 81, 268.
- ^ Chung 2006, p. 26.
- ^ ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
- ^ Negra 2001, p. 1.
- ^ Chan 2003, pp. 80–81.
- ^ Lim 2019, pp. 49–51.
- ^ a b Hodges 2004, p. 232.
- ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 231–232.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 276.
- ^ Liu 2000, p. 35.
- ^ Liu 2000, pp. 31–33.
- ^ Liu 2000, pp. 34–35.
- ^ "ACTF: The David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award". Archived from the original on May 12, 2008. Retrieved May 12, 2008. Kennedy Center. Retrieved: March 8, 2010.
- ^ "UCSB Special Collections: California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives". Library.ucsb.edu. Archived from the original on June 18, 2010. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
- ^ Performing Race on Screen.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. xvii.
- ^ Chan 2003, p. 275.
- ^ Yoo, Paula (July 2008). Shining Star 'The Anna May Wong Story'. Vol. 255. illustrated by Lin Wang. Publishers Weekly. p. 125. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
- ISBN 978-1328745484.
- ^ "Celebrating Anna May Wong". January 22, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
- ^ Holcombe, Madeline (January 22, 2020). "Google Doodle celebrates Anna May Wong nearly 100 years after her first leading role. Here's why she's in focus". CNN.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
- ^ Lopez, Kristen (May 12, 2020). "'Asian Americans': PBS Documentary Compels Viewers to Honor and Remember". Indiewire.com. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
- ^ "American Women Quarters™ Program". United States Mint. August 2, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
- ^ "SF To Celebrate First Asian American on U.S. Money. Get This Landmark Coin Next Week". The San Francisco Standard. November 4, 2022.
- ^ "United States Mint to Begin Shipping Fifth American Women Quarters™ Program Coins October 24". United States Mint.
- ^ "First Look: Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie Promise to Light Up 'Babylon'". Vanity Fair. September 7, 2022. Retrieved September 7, 2022.
- ^ Tang, Terry (May 1, 2023). "Barbie unveils Anna May Wong doll for AAPI Heritage Month". AP News. Archived from the original on May 1, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
- ^ Sun, Rebecca (March 24, 2022). "Gemma Chan, Nina Yang Bongiovi Developing Anna May Wong Biopic With Working Title Films (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
- ^ "The Anna May Wong Legacy Unveiled: a pop-up poster exhibition". San Diego Chinese Historical Museum. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
General and cited sources
- Bergfelder, Tim (2004). Fischer, Lucy; Landy, Marcia (eds.). Negotiating Exoticism: Hollywood, Film Europe and the cultural reception of Anna May Wong. Psychology Press. pp. 59–75. )
- Berry, Sarah (2000). Screen Style: Fashion and Femininity in 1930s Hollywood. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-3312-6.
- Camhi, Leslie (January 11, 2004). "Film: A Dragon Lady and a Quiet Cultural Warrior". The New York Times.
- Chan, Anthony B. (2003). Perpetually Cool: The Many Lives of Anna May Wong (1905–1961). Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4789-2..
- Chung, Hye-seung (2006). Hollywood Asian: Philip Ahn and the Politics of Cross-ethnic Performance. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 1-59213-516-1..
- Corliss, Richard (January 29, 2005). "Anna May Wong Did It Right". Time. Archived from the original on February 18, 2005. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
- Corliss, Richard (February 3, 2005). "That Old Feeling: Anna May Win". Time.
- Crisler, B.R. (December 24, 1937). "Daughter of Shanghai". The New York Times.
- Crowther, Bosley (March 11, 1938). "Dangerous to Know". The New York Times.
- "Film reveals real-life struggles of an onscreen 'Dragon Lady'". Today Online. UCLA. January 3, 2008. Archived from the original on September 16, 2008. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
- Finch, Christopher; Rosenkrantz, Linda (1979). Gone Hollywood: The Movie Colony in the Golden Age. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-12808-7.
- "Forty Winks". The New York Times. March 3, 1925.
- Gan, Geraldine (1995). Anna May Wong. New York: Chelsea House. pp. 83–91. ).
- OCLC 797815107.
