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Anna May Wong

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Anna May Wong
Passport-style photograph
required for U.S. Department of Labor in 1935
Born
Wong Liu Tsong
Occupation(s)Actress, Television presenter, Singer, Fashion Icon, Performer, Author
Years active1919–1961
AwardsHonorary Doctorate, Peking University (1932)
Anna May Wong
Chinese黃柳霜
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinHuáng Liǔshuāng
other Yue
TaishaneseWong Liu Tsong

Anna May Wong (January 3 1905 – February 2 1961) was an American actress, and the first Chinese American to become a movie star.[1] She had a long and varied career spanning film, television, stage, and radio. During the silent film era, her more notable roles included acting parts in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color; and in Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924) as well as Piccadilly (1929). Wong was also featured in films from the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932).[2] Wong starred in her own television series in the early 1950s.

Wong was born near Los Angeles' Chinatown to second generation Chinese American parents. She became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, Wong left for Europe in the late 1920s. While overseas, she starred in several notable films and plays and solidified her image as an international fashion icon. By 1924, she had achieved international stardom. She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the U.S. and Europe for film and stage appearances.

In 1935, Wong was dealt the bitterest disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer passed her over for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth in favor of a European woman in "yellowface". Wong spent the next year touring China, where she visited her family's ancestral village and studied Chinese culture. In the late 1930s, Wong starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, notable for their positive portrayal of Chinese Americans. Her film career slowed down during the war years as Wong devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. She returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong. Wong was planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961 at the age of 56.

For decades after her death, Wong was remembered principally for the stereotypical "Dragon Lady" and demure "Butterfly" roles that she was often given. However, her life and career were re-evaluated in the years around the centennial of her birth, with three major literary works and major film retrospectives ensuring her unique place in film history.

Biography

Early life

With the birthname Wong Liu Tsong, meaning "Frosted Yellow Willows",[3] Anna May Wong was the second of seven children born to Wong Sam Sing who owned and ran the Sam Kee Laundry in Los Angeles, California,[4] and his second wife Lee Gon Toy. Wong was born on January 3 1905 on Flower Street, Los Angeles, one block north of Chinatown in an integrated community of Chinese, Irish, German and Japanese residents.[5]

Anna May Wong's parents were second generation Chinese Americans, as both sets of her grandparents had been resident in the U.S. since at least 1855.[6] Anna May's father spent his youth traveling between the U.S. and China, where he married his first wife and fathered a son in 1890.[7] He returned to the U.S. in the late 1890s; and in 1901, while continuing to support his family in China, married a second wife, Anna May's mother.[8] Anna May's older sister Lew Ying (Lulu) was born in late 1902,[9] Anna May was born next in 1905, followed by five more children.

In 1910, the family moved to a neighborhood on Figueroa Street where they were the only Chinese on their block, among mostly Mexican and Eastern European families. Having two hills separating their new home from Chinatown helped Wong to assimilate further into American culture.[10] At first, she attended public school with her older sister, but after experiencing racism from the other students, they were moved by their parents to the Presbyterian Chinese School where classes were taught in English. Wong also attended a Chinese language school on afternoons and Saturdays.[11]

Around this time, U.S. motion picture production began relocating from the east coast to the Los Angeles area and movies were being shot constantly in and around Wong's neighborhood. She began going to Nickelodeon movie theaters and quickly became obsessed with the "flickers", skipping school and using lunch money to attend the cinema. Her father was not happy with her interest in films, feeling that it interfered with her studies, but Wong decided to pursue a career in film regardless. At nine years of age, she begged filmmakers for parts, earning herself the nickname "C.C.C." or "Curious Chinese Child".[12] By the age of 11, Wong had created her stage name by joining both her English and family names.[13]

Early career

Anna May Wong in the early Technicolor film The Toll of the Sea (1922)

Wong was working at the Ville de Paris department store in Hollywood when Metro Pictures needed 300 girl extras to appear in Alla Nazimova's film The Red Lantern (1919). Without her father's knowledge, a friend of his with movie connections helped Anna May land an uncredited role as an extra carrying a lantern.[14]

She worked steadily for the next two years as an extra in various movies, including Priscilla Dean and Colleen Moore pictures. Her father reluctantly let her pursue her new career, demanding that she always have an adult guardian at the studio, and that she be locked in her dressing room between scenes if there were no other Asians in the cast. Finding it difficult to keep up with both her schoolwork and her passion, she dropped out of Los Angeles High School in 1921 to pursue acting full-time.[15][16] Reflecting on her decision, Wong told Motion Picture 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."[17]

In 1921, Wong received her first screen credit for Bits of Life, the first anthology film, in which she played the wife of Lon Chaney, Sr.'s character, Toy Ling, in a segment entitled "Hop".[18] She later recalled it fondly as the only time she played the role of a mother,[19] while her appearance earned her a cover photo in the British magazine Picture Show.

