Anna May Wong

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Anna May Wong, April 25, 1939
Photograph by Carl van Vechten , from the Van Vechten Collection of the Library of Congress

Anna May Wong (born  January 3, 1905 as Wong Liu Tsong , Chinese 黃 柳 霜 / 黄 柳 霜, Pinyin Huáng Liǔshuāng , Jyutping Wong 4 Lau 5 soeng 1 , IPA romanization / wɔːŋ lɐu̯.sœ̽ːŋ /; in Los Angeles , California ; † 2. February 1961 in Santa Monica , California) was an American actress.

In the 1920s and 1930s, when Hollywood was deeply marked by racism and the self-censorship of the film industry massively hampered the careers of many East Asian actors, she was the first among American actresses of Chinese origin to achieve the rise of world-famous film star.

Life and movies

Beginnings

Anna May Wong on her mother's lap, around 1905.
Anna May Wong and Lon Chaney as the couple Toy Sing and Chin Chow in Bits of Life (1921)

Anna May Wong was the second of six children by a couple who ran a laundry in Lo Sang, Los Angeles' Chinatown . Her grandparents immigrated to California from China in the first half of the 19th century. Like many Chinese Americans , Wong received a partly Presbyterian , partly Neo- Confucian upbringing. She first attended a mixed school, but after being treated badly by white classmates, she switched to a school that was only attended by Chinese. After posing for a fashion photographer at the age of ten, she played a small role alongside Alla Nazimova in Albert Capellani's film The Red Lantern (1919) when she was fourteen . Wong taught herself to act during this time by secretly practicing in front of the mirror at home after going to the movies. Her first sponsor was the director Marshall Neilan , who used her in a small role in his 1920 adventure game Dinty . In 1921, she dropped out of high school to devote herself to her film career. Her next important role was that of Toy Sing in Neilan's Bits of Life , a film that occupies a special position in Wong's oeuvre in that she - at the age of sixteen - played the role of a mother for the first and only time in it. Later on, Hollywood stereotypes prevented an Asian character from appearing as a mother.

In 1922, Anna May Wong's first major leading role followed in Toll of the Sea . The film, whose script was based on Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly , was produced using the early Technicolor method , making it one of the first color films in the world. The "lotus blossom" in Toll of the Sea was also the first of a long series of roles for Wong that corresponded to the cliché of the China Doll : the Asian woman who sacrifices her life out of an impossible love for a white man. The film was shown in German-speaking countries under the title Cho-Cho-San and advertised as "[the] first film in natural colors".

In 1924 Anna May Wong appeared in the adventure film The Thief of Baghdad as a Mongolian slave. In this film, she wore a tight, cropped costume that caused a stir, as well as the bangs that were her trademark from then on. With this film, Wong gained international fame and at the same time became the first Sino-American film star. In the same year Wong appeared in Herbert Brenon's Peter Pan as Tiger Lily, and in 1927 she worked as a supporting actress in a film with Oliver Hardy ( The Honorable Mr. Buggs ) and a Laurel & Hardy film ( Why Girls Love Sailors ), among others. With.

Anna May Wong around 1922
Photograph by Albert Witzel (1879–1929)

Europe (1928–1930)

In the second half of the 1920s, working conditions for Anna May Wong became increasingly oppressive. Since interesting Asian roles were preferably filled with white actors, there were hardly any prospects for their further career in Hollywood. She also had little opportunity to portray the Chinese as sympathetic or empathetic. Trouble with the MGM - which had made drastic censorship cuts in their most recent film, Across to Singapore - finally led them to go to Europe in May 1928. In London, Wong appeared on stage with Laurence Olivier in the play The Circle of Chalk ( Der Kreidekreis von Klabund ). She shot her next films with British and German companies. In EA Dupont's British production Piccadilly (1929) she played alongside Jameson Thomas the dishwasher Shosho, who is discovered as a show talent. In Germany, as her biographer Hodges suspects, Wong has been a household name since the film Shame (1921); she was received by the German public as a great Hollywood star. On the recommendation of his friend Karl Gustav Vollmoeller , the director and film producer Richard Eichberg brought her to Berlin for three films: In the colossal film Dirty Money (1928) she played an Asian woman who falls in love with a knife thrower; when he gets caught up in his vicious and criminal past, he also pulls his beloved into the abyss. In Großstadtschmetterling (1928/29) she loves a Russian painter, but is compromised by a brutal criminal who desires and stalks her. The third Eichberg film - Hai-Tang. The Road to Shame (1930) - was Wong's first sound film ; it was shot in different language versions, each with different male protagonists. Wong, who spoke good German and French, was involved in all three language versions. In the film she played a Chinese singer who loves a Russian officer, but is also persecuted by his superiors. Although these European film productions were not free from ethnic clichés either, Wong noted with satisfaction that she was allowed to play characters who did not have to die in the course of the plot.

