Anna May Wong and the mystery of Hollywood’s first Chinese-American star: ‘They wanted to tear her apart!’
Anna May Wong was Hollywood’s first Chinese-American star, a gifted actor who refused to allow racism and sexism to stymie her career. She was one of the silent era’s most popular celebrities, but was often cast in demeaning roles: women who were minxy and exotic, or doomed, sly and treacherous. Wong was gorgeous, willowy and insouciant (in terms of body type and attitude, Wong’s modern-day equivalent would be Zendaya). But Hollywood’s studio heads were “blinded by their own prejudice”, says Katie Gee Salisbury, the author of a new biography of the star. The book details how Wong set off for Berlin, and later London, in search of more nuanced roles.
The gamble paid off. The European films Wong made in the late Twenties – , and – are politically provocative and beautifully lit, all of them place her centre stage. In close-up shots, her frequently anguished eyes resemble melting scoops of ice cream. Hollywood, by now making talkies, got the message. Upon her return to the US, she was offered (if only grudgingly) better parts. In the 1932, Wong is a sardonic and fearless sex worker who enjoys the company of a libidinous gal pal, . The pair’s chemistry is the stuff of legend.