When she was 17 she got her first leading role, in the early Metro two-strip Technicolor movie The Toll of the Sea. Written by Frances Marion, the story was based loosely on Madama Butterfly. Variety magazine singled her out for praise, noting "the extraordinarily fine playing of Anna May Wong".[20] The New York Times even commented, "Miss Wong stirs in the spectator all the sympathy her part calls for, and she never repels one by an excess of theatrical 'feeling'. She has a difficult role, a role that is botched nine times out of ten, but hers is the tenth performance. Completely unconscious of the camera, with a fine sense of proportion and remarkable pantomimic accuracy ... She should be seen again and often on the screen."[21]

Despite such reviews, Hollywood proved reluctant to create starring roles for Wong; her ethnicity prevented U.S. filmmakers from seeing her as a leading lady. David Schwartz, the chief curator of the Museum of the Moving Image, notes, "She built up a level of stardom in Hollywood, but Hollywood didn’t know what to do with her."[22] She spent the next few years in supporting roles providing "exotic atmosphere",[23] such as in Tod Browning's Drifting (1923) while playing a concubine.[17] However, film producers did capitalize on Wong's growing fame by using her brief appearances in these supporting roles to promote their films.[24] Still optimistic about a film career, in 1923 Wong said, "Pictures are fine, and I'm getting along all right, but it's not so bad to have the laundry back of you, so you can wait and take good parts and be independent when you're climbing."[13]

Stardom

At 19 years of age, Anna May Wong was cast as a Mongol slave in the Douglas Fairbanks picture, The Thief of Bagdad. Although she had only a supporting stereotypical "Dragon Lady" role, her brief appearances on-screen caught the attention of audiences and critics alike.[25] The film grossed more than $2 million and helped introduce Wong to the public.

File:Anna May Wong in Thief of Bagdad.jpg
Anna May Wong in The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

After this second prominent role, Wong moved out of the family's 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.[26] In March 1924, planning to make films about Chinese myths, she signed a deal creating Anna May Wong Productions; but when her business partner proved to be engaging in dishonest practices, Wong brought a lawsuit against him, and the company was dissolved.[27]

It soon became evident that Wong's career would continue to be limited by American anti-miscegenation laws which prevented her from sharing an on-screen kiss with any European American actor in "yellowface".[28] Since there were no other leading Asian men in the silent era beyond Sessue Hayakawa, mostly white actors would play in yellowface even in a movie that would need a cast of all Asians. Consequently, unless Asian leading men could be found, Wong could not be a leading lady.[29]

Wong continued to be offered supporting roles in lesser-regarded films but she was often singled out for approving comments from the critics.[30] Despite such reviews, she became increasingly disappointed with her casting and began seeking other roads to success. In spring 1925 she joined a group of serial stars on a tour of the vaudeville circuits, but when this tour proved a failure, Wong and the rest of the group returned to Hollywood.[31]

In 1926, Wong put the first rivet into the structure of Grauman's Chinese Theatre when she joined Norma Talmadge for its groundbreaking ceremony. Unlike Talmadge, however, Wong was not later invited to leave her hand- and footprints in cement at the theater.[32][33]

Four years after The Thief of Bagdad, Wong was still being cast in supporting roles; alternately the naive and self-sacrificing "Butterfly" stereotype, and the deceitful, sly "Dragon Lady" stereotype. For In Old San Francisco (1927), she was cast in another Dragon Lady role as a gangster's daughter.[34]

Her only notable roles during this time were in Mr. Wu (1927), in which the yellowface practice cost her the lead, and The Silk Bouquet (1926). The latter, re-titled The Dragon Horse in 1927, was a starring role for Wong and one of the first U.S. films to be produced with Chinese backing, provided by San Francisco's Chinese Six Companies. The story was set in China during the Ming Dynasty, and featured Asian actors playing the Asian roles.[35]