Wong's appearances in German films gained film-historical weight against the background that Chinese - especially Chinese women - had hardly existed in the public and media life of this country until then. For large parts of the German public, Anna May Wong was the first Chinese woman whose personality became visible to her, and Wong's screen presence was of great importance for the perception of Chinese women in Germany at the time. In the German press, she was usually not announced as a Chinese American, but as an (American) Chinese - an impression that she reinforced in interviews by always using them to provide information about the Chinese national character.

Around 1930, Berlin was considered the most modern city in the world because of its avant-garde cultural life and its tolerance of minorities, which among other things attracted many homosexuals. Wong felt very at home in this climate and moved in circles of artists and intellectuals. An interview she gave to the philosopher Walter Benjamin in Berlin in 1928 is one of the most revealing testimonies about the personality of the actress.

Anna May Wong, September 22, 1935, photograph by Carl van Vechten

Early 1930s

As she was driven by homesickness on the one hand and, on the other hand, had gained reputation in the USA through her successes in Europe, Anna May Wong returned to her home country in 1930. First she played on Broadway in the hit On the Spot and then signed a deal with Paramount . Her return was commented on in the trade press as a significant event - she had evolved from an actress of ethnic roles to a recognized American film star. As noted columnist Elizabeth Yeaman wrote:

“One of the most stirring pieces of news that has reached Hollywood came in the wire today from Jesse Lasky who announces that Anna May Wong has been signed to a long-term Paramount contract. Miss Wong has created quite a sensation in New York this season where she has been appearing in the stage production of On the Spot , by Edgar Wallace ... Her career has been a brilliant one ever since she first entered pictures. She was born in San Francisco of Chinese parents, and she holds the distinction of being the first Chinese actress to achieve stardom in American picture. ”

“One of the most exciting news out of Hollywood today was from Jesse Lasky, who announced that Anna May Wong was signed on to a long-term contract with Paramount. Miss Wong caused quite a sensation this Broadway season by appearing on the stage production of On the Spot by Edgar Wallace ... She has had a brilliant career since she first appeared in films. She was born in San Francisco to Chinese parents and is characterized by being the first Chinese actress to achieve star fame in American films. "

- Source: gdhamann.blogspot.com, entry from June 29, 2006

In addition, Wong has occasionally featured on the cover of fan magazines, which underscores her status as a star.

Wong made two films for Paramount: Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Shanghai Express (1932). In the action film Daughter of the Dragon , typical of the anti-Chinese racism of the time, Wong played the daughter of the scheming criminal Dr. Fu Manchu . More haunted than any previous film Wong had appeared in, Daughter of the Dragon warned of the love that dared to cross the racial barriers. This was followed by Wong's most famous film, in which she only appeared in a supporting role. In Josef von Sternberg's adventure film Shanghai Express played Marlene Dietrich starred. Wong owed the opportunity to be able to act in this film, which is important for her career, to the contacts that Karl Gustav Vollmoeller, the screenwriter of The Blue Angel , had with Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich. Vollmoeller and Wong met in 1924.

The hit film Shanghai Express was followed by other American and British films in which Anna May Wong always played the leading female role, but her success waned. Due to her Chinese origins, the taste of the times meant that she was bound to clichéd roles that she always reluctant to play. She appeared as a criminal widow ( A Study in Scarlet Red , 1933), a beard dancer ( Tiger Bay , 1934), Manchu princess ( Java Head , 1934) or an oriental slave girl ( Chu-Chin-Chow , 1934). In the USA, where the Production Code had regulated self-censorship in the film industry since 1930 and forbade people of different skin colors to have sexual relations with one another on the screen, she repeatedly played China Dolls - women who were abandoned or spurned by their white lovers ( see, for example, Limehouse Blues , 1934). Since she was not allowed to kiss her white partner in front of the camera for this reason, Wong could not take the rank of leading lady in Hollywood . The only film in which she kissed the male lead - Java Head - remained her favorite film all her life. Wong tried again and again to give her roles sophistication and soul through the quality of her play and thus to improve the image of her people, but ultimately failed in this unsolvable task, which made her suffer increasingly from depression.

