Anna May Wong was the most famous Asian American actress of the 1930s. She was born in Los Angeles as a third generation American with her Chinese name, Wong Liu Tsong, meaning “frosted yellow willows.”

An Early Passion
Anna was infatuated with the movies early on and would skip school and use her lunch money to go to movie theaters. Anna, at the age of 9, despite her parent’s opposition, would beg filmmakers for parts, earning herself the nickname “C.C.C.” or “Curious Chinese Child”.

By the age of 11, Anna May had come up with her stage name, Anna May Wong, paying tribute to both her English and family names.

At the age of 14, she managed to appear as an extra in Alla Nazimova’s film Th Red Lantern (1919) without her father’s consent. She built her career from that first uncredited role. At 16, she found it difficult to keep up with her acting so she dropped out of Los Angeles High School in 1921 to pursue acting full-time. (Her parents were not happy.)

A year later, at the age of 17, she was the leading role in one of the first color movies: The Toll of the Sea (1922). The New York Times 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 [...] She should be seen again and often on the screen.

And so she was. By 19, Anna further propelled her career forward when she got a supporting role in The Thief of Baghdad. It became one of her most noted films; others were Picadilly, Daughter of the Dragon, Shanghai Express, and Lady from Chungking.

It wasn’t always easy
Through her films, public appearances, and prominent magazine features, Anna May helped to “humanize” Asian-Americans during a period of overt racism and discrimination. Asian-Americans, especially the Chinese, had been viewed as perpetually foreign in U.S. society, but Anna May’s films and public image established her firmly as an Asian-American citizen.

Her greatest disappointment was when she lost the leading female role in the adaptation of “The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck to a white actress in yellowface. She didn’t find much support from Chinese American media either, they criticized her for stereotypical and promiscious roles. The battle to be both Chinese and American caused her to be an advocate against typecasting.

Anna pioneered in her field to make their presence known. She struggled her whole life for society to see her as who she was: a Chinese American actress and not a foreigner.

Interest in her life story continues and another biography is due out in Spring 2009.

This article was submitted by one of our readers. Thank you Stephanie!

Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_May_Wong

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