Reading While Black

I’m a movie junkie and tend to race to wikipedia the moment I watch a film for any behind the scenes trivia. This usually leads me to spend hours on the site, clicking on the pages for all sorts of actors, producers, writers and movies that were referenced from that initial page. Today my browsing led me to a number of Asian American actors from, surprisingly, the golden age of Hollywood. I also remembered that May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, so I’ve decided to highlight a few Asian-American actors and actresses who succeeded in the movie industry, as far as they could, in the early decades of the 20th century.

The first Asian-American to become a movie star, the career of ANNA MAY WONG spanned the silent film era, talkies, the radio and television, where she starred in her own show, guest-starred on others and hosted one of the first documentaries on China hosted by a Chinese-American. For her contribution to the film industry, she received a star at 1708 Vine Street at the inauguration of the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and is depicted 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.

Despite her nominal success, Wong nonetheless found her career hampered by American miscegenation laws which forbade nonwhites from portraying physical intimacy with white actors and long-held stereotypes about Chinese peoples. Raised in Los Angeles, Wong became obsessed with the films shot around her neighborhood and when not skipping school to visit the cinema, she pestered filmmakers for roles until she became known in Hollywood as “C.C.C.” or “Curious Chinese Child.” Her first starring role came when she was seventeen, in The Toll of the Sea, a short film written by Frances Marion based loosely on Madama Butterfly. This role, and subsequent ones, earned Wong rave reviews but Hollywood didn’t know what to do with her. Relegated to bit parts as “oriental” characters, studios nonetheless used her popularity to sell any movie in which she appeared.

Her big break came in 1924, in the Douglas Fairbanks helmed The Thief of Baghdad, where she played the stereotypical “Dragon Lady” character but managed to captivate American audiences. Recognizing that her heritage marked her as “foreign” to audiences despite being born and bred in Southern California, Wong deliberately cultivated the flapper persona popular at the time. She also made plans to produce movies based on Chinese myths, starting Anna May Wong productions, but a shady business partner put this dream to rest. After this disappointment, coupled with Wong constantly being cast in second-rate productions as a supporting cast member due to her heritage, she grew fed up with Hollywood and left for Europe. She experienced much success there, and ironically, when producers of 1930s Hollywood cast their eye on Europe for fresh talent, she was singled out. Enticed by a contract with Paramount and promises of lead roles and top billing, she returned to America.

She was granted roles in a few top movies, but lead roles proved elusive and the bitterest blow fell when MGM announced an adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s popular The Good Earth and Anna was denied the lead role because the male lead would be portrayed by a white actor in yellowface. To finish her contract with Paramount Wong made a string of B movies who, because of their status, were largely overlooked by critics and allowed her to portray non-stereotypical Chinese characters. Wong remained in Hollywood until her death, starring in a few pro-China movies and popular radio shows. In 1951, with a starring role in The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, she became the first and only Asian-American actress to have a detective serial written specifically for her. Her last movie role was in Portrait in Black (1960), explaining her long absence from the silver screen by a proverb said to be passed down from her father: “Don’t be photographed too much or you’ll lose your soul.”

Passing away a year later, Wong’s career had a lasting impact on Hollywood history. One of the few Asian-American actors in a time where Asians, the Chinese in particular, were viewed as “foreign” and laws were passed to limit their immigration to the United States, her success did much to “humanize” Asian-Americans to the general American public.