The good earth

Anna May Wong in Turandot , photographed by Carl van Vechten on August 11, 1936

In 1936 and 1937, MGM prepared a film adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's novel The Good Earth (1931). The novel is set among Chinese farmers in China and depicts the situation of women particularly vividly. Films about the fate of the Chinese were nothing new to MGM; as early as 1927 Anna May Wong was in the MGM film “Mr. Wu ”occurred. In contrast to earlier films, The Good Earth was conceived as a lavish prestige production; it was supposed to cost the MGM $ 3 million. Wong, who at the time was the world's most prominent film actress of Chinese origin, was counting on an offer for the female lead, O-Lan Lung, and was supported by the Los Angeles press. When the Austrian Paul Muni was finally selected for the role of Wang Lung, O-Lan's husband , Wong was no longer eligible for the role of O-Lan due to the production code, and the role was with the German-born Luise Rainer occupied, which should receive an Oscar for its performance . Wong was invited in December 1935 to screen tests for the small role of the concubine Lotus, which was then cast with a white actress; Whether Wong turned down this role himself or whether the production management found Wong unsuitable is controversial.

Trip to china

After Anna May Wong tried to shed her Chinese origins as a young woman and led the lifestyle of a flappers - an ultra-modern woman who demonstratively rejected the tradition-oriented way of life of her parents - she later awoke a lively interest in her cultural roots. In January 1936 she went on a nine-month trip to China, where, among other things, she wanted to study Peking Opera and learn Mandarin Chinese ; Wong had spoken Cantonese at home . The final impetus to embark on the long-planned trip was given by the MGM's decision to fill the role of O-Lan with Luise Rainer.

She was celebrated as a star by the cultural elite of the cosmopolitan cities of Beijing and Shanghai , but rejected by the rest of the Chinese public because single actresses were considered almost as reprehensible as prostitutes by traditional Chinese standards. Your Chinese compatriots in the United States shared this view. In a time of growing Chinese nationalism , Wong was suspicious of Chinese people at home and abroad as a film actress who supplied the American public - albeit against their will - with unfavorable images of Chinese culture, also for political reasons.

Despite the conflicting feelings that were brought to her during her trip, Anna May Wong identified even more strongly with China after her return to the USA and, as an actress, tried even more hard to improve the Chinese image. After she had often shown bare legs in her earlier films - which seemed offensive by Chinese standards and had received a lot of criticism, especially in Kuomintang China - from then on she always appeared in front of the camera in long clothes. As China came under increasing political and military pressure from Japan since the early 1930s , she soon added a political dimension to her commitment to China by using her popularity to raise money in the United States for aid to China. As chairman of the "Motion Pictures Division" of the "Bowl of Rice Drive" she devoted her entire time to this task.

Paramount (1937-1939)

Anna May Wong's engagement with Paramount marked the artistic high point of her career. Supported by the sympathy that the Chinese people received from the American public during the Second Sino- Japanese War , films were first made in Hollywood in the second half of the 1930s that showed the Chinese in a differentiated, human and sympathetic manner.

In 1937 Anna May Wong appeared in one of her most interesting films: In Daughter of Shanghai , she played a Chinese American who avenged her father's death and uncovered a smuggling ring. The artistically average film is particularly remarkable because it dispenses with gross stereotypes and the love affair with the main character ends happily.