Move to Europe

In 1928, tired of the typecasting and losing roles that should have been hers, Wong left Hollywood for Europe.[36] In an interview with Doris Mackie for Film Weekly in 1933, Wong made reference to the nature of her Hollywood roles, "I was so tired of the parts I had to play."[37][38] She referred to yellowface, commenting, "There seems little for me in Hollywood, because, rather than real Chinese, producers prefer Hungarians, Mexicans, American Indians for Chinese roles."[39]

Wong became a sensation in Europe, starring in several notable films such as Schmutziges Geld (aka Song and Show Life, 1928), and Großstadtschmetterling (City 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 Wong's American background was ignored in Germany: "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."[40] In Vienna she played the title role in the operetta "Tschun Tschi" in fluent German.[38] An Austrian critic wrote, "Fraulein 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."[41]

While in Germany, Wong became an inseparable friend of Leni Riefenstahl. Her close friendships with several women throughout her life; besides Riefenstahl, Marlene Dietrich and Cecil Cunningham; led to rumors of lesbianism.[42] Wong's rumored relationship with Dietrich in particular caused her family embarrassment over her acting career.[43]

In London, producer Basil Dean bought the play A Circle of Chalk for Wong to appear in with the young Laurence Olivier.[38] This, her first stage performance in the UK, was criticized because of Wong's Californian accent, which one critic labeled a "Yankee squeak". As a result, Wong sought vocal tutoring at Cambridge University where she acquired a British accent.[44] Composer Constant Lambert, infatuated with Wong after having seen her in films, attended the play on its opening night and later composed Eight Poems of Li Po in dedication to Wong.[45]

In the UK in 1929, Wong made her last silent film and what is today considered her finest movie, Piccadilly. The first of five English films in which she had starring roles, Piccadilly caused a sensation in the UK.[46] Gilda Gray was the top-billed actress in the film, 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."[47] Though the film presented Wong in her most sensual role in a British film, once again she was not permitted to kiss her Caucasian love interest, and a controversial planned kiss scene was cut before the film was released.[48] While in London, Wong was romantically linked with writer and broadcasting executive Eric Maschwitz, who wrote the lyrics to These Foolish Things (Remind Me Of You) as an evocation of his longing for her after they parted.[32][49] Wong's first talkie was The Flame of Love (1930) which she recorded in French, English, and German. Though Wong's performance, particularly her handling of the three languages, was lauded; all three versions of the film received negative reviews.[50]

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 garnered her a starring role on Broadway in On the Spot,[51] a drama which ran for 167 performances and one she would later film as Dangerous to Know.[52] When the director of the play wanted Wong to use Madame Butterfly-derived stereotypical Japanese mannerisms in her performance of a Chinese character, Wong refused. She instead used her knowledge of Chinese style and mannerisms to imbue the character with a greater degree of authenticity.[53] During her return to Hollywood in 1930, Wong constantly turned to the stage and cabaret for a creative outlet.

Tragedy struck the Wong family in November 1930 when Anna May's mother was hit and killed by an automobile while crossing the street in front of the house.[54] The family remained at their Figueroa Street residence until 1934 when Wong's father returned to his hometown in China with Anna May's younger brothers and sister.[55] Anna May had been paying for the education of her younger siblings, who would put this education to work when they relocated to China.[56] Before the family left for China, Wong's father wrote a brief article for Xinning, a magazine for overseas Taishanese, in which he expressed his pride in his famous daughter.[57]

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).[58] This would be the last stereotypically "evil Chinese" role Wong would play.[59] In this film she starred for the only time alongside the sole other well-known Asian actor of the era, Sessue Hayakawa. Though she was given the starring role, her 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.[60]

With her new status, Wong began using her celebrity to make political statements; late in 1931 Wong wrote a harsh criticism of the Mukden Incident and Japan's subsequent invasion of Manchuria.[61][62] She also became more outspoken in her advocacy for Chinese American causes and for better film roles. In a 1933 interview for Film Weekly entitled "I Protest", Wong criticized the negative stereotyping in Daughter of the Dragon, saying, "Why is it that the screen Chinese is always the villain? And so crude a villain – murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass! We are not like that. How could we be, with a civilization that is so many times older than the West?"[37][63]

File:Anna May Wong Shanghai Express.jpg
Wong and Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932)