- Hsu, Shirley (January 23, 2004). "Nobody's Lotus Flower: Rediscovering Anna May Wong – Film Retrospective". Asia Pacific Arts Online Magazine. UCLA Asia Institute. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
- Leibfried, Philip; Lane, Chei Mi (2004). Anna May Wong: A Complete Guide to her Film, Stage, Radio and Television Work. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-1633-5.
- Leong, Karen J. (2005). The China Mystique: Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, Mayling Soong, and the Transformation of American Orientalism. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-24422-2..
- Lim, Shirley Jennifer (2005). "I Protest: Anna May Wong and the Performance of Modernity". A Feeling of Belonging: Asian American Women's Public Culture, 1930–1960. New York: New York University Press. pp. 104–175. ISBN 0-8147-5193-8..
- Liu, Cynthia W. (2000). Hamamoto, Darrel; Liu, Sandra (eds.). When Dragon Ladies Die, Do They Come Back as Butterflies? Re-imagining Anna May Wong. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. pp. 23–39. )
- Motion, Andrew (1986). The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-18283-3..
- Negra, Diane (2001). Off-White Hollywood: American Culture and Ethnic Female Stardom. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-21678-8..
- Nugent, Frank (March 16, 1939). "King of Chinatown". The New York Times.
- Parish, James; Leonard, William (1976). Anna May Wong. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers. pp. 532–538. )
- "Performing Race on Screen". cinema.cornell.edu. Archived from the original on January 3, 2009. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
- "Piccadilly". Variety. July 24, 1929.
- Rollins, Peter C., ed. (2003). The Columbia Companion to American History on Film: How the Movies Have Portrayed the American Past. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11223-8..
- "Song". The New York Times. August 22, 1928.
- Sweet, Matthew (February 6, 2008). "Snakes, Slaves and Seduction: Anna May Wong". The Guardian.
- "The Toll of the Sea". The New York Times. November 27, 1922.
- "The Toll of the Sea". Variety. December 1, 1922.
- Wang, Yiman; Russell, Catherine, eds. (2005). The Art of Screen Passing: Anna May Wong's Yellow Yellowface Performance in the Art Deco Era. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. pp. 159–191. )
- Wollstein, Hans J. (1999). Anna May Wong. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. )
- ISBN 1-58342-315-X.
- Wood, Ean (2000). The Josephine Baker Story. London: Sanctuary. ISBN 1-86074-286-6.
- Zia, Helen; Gall, Susan B. (1995). Notable Asian Americans. New York: Gale Research. ISBN 978-0-8103-9623-4..
Further reading
- Doerr, Conrad (December 1968). "Reminiscences of Anna May Wong". Films in Review. New York: National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. ISSN 0015-1688.
- Griffith, Richard; Mayer, Richard (1970). The Movies. New York: Fireside. ISBN 0-600-36044-X.
- Huang, Yunte (2023). Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation. ISBN 978-1631495809.
- Lim, Shirley Jennifer (2019). Anna May Wong: Performing the Modern. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 9781439918340.
- Schneider, Steven Jay, ed. (2005). 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Educational Series (2nd ed.). Hauppauge, NY: Barron's. ISBN 978-0764159077.
- Sparks, Beverley N., "Where East Meets West," Photoplay, June 1924, p. 55.
- Wagner, Rob Leicester (2016). Hollywood Bohemia: The Roots of Progressive Politics in Rob Wagner's Script. Santa Maria, CA: Janaway Publishing. ISBN 978-1596413696.
- Winship, Mary, "The China Doll," Photoplay, June 1923, p. 34.
- Turner, Myra Faye (November 8, 2018). Hidden in History: The Untold Story of Female Artists, Musicians, and Writers. Atlantic Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-62023-563-8.
External links
- Anna May Wong at IMDb
- Anna May Wong at the Internet Broadway Database
- Anna May Wong Abroad | A digital collection of materials from the Harvard Theatre Collection.
- Hong, Yunah (2011). "Anna May Wong: In Her Own Words". Women Make Movies. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
- "Anna May Wong Tobacco Cards". Virtual History. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
- "Rediscovering Los Angeles – Sam Kee Laundry". L.A. Daily Mirror. December 3, 2013. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
Newspaper article and sketch on Anna's childhood home