Commitment to China

During the Second World War, Anna May Wong worked in anti-Japanese propaganda films. In 1942 and 1943 she starred in two Alexander Stern Productions productions - Lady from Chungking and Bombs Over Burma - both of which deal with the heroic efforts of the Chinese to undermine the superiority of the Japanese invaders through espionage. During this time, she repeatedly traveled to allied military bases in the United States and Canada to look after the troops.

post war period

After the end of the Second World War, Anna May Wong's career finally stalled. With the onset of the Cold War , anti-Chinese racism flared up again in the USA and again made working conditions difficult for Asian-American actors. Only in 1949 did Wong appear again in a feature film: In Impact , she was seen in a supporting role as a maid. In 1951 she was given a supporting role in William Dieterle's film Peking Express , but the scenes in which she appeared were cut out when the film was finalized.

Anna May Wong with Boston Vice Mayor John McMorrow at a benefit event around 1960

In the same year, however, she got her own television series, The Gallery of Madame Liu Tsong , on the Dumont Network , in which she appeared as a Chinese detective. Until her death, Wong appeared repeatedly in American television series. Her last feature film role - as housekeeper for the main female character - she had in 1960 in The Secret of the Lady in Black , a crime film with Lana Turner and Anthony Quinn .

Anna May Wong, who had been addicted to alcohol since the late 1940s, developed cirrhosis of the liver as a result of her addiction . She died of a heart attack a month after her 56th birthday, before she could even appear in front of the camera for Henry Koster's musical film Flower Drum Song , in which she was to play the role of Madame Liang.

Grave of Anna May Wong in Angelus Rosedale Cemetery

She lies in a shared grave with her mother and sister in Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Private life

Anna May Wong was never married. As she admitted in an article for the Paris Revue Mondiale in 1932 , marrying a Chinese or Sino-American man would have meant the end of her film career, since according to Chinese values, a married woman would not have been able to work as an actress. Wong had romantic relationships with several white men - including Marshall Neilan and the British entertainer Eric Maschwitz - with whom marriage was partly out of the question because " mixed marriages " were banned in California until 1948, partly because one (outside California) " Mixed marriage ”would have harmed not only her reputation but also that of her partner. She had a lifelong friendship with the American photographer Carl van Vechten and his wife Fania Marinoff, and for several decades she shared a household with her younger brother Richard.

Anna May Wong's sister Mary (1910-1940) was also an actress and appeared in a small role in the film The Good Earth, among others .

Wong was a cousin of the cameraman James Wong Howe (1899-1976).

Means of expression

Characteristic of Anna May Wong's art of representation was the extension of the means of acting expression to hairstyles, costumes and gestures - especially hand gestures - which she borrowed from Chinese culture. The contemporary film press praised Wong for her hands, which were considered the most beautiful hands in Hollywood. The costumes that Wong wore in her films mostly came from her very extensive private pool; just like her hairstyles, they were chosen by herself. Since neither the director nor the rest of the production staff were familiar with the semantic content of Chinese clothes, hairdresses and gestures, she was able to use these means to offer her Chinese audience nuances of expression and hints that were largely hidden from Western viewers.

In the film Piccadilly, for example, whose script actually set her to the character of a Dragon Lady , she counteracts this stereotype by wearing the hair in the style of a Chinese farm worker on her first appearance, in which she appears to the uninformed white audience as a dancing seductress pinned up at the back of the head. The figure of the Shosho is thus characterized as an innocent virgin. Her face is also full of innocence. Even their supposedly erotic body movements describe, as Wong's biographer has shown, a traditional dance of the Chinese Tang dynasty .

Typical of Anna May Wong's play were irony and understatement . However, she also had the ability to cry when directed. In the films in which she played a China Doll who is abandoned by her white lover, this was particularly necessary.

effect

Anna May Wong's reputation among the Sino-American public

In her time, Anna May Wong was considered the most important representative of modern, articulate Chinese women, perceived worldwide.

In China, especially in the Chinese press, Anna May Wong's films, especially Shanghai Express , were the subject of controversy. In the 1930s, nationalist sentiments rose in China, against the background of which the Chinese film clichés that Wong involuntarily supported aroused much criticism - especially since Hollywood also had actors like Li Shimin who rejected offers for stereotypical roles out of national pride. In addition, the Kuomintang government promoted a campaign to improve morality during this period, in the context of which Wong's play was also denounced - among other things because of its prostitution representations. Further criticisms that Wong received came from the controversial discussions about the emancipation of women; after all, Wong was considered an international representative of the modern Chinese women's world. On the other hand, Wong was defended by large sections of Chinese artists and intellectuals as well as by lovers of international films, who celebrated her as a world star in China. During the Second World War, official China adopted an even more negative attitude towards Wong.