Wong appeared as a self-sacrificing courtesan for Sternberg in Shanghai Express alongside Marlene Dietrich.[58] Wong's sexually-charged scenes with Dietrich in the film have been noted by many commentators, and added to the rumored relationship between the two stars.[64] Though contemporary reviews focused on Dietrich and Sternberg, film historians today judge that Wong's performance upstages that of the film's star.[58][65]

The Chinese press had long given Wong's career strongly-mixed reviews, and proved 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 said, "Although she is deficient in artistic portrayal, she has done more than enough to disgrace the Chinese race."[66] Critics in China considered Wong's on-screen sexuality a reflection on China which spread negative stereotypes of Chinese women.[67] The most virulent Chinese criticism of Wong came from the Nationalist government, but China's intellectuals and liberals were not always as 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.[68]

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."[69]

Atlantic crossings

After her success in Europe and high-quality role in Shanghai Express, Wong's Hollywood career returned to its old pattern. Because of the Hays Office's anti-miscegenation rules, she was passed over for the leading female role in The Son-Daughter in favor of Helen Hayes in yellowface. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer deemed her "too Chinese to play a Chinese" in the film,[70] and the Hays Office would not have allowed her to perform romantic scenes with the film's male lead, Ramon Navarro in yellowface.[58] 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 to Toshia Mori.[71]

Carl van Vechten photo portrait of Wong, September 22 1935

Again disappointed with Hollywood, Wong returned to Britain, where she stayed for nearly three years. In addition to appearing in four films during this time, she toured Scotland, Ireland and outlying British provinces as part of a vaudeville show. She also appeared in the King George Silver Jubilee Program in 1935.[72] Her film Java Head (1934), though generally considered a minor effort, is noteworthy because it is the only film in which Wong kissed the lead male character, her white husband. Perhaps because of this, the film remained one of Wong's personal favorites.[73] While in London, Wong met Méi Lánfāng, the biggest star of Peking Opera. Long-interested in Chinese opera, Wong was offered the opportunity to be taught by Méi if she ever came to China.[74]

In the 1930s, the popularity of Pearl Buck's novels, especially The Good Earth, as well as growing American sympathy for China in its struggles with Japanese Imperialism, opened up opportunities for more positive Chinese roles in U.S. films.[75] Wong returned to the U.S. in June 1935, with the goal of obtaining the lead role in MGM's version of Buck's The Good Earth. Since its publication in 1931, Wong had made known her desire to play the role of O-lan, the lead female character, in a film version of this book.[76] As early as 1933, Los Angeles newspapers were touting Wong as the best choice for O-lan.[77] Nevertheless, the studio apparently never seriously considered Wong for the role. Because Paul Muni, an actor of European descent was to employ yellowface to play O-lan's husband, Wang Lung; Hays Code anti-miscegenation rules meant that O-lan would be played by a European American actress. 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.' "[78]

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.[79] Wong refused the role, telling 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."[77] 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.[80] 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."[81]

China

After the major disappointment of losing the role in The Good Earth, Wong announced plans of a year-long tour of China, the goal of which was visiting her father and his family in Taishan.[55][82] Wong's father had returned to his hometown in China with Anna May's younger brothers and sister in 1934. Aside from Méi Lánfang'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.[83][84] 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."[55]

Embarking in January 1936, she chronicled her experiences in Asia in a series of articles printed in U.S. newspapers such as the New York Herald Tribune,[72] the Los Angeles Examiner, the Los Angeles Times and Photoplay.[85] While in Tokyo on the way to Shanghai, local reporters, ever curious about her romantic life, asked if she had plans for matrimony. Wong replied, "No, I am wedded to my art." Japanese newspapers the following day reported that Wong was married to a wealthy Cantonese man named Art.[72][86]

During her travels in China, she 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 with bouts of depression and sudden anger, as well as an indulgence in smoking and drinking.[87] Before disembarking in Hong Kong, Wong, feeling irritable, was uncharacteristically rude to the crowd which had gathered to greet her. The crowd quickly turned hostile and 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.[88] 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.[82][89] Conflicting reports claim that she was warmly welcomed or alternatively, 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.[90] 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."[82] Wong's father would later return to Los Angeles in 1938.[91]

