100 American Women Who Shaped American History by Deborah G. Felder

Author:Deborah G. Felder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks

50. Anna May Wong

1905–1961

Considered Hollywood’s first Chinese American film star, Anna May Wong broke into California’s sprouting film industry in the early 1900s and cut a path for herself and her career where none existed. She endured discrimination and typecasting over her entire career, but she continued to fight for Asian American representation in the white-dominated Hollywood film industry.

Anna May Wong was born in Los Angeles, California, on January 3, 1905, in the Chinatown neighborhood. Wong was born to a Chinese immigrant family with ethnic ties to Taishan, China, where her grandfather had emigrated from before Anna’s father was born. Her parents owned and operated a laundromat, where she and her sister worked while attending school.

American film production made a major shift in the early 1900s, moving from New York to Los Angeles, and Wong was immediately infatuated with the industry. She would often skip school and use her lunch money to go to the theater. She knew she was destined to be a star, and without her parents’ permission, she auditioned for and landed her first role as an extra in The Red Lantern in 1919. After earning several additional extra and supporting roles, and dropping out of high school to pursue acting, she received her first leading role in The Toll of the Sea in 1922, one of the first films ever produced in Technicolor.

Wong worked in Hollywood for many years, and she was most often typecast into stereotypical Asian roles and was discriminated against in the white-dominated industry. She protested when studios would cast white actresses to portray Asian characters, while they shoved Asian actresses into supporting or background roles. In the mid-1920s, she decided to head to Europe to work in theater and films, finding great success there. However, back in Hollywood, Paramount Studios contacted Wong, promising her attractive leading roles if she’d return to the States. She was awarded prominent roles after she returned, but she still felt they were stereotypical and often inaccurate cultural representations. In the 1950s, she became the first Asian American to perform as the lead character on a television show when she starred in The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, a mystery series following a Chinese art dealer.

Anna May Wong died on February 3, 1961, at the age of fifty-six after suffering a heart attack. Up until her death, she was still pursuing roles and fighting for accurate representation and fair opportunity for Asian American actresses. Today, Wong is seen as a trailblazer for actresses of diverse backgrounds, many of whom are still working to level the playing field in the entertainment industry.

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