Although Anna May Wong became a fashion model for Chinese women living in the United States, Chinese Americans largely shared the views of their compatriots living in Asia. Left-wing intellectuals in particular joined the arguments of Chiang Kai-shek's wife Song Meiling , who accused Wong that her stereotypical film characters were born out of the spirit of the old days. The result was that Wong was more or less forgotten in the United States for a long time.

Anna May Wong did not rediscover film historiography until the beginning of the 21st century. Although she still arouses mixed feelings in the Sino-American public, many now consider Wong a pioneer whose lifelong endeavor was to improve the image of the Chinese in American cinema. Wong has since been succeeded by actresses such as Soo Yong , Nancy Kwan , Joan Chen , Gong Li , Lucy Liu and Bai Ling .

Google honored Anna May Wong with a Google Doodle on January 22, 2020 .

Anna May Wong, September 21, 1935, photograph by Carl van Vechten

Anna May Wong as an icon of the gay scene

During her stay in Berlin, Anna May Wong met Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl in autumn 1928 . The film Shanghai Express was occasionally said to have a lesbian subtext , and Dietrich's biographers attribute an affair to Wong and Dietrich, which Wong's biographer Hodges puts into perspective by pointing out that such affairs or homosexual poses in Berlin artist and intellectual circles at that time were more or less for the better Sound and said little about a person's real sexual preferences. Nevertheless, attempts have repeatedly been made in the homosexual public to "unmask" Wong as homosexual and thus win her as an icon of the homosexual scene. Wong has also been said to have had a love affair with Riefenstahl. However, it is undisputed that Wong, with her pronounced fashion consciousness - in her time she was considered one of the best-dressed women in the world -, her boyish figure and her deep voice to Asian cross-dressers - especially the camp fans among them - a wealth of stylistic suggestions left behind.

In 2020, the US television series Hollywood was created , which takes up the topics of sexism and homophobia in the dream factory of the 1940s. Anna May Wong is played in a supporting role by the Sino-American actress Michelle Krusiec .

Anna May Wong in art

Andy Warhol made a collage of Anna May Wong with the title Crazy Golden Slippers . The mail art artist Ray Johnson created an imaginary Anna May Wong fan club, at whose “meeting” in 1972 in New York City the model Naomi Sims appeared as Wong. Anna May Wong is particularly well-known among intellectuals and artists who are close to camp culture, i.e. who value artistic styles and artists that the general public considers obsolete. Around 1990 the painter Martin Wong also dealt intensively with Wong and thus rekindled the interest of many Asian-American intellectuals in the actress. In 1999 the artist Mike Kelley von Wong created a fountain sculpture that stands in Los Angeles' Chinatown.

Anna May Wong in acting and in literature

American playwright Elizabeth Wong wrote China Doll - The Imagined Life of an American Actress, a play about Anna May Wong, which premiered in 1997 at Bowdoin College in Maine . The play has since won several awards such as the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award, the Petersen Emerging Playwright Award, and the Jane Chambers Award.

From the critic and writer John Yau comes a poem entitled No One Ever Tried to Kiss Anna May Wong . Jessica Hagedorn wrote the poem The Death of Anna May Wong in 1971 .

Films about Anna May Wong

  • Becoming American. The Chinese Experience (2003): three-part documentary by Bill Moyers on the history of Chinese immigration to the United States; the 2nd part "Between the Worlds" contains a section about Anna May Wong
  • Frosted Yellow Willows (2005) : Documentary by Elaine Mae Woo about the life and films of Anna May Wong

Further information

Prices

Anna May Wong's only film award was a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 1708 Vine Street).

Quote

“I was so tired of the parts I had to play. Why is it that the screen Chinese is always the villain? And so crude a villain - murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass. We are not like that. How could we be, with a civilization that is so many times older than the West? "

“I was so fed up with the roles I had to play. Why is the screen Chinese always the bad guy? And such a clumsy villain: a murderer, a traitor, a snake in the grass. We are not like that. How could we, with a civilization so much older than the West? "

- Anna May Wong : 1931 in an interview with the journalist Doris Mackie

Filmography

Wong as the daughter of Fu Manchu in Daughter of the Dragon (1931) . This was the last stereotypical role she assumed.