Late 1930s

To finish out her contract with Paramount Pictures, Wong made a string of B movies in the late 1930s. Often dismissed by critics, these films gave Wong non-stereotypical roles which were publicized for their positive images in the Chinese American press. 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 roles worked against the prevailing U.S. film portrayals of Chinese Americans.[92] 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).[93]

Carl Van Vechten photo portrait of Wong, in costume for the opera Turandot at Westport, August 11 1937

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.[94] The script was so carefully tailored for Wong that at one point it was titled, Anna May Wong Story.[83] 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."[95] 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."[96] In October 1937, the press carried rumors that Wong had plans to marry her male co-star in this film, childhood friend Korean American actor, Philip Ahn.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Bosley Crowther was not so kind to Dangerous to Know (1938), which he called a "second-rate melodrama, hardly worthy of the talents of its generally capable cast."[97] In King of Chinatown Wong plays a surgeon who sacrifices a high-paying promotion in order to devote her energies to helping the Chinese fight the Japanese invasion.[98] The New York Times' Frank Nugent gave the film a negative review. Though he commented positively on its advocacy of the Chinese in their fight against Japan, he wrote, "... Paramount should have spared us and its cast ... the necessity of being bothered with such folderol."[99]

File:Daughter of shanghai.jpg
Philip Ahn and Wong in Daughter of Shanghai (1937)

Paramount also employed Wong as a tutor to other actors, such as Dorothy Lamour in her role as a Eurasian in Disputed Passage.[82] Wong also performed on radio several times, including a 1939 role as "Peony" in Pearl Buck's The Patriot on Orson Welles' The Campbell Playhouse.[100] 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.[101]

Later years

In 1938, having 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.[102] The proceeds from the preface that she wrote in 1942 to a cookbook titled New Chinese Recipes, one of the first Chinese cook books, were also dedicated to United China Relief.[103] Between 1939 and 1942, she made few films, instead engaging in pro-China events and appearances.

Wong starred in Bombs over Burma (1942) and The Lady from Chungking (1943), both anti-Japanese propaganda made by the poverty row studio, Producers Releasing Corp. She donated her salary for both of these films to United China Relief.[104] The Lady from Chungking differed from the usual Hollywood war film in that the Chinese were portrayed as heroes rather than as victims rescued by Americans. Even after American characters are captured by the Japanese, the primary goal of the heroes is not to free the Americans, but to prevent the Japanese from entering the city of Chongqing (Chungking). Also, in an interesting twist on yellowface, the Chinese characters are portrayed by Chinese American actors, while the Japanese villains – normally played by Chinese American actors – are acted by European Americans. The film ends with Wong making a speech for the birth of a "new China".[104] The Hollywood Reporter and Variety both gave Wong's performance in The Lady from Chungking positive reviews, but commented negatively on the film's plot.

Later in life, Wong invested in real estate and owned a number of properties in Hollywood.[105] She converted her home on San Vincente Boulevard in Santa Monica into four apartments which she called "Moongate Apartments".[106] 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.[107]

In 1949, Wong's father died in Los Angeles at the age of 91.[91] After a six-year absence, Wong returned to film the same year in a small role in a B movie called Impact.[108] From August 27 1951 to November 21 1951, Wong starred in a detective series, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong for the DuMont Television Network.[108] 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 footages from her 1936 trip to China.[109] 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.[110]

For her contribution to the film industry, Anna May Wong received a star at 1708 Vine Street at the inauguration of the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.[111] She is also depicted larger than life as one of the four supporting pillars of the "Gateway to Hollywood" sculpture located on the southeast corner of Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea Avenue.[112]

Death

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,"[32] a quote that would be inserted into many of her obituaries.[101]

She was scheduled to perform the important role of Auntie Liang in the film production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song,[113] but on February 3 1961 at the age of 56, Wong died of a heart attack at home in Santa Monica, two days after giving her final screen performance on the television show Danger Man.[106] Her cremated remains were interred in her mother's gravesite at Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, marked only by her mother's name on the tombstone.[114]

Legacy

Carl van Vechten's photo portrait, April 25 1939.

