Research Guides: Anna May Wong: Biography

Anna May Wong

(January 3, 1905 - February 3, 1961)

Anna May Wong was the first Asian American actress to achieve Hollywood film star status and an early outspoken critic of Hollywood's racist attitudes. Born Wong Liu Tsong in Los Angeles, she was a third-generation Chinese American. Her first role was as an extra in The Red Lantern (1919), and her first lead was in the first Technicolor film, The Toll of the Sea (1922). Her most memorable part was in Shanghai Express (1932), which starred Marlene Dietrich. Continue . . .

Source: "Wong, Anna May (1905–1961)." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, edited by Thomas Riggs, 2nd ed., vol. 5, St. James Press, 2013, p. 415. From Gale Virtual Reference database.

Book Collection

Anna May Wong: from laundryman's daughter to Hollywood legend

Perpetually Cool: the many lives of Anna May Wong, 1905-1961

Resources

The Long March from Wong to Woo: Asians in Hollywood Looks at the acting career of Anna May Wong. Youngest recipient of the Women in Film Achievement Award; Comments by May Wong.
"Speaking German Like Nobody's Business": Anna May Wong, Walter Benjamin, and the Possibilities of Asian American Cosmopolitanism In the summer of 1928 in Berlin, the noted German Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) and Chinese American actress Anna May Wong (1905-1961) shared an unlikely encounter that set in relief European and American conceptions of modernity as well as white European intellectual and American racial minority cosmopolitanisms. On July 6, 1928, Benjamin published the results as "Gespräch mit Anne May Wong" ["Speaking with Anna May Wong: A Chinoiserie from the Old West"] on the front page of the leading German literary review, Die Literarische Welt. Read against a cache of Wong's writings, the encounter and the writings are significant for how they intervene in constructions of cosmopolitanism and racial and gendered difference. This encounter raises questions concerning the relationship between Asian America, modernity, race, gender, and cosmopolitanism, linking notions of cosmopolitanism to a discourse of race in the transnational American context. Benjamin's struggles in fully characterizing Wong also point to the antagonism between racialized American modern femininity and Eurocentric cosmopolitanism.
Anna May Wong’s Life and Legacy This article was written by Lily Rugo and originally posted on RugoWrites. This article has been syndicated with permission in order to continue sharing the crItical lessons and message this story conveys. If you are interested in syndicating articles for ECAASU Editorial, please contact the Managing Editor, Kate Pangilinan at kate.pangilinan@ecaasu.org.

From Films On Demand database:

Actress Anna May Wong Wong was a laundryman’s daughter who starred in film in the 1920s and 1930s. She played stock roles opposite stars like Lawrence Olivier and Douglas Fairbanks. Her lines were in “Chinglish.”
Anna May Wong: An Unsung Hero Wong took roles in Europe to avoid racial codes. She was considered an “alleged” citizen. Won was denied the role in “The Good Earth.” Her tour of China reveals both fans and critics of her roles.
Suspended Between Two Countries Almost 50 years into Exclusion many Chinese did not know where to call home. Anna May Wong became a movie star but was cast into stereotypes and limited by racism.
Woman of 1,000 Deaths When movie star Anna May Wong traveled to work and escape racial codes of the U.S., her citizenship status had to be supported by two white witnesses. She had to embrace being a foreigner to be successful in America.
World's Most Visible Chinese American When Anna May Wong could not get the starring role in "The Good Earth" she traveled to China. The roles she had been trapped in as a movie star in America followed her to China. Officials made speeches berating her and she left months later.