Stage, television and radio appearances

Participation in stage plays (selection)

  • March 1929 - London: Circle of Chalk (by Basil Dean)
  • April 1930 - London: On the Spot (stage version of the novel of the same name by Edgar Wallace )
  • Fall 1930 - Vienna (Neues Wiener Schauspielhaus): The Chinese Dancer (Opera)
  • Fall 1930 - New York City (Broadway): On the Spot
  • Fall 1931 - Los Angeles: On the Spot
  • Spring 1937 - Westport (Westchester Playhouse): Turandot (stage version of Puccini 's opera of the same name )
  • 08, 1943 - Cambridge : The Willow Tree (JH Benrimo, Harrison Rhodes)

TV appearances (selection)

  • 1951: The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong / Madame Liu-Tsong (10-part television series) - Mme. Liu-Tsong
  • 1956: Producers' Showcase: The Letter (episode of a television series; directed by William Wyler among others) - Chinese Woman
  • 1956: Bold Journey: Native Land (episode of a television series)
  • 1958: Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer: So That's Who it Was (episode of a television series)
  • 1958: Climax !: The Deadly Tattoo (episode of a television series) - Mayli
  • 1956: Climax !: The Chinese Game (episode of a television series) - Clerk
  • 1959: Adventures in Paradise: The Lady from South Chicago (episode of a television series)
  • 1960: The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp: China Mary (episode of a television series) - China Mary
  • 1961: The Barbara Stanwyck Show: Dragon by the Trail (episode of a television series) - A-hsing

Radio appearance

literature

Writings by Anna May Wong
  • The True Life Story of a Chinese Girl. in: Pictures. Hollywood, Sept. / Oct. 1926.
  • The Chinese Are Misunderstood. in: The Rexall Magazine. United Drug Companies, Nottingham 1930 (May).
  • The Orient, Love, and Marriage. in: Revue Mondiale. Paris June 1, 1932.
  • My Life by Huang Liushang. in: Liangyu Huabo. Shanghai February 1936.


Monographs and Articles
  • Conrad Doerr: Reminiscences of Anna May Wong. in: Films in Review. New York 1968, Dec. ISSN  0015-1688
  • Walter Benjamin : Conversation with Anne May Wong. A chinoiserie from the old west. [First: The Literary World Vol. 4, No. 27 (July 7, 1928)] in: Walter Benjamin: Gesammelte Schriften. Volume IV.1. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / Main 1972, pp. 523-527.
  • Anthony B. Chan: Perpetually Cool. The Many Lives of Anna May Wong (1905-1961) . Scarecrow Press, Lanham Md 2003. ISBN 0810847892 (engl.)
  • Philip Leibfried, Chei Mi Lane: Anna May Wong. A Complete Guide to Her Film, Stage, Radio and Television Work . McFarland & Company, Jefferson NC 2003. ISBN 0786416335 (English)
  • Graham Russell Gao Hodges: Anna May Wong. From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2004. ISBN 0312293194 (English)


Books with sections on Anna May Wong
  • Ray Stuart: Immortals of the screen . Bonanza Books, New York 1965, 1967. (Eng.)
  • Susan Sinnott: Extraordinary Asian Pacific Americans . Childrens Press, Chicago 1993. ISBN 051603152X (Eng.)
  • Geraldine Gan: Lives of notable Asian Americans: arts, entertainment, sports . Chelsea House Publishers, New York 1995. ISBN 0791021882 (Eng.)
  • Hans J. Wollstein: Vixens, floozies, and molls. 28 actresses of late 1920s and 1930s Hollywood . McFarland & Co., Jefferson NC 1999. ISBN 0786405651 (English)
  • Karen Covington: Performers: actors, directors, dancers, musicians . Raintree Steck-Vaughn, Austin 2000. ISBN 0817257276 (engl.)
  • Darrell Y. Hamamoto, Sandra Liu: Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism . Temple University Press, Philadelphia 2000. ISBN 1566397758 (English)
  • Karen Leong: The China Mystique: Pearl S. Buck, Anna May Wong, Mayling Soong, and the Transformation of American Orientalism . University of California Press, Berkeley Cal 2005. ISBN 0520244222 (Engl.)
  • Shirley Jennifer Lim: A feeling of belonging: Asian American women's public culture, 1930-1960 . New York University Press, New York 2005. ISBN 0814751938 (English)
  • Judy Yung, Gordon H. Chang, H. Marl Lai: Chinese American voices: from the gold rush to the present . University of California Press, Berkeley Cal 2006. ISBN 0520243099 (Engl.)