Both Wong's image and career have left a lasting legacy. Through her films, public appearances and prominent magazine features, she helped to "humanize" Asian Americans to white audiences during a period of overt racism and discrimination. Asian Americans, especially the Chinese, had been viewed as perpetually "foreign" in U.S. society, but Wong's films and public image established her firmly as an Asian American citizen at a time when laws specifically discriminated against Asian immigration and citizenship. Wong's hybrid image dispelled contemporary notions that the East and West were inherently different.[115]

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 often claimed her as one of their own, and for whom her marginalization by the mainstream became a symbol.[116] While the Chinese Nationalist criticism of her portrayals of the "Dragon Lady" and "Butterfly" stereotypes lingered, Wong herself was forgotten in China.[117] 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 out yearly at the Asian American Arts Awards,[118] while the annual award given out by the Asian Fashion Designers was also named after Wong in 1973.[116]

Wong remained a symbol in literature, as well as in 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."[119] 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.[120] 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".[121] Her life was the subject of China Doll, The Imagined Life of an American Actress, an award-winning fictional play written by Elizabeth Wong in 2005.[122]

When 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 Museum of Modern Art and the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York City.[123][124] Anthony Chan's 2003 biography, Perpetually Cool: The Many Lives of Anna May Wong (1905–1961), was the first major work on Wong, and was written, Chan says, "from a uniquely Asian American perspective and sensibility."[125] In 2004, Philip Leibfried and Chei Mi Lane's exhaustive examination of Wong's career, Anna May Wong: A Complete Guide to Her Film, Stage, Radio and Television Work was published, as well as a second full-length biography, Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend by Graham Russell Hodges. Though Anna May Wong's life, career and legacy reflect many complex issues which remain decades after her death, Anthony Chan points out that her place in Asian American cinematic history as its first female star, is permanent.[126]

Selected filmography

  • Main article: Anna May Wong filmography
    (includes her television work)

References

Notes

  1. ^ Chan 2003, pp. xi.
  2. ^ Zia 1995, p. 415.
  3. ^ Corliss January 29 2005, p. 2.
  4. ^ Finch and Rosenkrantz 1979, p. 231.
  5. ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 2, 5.
  6. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 1.
  7. ^ Chan 2003, p. 13.
  8. ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 1, 7–8, 10.
  9. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 2.
  10. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 5.
  11. ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 13–15.
  12. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 21.
  13. ^ a b Wollstein 1999, p. 248.
  14. ^ Chan 2003, pp. 31.
  15. ^ Lim 2005, p. 51.
  16. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 41.
  17. ^ a b Wollstein 1999, p. 249.
  18. ^ Gan 1995, p. 84.
  19. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 35.
  20. ^ The Toll of the Sea (film review) December 1 1922.
  21. ^ The Toll of the Sea (film review) November 27 1922.
  22. ^ Anderson, Melissa. "The Wong Show." Time Out: New York, Issue 544: March 2–8, 2006, TimeOut. Retrieved: March 24 2008.
  23. ^ Parish 1976, pp. 532–533.
  24. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 58.
  25. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 49.
  26. ^ Chan 2003, pp. 37, 139.
  27. ^ Chan 2003, pp. 37–38.
  28. ^ Leong 2005, pp. 181–182.
  29. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 64.
  30. ^ Forty Winks (film review). February 3 1925.
  31. ^ Wollstein 1999, p. 250.
  32. ^ a b c Sweet 2008
  33. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 66.
  34. ^ Liu 2000, p. 24.
  35. ^ Chan 2003, p. 185.
  36. ^ Chan 2003, p. 42.
  37. ^ a b Leong 2005, pp. 83, 187.
  38. ^ a b c Wollstein 1999, p. 252.
  39. ^ Parish 1976, p. 533.
  40. ^ Song (film review). August 22 1928.
  41. ^ Parish 1976, p. 534.
  42. ^ Wollstein 1999, pp. 252, 253, 256.
  43. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 87.
  44. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 97.
  45. ^ Motion 1986, p. 161.
  46. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 92.
  47. ^ Piccadilly (film review) July 24 1929.
  48. ^ Chan 2003, pp. xiii, 213, 215, 219.
  49. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 178.
  50. ^ Chan 2003, pp. 51–53.
  51. ^ Lim 2005, p. 56.
  52. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 187.
  53. ^ Lim 2005, p. 57.
  54. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 112.
  55. ^ a b c Chan 2003, p. 90.
  56. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 155.
  57. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 148.
  58. ^ a b c d Wollstein 1999, p. 253.
  59. ^ Lim 2005, p. 59.
  60. ^ Corliss February 3 2005, p. 4.
  61. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 118.
  62. ^ Chan 2003, pp. 95–96.
  63. ^ Lim 2005, p. 58.
  64. ^ Chan 2003, p. 232.
  65. ^ Lim 2005, p. 60.
  66. ^ Leong 2005, p. 74.
  67. ^ Leong 2005, p. 75.
  68. ^ Mein Film 1932, p. 333. Cited in Hodges 2004, p. 125.
  69. ^ Chan 2003, p. 33.
  70. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 128.
  71. ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 127–128.
  72. ^ a b c Gan 1995, p. 89.
  73. ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 144, 217.
  74. ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 150, 155.
  75. ^ Leong 2005 pp. 75, 94.
  76. ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 150–151.
  77. ^ a b Hodges 2004, p. 152.
  78. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 151.
  79. ^ Leong 2005, p. 76.
  80. ^ Chan 2003, p. 261.
  81. ^ Berry 2000, p. 111.
  82. ^ a b c d Parish 1976, p. 536.
  83. ^ a b Liu 2000, p. 29.
  84. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 155.
  85. ^ Liu 2000, pp. 28–29.
  86. ^ Chan 2003, p. 97.
  87. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 134.
  88. ^ Hodges, pp. 165–167.
  89. ^ Chan 2003, pp. 122–123.
  90. ^ Hodges, p. 168.
  91. ^ a b Chan 2003, p. 280.
  92. ^ Lim 2005, pp. 47, 63, 67.
  93. ^ Leong 2005, p. 94.
  94. ^ Lim 2005, p. 66.
  95. ^ Leung, Louise. "East Meets West", Hollywood Magazine, June 1938, pp. 40, 55. Quoted in Leong 2005, p. 94.
  96. ^ Crisler 1937.
  97. ^ Crowther 1938.
  98. ^ Lim 2005, p. 47.
  99. ^ Nugent 1939.
  100. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 191.
  101. ^ a b Corliss January 29 2005, p. 1.
  102. ^ Leong 2005, p. 95.
  103. ^ Cite error: The named reference pictureshowman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  104. ^ a b Leong 2005, p. 101.
  105. ^ Finch and Rosenkrantz 1979, p. 156.
  106. ^ a b Parish 1976, p. 538.
  107. ^ Wollstein 1999, pp. 257–258.
  108. ^ a b Chan 2003, p. 78.
  109. ^ Chan 2003, p. 124.
  110. ^ Chan 2003, pp. 81, 268.
  111. ^ Chung 2006, p. 26.
  112. ^ Negra 2001, p. 1.
  113. ^ Chan 2003, pp. 80–81.
  114. ^ Hodges 2004, p. 228.
  115. ^ Lim 2005, pp. 49–51.
  116. ^ a b Hodges 2004, p. 232.
  117. ^ Hodges 2004, pp. 231–232.
  118. ^ Chan 2003, p. 276.
  119. ^ Liu 2000, p. 35.
  120. ^ Liu 2000, pp. 31–33.
  121. ^ Liu 2000, pp. 34–35.
  122. ^ Wong 2005.
  123. ^ Performing Race on Screen. cinema.cornell.edu. Retrieved: May 12, 2008.
  124. ^ Hsu, Shirley. "Nobody's Lotus Flower: "Rediscovering Anna May Wong" Film Retrospective." Asia Pacific Arts Online Magazine. UCLA Asia Institute. January 23, 2004. Retrieved: May 12, 2008.
  125. ^ Chan 2003, p. xvii.
  126. ^ Chan 2003, p. 275.