Fictional literature
  • Jessica Hagedorn: The Death of Anna May Wong. in: Danger and Beauty. City Lights Books, San Francisco 2002. ISBN 0872863875 (English)
  • Elizabeth Wong: China doll, the imagined life of an American actress . Dramatic Publishing, Woodstock Ill 2005. ISBN 158342315X (engl.)

Web links

Commons : Anna May Wong  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

Designate all individual references "Gao Hodges": Graham Russell Gao Hodges: Anna May Wong. From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2004. ISBN 0312293194

  1. ^ Gao Hodges, pp. 1-32
  2. ↑ Gao Hodges, pp. 32-43
  3. ↑ (newspaper advertisement of the film distributor). In:  The Filmbote. Journal for all branches of cinematography , August 14, 1926, p. 22 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / maintenance / fib
  4. ↑ H. Sch-k .:  Cho-Cho-San. In:  The Cinema Journal. Official organ of the Federation of Austrian (/ the Austrian) Lichtspiel-Theaters, the regional professional associations and the Lower Austria-Land section / Das Kino-Journal. Official organ of the Central Association of Austrian Film Theaters and all regional professional associations / Das Kino-Journal. Official organ of the Federation of Wiener Lichtspieltheater and all regional professional associations / Das Kino-Journal. (Provisional) bulletin of the Vienna branch of the Reichsfilmkammer , September 4, 1926, p. 8 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / dkj
  5. ^ Gao Hodges, pp. 43-64
  6. ↑ Gao Hodges, pp. 65-88
  7. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 76
  8. ↑ Gao Hodges, pp. 68f
  9. ↑ Gao Hodges, pp. 99-104
  10. ↑ Gao Hodges, pp. 104-113
  11. ^ Gao Hodges, pp. 125-129
  12. ^ Gao Hodges, pp. 136-141
  13. ↑ Gao Hodges, pp. 141-158
  14. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 148
  15. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 159ff
  16. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 167
  17. ↑ Gao Hodges, p. 167ff
  18. ↑ Gao Hodges, pp. 183-194
  19. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 194
  20. ↑ Gao Hodges, pp. 204-223
  21. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 205
  22. ↑ Gao Hodges, pp. 31, 90, 115, 119, 164
  23. ↑ Mary Wong. Retrieved August 10, 2018 .
  24. ↑ Anna May Wong. Retrieved August 10, 2018 .
  25. ↑ Gao Hodges, pp. 32, 79-83, 285
  26. ^ Gao Hodges, pp. 82f
  27. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 212
  28. ^ Gao Hodges, p. Xix
  29. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 144
  30. ^ Gao Hodges, pp. 261f
  31. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 208
  32. ↑ Madeline Holcombe CNN: Google Doodle celebrates Anna May Wong nearly 100 years after her first leading role. Here's why she's in focus. January 22, 2020, accessed on January 22, 2020 .
  33. ↑ Daniel Flemm: Google today honors the US actress Anna May Wong with a doodle. In: Augsburger Allgemeine. January 22, 2020, accessed January 22, 2020 .
  34. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 210
  35. ↑ Gao Hodges, pp. 209-212, 262
  36. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 212
  37. ^ Gao Hodges, p. 212
  38. ^ Anna May Wong And The Dragon-lady Syndrome. Retrieved August 10, 2018 .
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on June 24, 2006 in this version .
personal data
SURNAME Wong, Anna May
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wong, Liu Tsong (real name after an unknown transcription for Taishan dialect - sub-branch of the Cantonese language); Huang, Liushuang (pinyin); Wong, Lahmeng (Jyutping); 黃 柳 霜 (Chinese - traditional character); 黄 柳 霜 (Chinese - abbreviation)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California
DATE OF DEATH 2nd February 1961
Place of death Santa Monica , California