Bibliography

  • Berry, Sarah. Screen Style: Fashion and Femininity in 1930s Hollywood. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 2000. ISBN 0-81663-312-6.
  • Chan, Anthony B. Perpetually Cool: The Many Lives of Anna May Wong (1905–1961). Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8108-4789-2.
  • Chung, Hye-seung. Hollywood Asian: Philip Ahn and the Politics of Cross-ethnic Performance. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006. ISBN 1-5921-3516-1.
  • Corliss, Richard. "Anna May Wong Did It Right." Time Magazine, January 29 2005. Retrieved: March 20 2008.
  • Corliss, Richard. "That Old Feeling: Anna May Win." Time Magazine, February 3 2005. Retrieved: March 24 2008.
  • Crisler, B.R. Daughter of Shanghai (film review). The New York Times, December 24 1937.
  • Crowther, Bosley. Dangerous to Know (film review). The New York Times, March 11 1938.
  • Finch, Christopher and Rosenkrantz, Linda. Gone Hollywood: The Movie Colony in the Golden Age. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979. ISBN 0-385-12808-8.
  • Forty Winks (film review). The New York Times, February 3 1925.
  • Gan, Geraldine. "Anna May Wong." Lives of Notable Asian Americans: Arts, Entertainment, Sports (The Asian American Experience). New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1995. ISBN 0-7910-2188-2.
  • Hodges, Graham Russell. Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend. Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. ISBN 0-312-29319-4.
  • Hsu, Shirley. "Nobody's Lotus Flower: "Rediscovering Anna May Wong" Film Retrospective." Asia Pacific Arts Online Magazine. UCLA Asia Institute. January 23, 2004. Retrieved: May 12, 2008.
  • Leibfried, Philip and Lane, Chei Mi. Anna May Wong: A Complete Guide to her Film, Stage, Radio and Television Work. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2004. ISBN 0-7864-1633-5.
  • Leong, Karen J. The China Mystique: Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, Mayling Soong, and the Transformation of American Orientalism. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2005. ISBN 0-5202-4422-2.
  • Lim, Shirley Jennifer. "I Protest: Anna May Wong and the Performance of Modernity, (Chapter title)"A Feeling of Belonging: Asian American Women's Public Culture, 1930–1960. New York: New York University Press, 2005, pp. 104–175. ISBN 0-8147-5193-8.
  • Liu, Cynthia W. "When Dragon Ladies Die, Do They Come Back as Butterflies? Re-imagining Anna May Wong." Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000, pp. 23–39. ISBN 1-56639-776-6.
  • Motion, Andrew. The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publishers, 1986. ISBN 0-37418-283-3.
  • Negra, Diane. Off-White Hollywood : American Culture and Ethnic Female Stardom. London: Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0-415-21678-8.
  • Nugent, Frank. King of Chinatown (film review). The New York Times, March 16 1939.
  • Parish, James and Leonard, William. "Anna May Wong." Hollywood Players: The Thirties. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers, 1976, pp. 532–538. ISBN 0-87000-365-8.
  • Performing Race on Screen. cinema.cornell.edu. Retrieved: May 12, 2008.
  • Piccadilly (film review). Variety, July 24 1929.
  • Robichaux, Ken. "Anna May Wong - The First Chinese-American Film Star." Key Light Enterprises LLC, 2004, PictureShowMan.com. Retrieved: March 24 2008.
  • Rollins, Peter C., ed. The Columbia Companion to American History on Film: How the Movies Have Portrayed the American Past. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-23111-223-8.
  • Song (film review). The New York Times, August 22 1928.
  • Sweet, Matthew. "Snakes, Slaves and Seduction; Anna May Wong." The Guardian, February 6 2008. Retrieved: March 20 2008.
  • The Toll of the Sea (film review). The New York Times, November 27 1922.
  • The Toll of the Sea (film review). Variety, December 1 1922.
  • Wang, Yiman (2005). "The Art of Screen Passing: Anna May Wong's Yellow Yellowface Performance in the Art Deco Era", in Catherine Russell: Camera Obscura 60: New Women of the Silent Screen: China, Japan, Hollywood. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, pp. 159–191. ISBN 0-8223-6624-X.
  • Wollstein, Hans J. "Anna May Wong." Vixens, Floozies, and Molls: 28 Actresses of late 1920s and 1930s Hollywood. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1999. ISBN 0-7864-0565-1.
  • Wong, Elizabeth: China Doll, The Imagined Life of an American Actress. Woodstock, Ill: Dramatic Publishing, 2005. ISBN 158342315X.
  • Wood, Ean. The Josephine Baker Story. London: Sanctuary, 2000. ISBN 1-86074-286-6.
  • Zia, Helen and Susan B. Gall. Notable Asian Americans. Gale Research. 1995. ISBN0810396238

Further reading

  • Doerr, Conrad. Reminiscences of Anna May Wong. in: Films in Review. New York, December 1968. ISSN 015-1688.
  • Griffith, Richard and Mayer, Richard. The Movies. New York: Fireside, 1970. ISBN 0-60036-044-X.
  • Schneider, Steven Jay, ed. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Hauppauge, New York: Barron's Educational Series, 2005. ISBN 0-76415-907-0.
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