History Creator / AnnaMayWong

Reluctant to feature an Asian-American actress as a female lead, Hollywood instead cast Anna May in supporting roles playing stereotypical Chinese characters, often of the DragonLady type. Part of the problem was UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, which forbade any depiction of "miscegenation". She could not be shown kissing a white actor, or be cast as his wife, girlfriend, etc., even if he was [[{{Yellowface}} playing an Asian character]], and the only Asian leading man in Hollywood at the time was Sessue Hayakawa (with whom she starred in just one film, ''Daughter of the Dragon''). This led to the biggest disappointment of her career, when she was passed over for the role of O-Lan in a film adaptation of ''Literature/TheGoodEarth'', despite the newspapers hyping her up as a shoo-in for the part, because UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode prevented her from being cast as the wife of the white Paul Muni, even though he was playing a Chinese character. She turned down the unsympathetic part of TheVamp Lotus, and took her career to Europe and Asia, where she was able to play the type of characters she wanted. She did return to America, playing some non-stereotypical characters in B-movies, some of which were actually written for her (''Film/DaughterOfShanghai'' for instance). Her health worsened in later years and she died of a heart attack just before she was to star in the film adaptation of ''Theatre/FlowerDrumSong''.

* MsFanservice: Her stardom was in the Silent Era and UsefulNotes/ThePreCodeEra, so she showed quite a bit of skin in her films. Many of her first roles were as {{Beautiful Slave Girl}}s. In some films -- notably ''The Flame of Love'', ''Piccadilly'', and ''Daughter of Shanghai'' -- she has scenes where she dances in sexy costumes. Ironically averted in ''Film/ShanghaiExpress'', where she's playing a prostitute, as her outfits are fairly modest.

* VocalEvolution: As she got her start in silent films, her California accent went unheard, but when she first appeared on the stage in London, she was mocked for it. As a result, she got vocal training at Cambridge to develop a more RP sounding accent.

Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, and is nowadays recognised as the first Chinese-American movie star. Born to second generation Chinese-American parents in Los Angeles with the birth name Wong Liu Tsong (黃柳霜), Anna May quickly became enamoured with the movies and worked as an extra during her teenage years. Her first starring role came at the age of seventeen in ''Film/TheTollOfTheSea'', one of the first Technicolor movies. The HollywoodHypeMachine got behind her, "She should be seen again, and often, on the big screen", and a notable supporting turn in ''Film/TheThiefOfBagdad1924'' brought her to international attention. There was, however, one problem: her race.

* ''Film/TheTollOfTheSea'' (1922) - Lotus Flower
* ''Film/{{The Thief of Bagdad|1924}}'' - Mongol Slave (her first DragonLady role)
* ''Film/{{Peter Pan|1924}}'' - Tiger Lily
* ''A Trip To Chinatown'' (1926) - Ohati
* ''Film/MrWu'' (1927) - Loo Song
* ''Film/AcrossToSingapore'' (1928) - bar girl, NoNameGiven
* ''Film/{{Piccadilly}}'' (1929) - Shosho
* ''The Flame of Love'' (1931) - Hai Tang
* ''Film/DaughterOfTheDragon'' (1931) - Princess Ling Moy (her final DragonLady role)
* ''Film/ShanghaiExpress'' (1932) - Hui Fei
* ''Film/AStudyInScarlet'' (1933) - Mrs. Pyke
* ''Limehouse Blues'' (1934) - Tu Tuan
* ''Film/JavaHead'' (1934) - Princess Taou Yen (only film in which she got to kiss her white co-star)
* ''Dangerous To Know'' (1938) - Lan Ying
* ''Film/DaughterOfShanghai'' (1938) - Lan Ying Lin (no relation to the above character)
* ''Film/WhenWereYouBorn'' (1938)
* ''King of Chinatown'' (1939) - Dr Mary Ling
* ''Island of Lost Men'' (1939) - Kim Ling
* ''Bombs Over Burma'' (1942) - Lin Ying
* ''Film/LadyFromChungking'' (1942) - Kwan Mei
* ''Impact'' (1949) - Su Lin
* ''The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong'' (1951, Creator/DuMont TV series) - Madame Liu-Tsong (the first television show to feature an Asian-American)
* ''The Barbara Stanwyck Show'' (1961) - As-hing (she died two days after her appearance)

--> "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?"

* MagnumOpusDissonance: [[invoked]] Her favourite film was the B-movie ''Daughter of Shanghai'' - because she got to play an ActionSurvivor who is surprisingly competent for a heroine in the 1930s.

** She starred in a few films with this subject matter - ''Piccadilly'', ''Film/TheTollOfTheSea'' and ''Film/JavaHead'' (the only film in which she got to kiss her white co-star).
** The film ''Limehouse Blues'' has a {{Gender Flip}}ped plot where it's a wealthy Eurasian crime lord trying to provide for a working class cockney girl - and Anna May's character advises him that it's not likely to work out.

* MsFanservice: Her stardom was in the Silent Era and UsefulNotes/ThePreCodeEra, so she showed quite a bit of skin in her films. Many of her first roles were as {{Beautiful Slave Girl}}s. In some films - notably ''The Flame of Love'', ''Piccadilly'' and ''Daughter of Shanghai'' - she has scenes where she dances in sexy costumes. Ironically averted in ''Film/ShanghaiExpress'' - where she's playing a prostitute - as her outfits are fairly modest.
* MultipleLanguagesSameVoiceActor: For ''Road to Dishonour'' she also dubbed herself in the French and German language versions.

* {{Tuckerization}}: The titular role in ''The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong'' was written specifically for her; her birth name was Wong Liu Tsong (according to the traditional Chinese name customs, the family name (Wong) usually comes first).

---> "If you let me play O-lan, I will be very glad. But you're asking me – with Chinese blood – to do the only unsympathetic role in the picture featuring an all-American cast portraying Chinese characters."

** She wanted to play the Asian blackmailer in ''Film/TheLetter'' but it went to Gale Sondergaard (the reason for turning her down was that she was "too young" at 35). She later got to play the role in a 1956 stage adaptation, also directed by William Wyler.

Although she didn't have the career that was predicted in her youth, Anna May Wong is recognised today as a pioneer in terms of the way Asian-Americans were represented on the big screen. During a period where Asian-Americans were viewed as perpetually foreign by American society, Anna May's public image showed her as a hybrid between two cultures that society painted as impossibly different. In her life she was also a fashion icon, getting voted "World's Best Dressed Woman" by the Mayfair Mannequin Society of New York in 1934. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Peking University in 1932 - the first time it had ever been given to an actor.

Reluctant to feature an Asian-American actress as a female lead, Hollywood instead cast Anna May in supporting roles playing stereotypical Chinese characters, often of the DragonLady type. Part of the problem was UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, which forbade any depiction of "miscegenation". She could not be shown kissing a white actor, or be cast as his wife, girlfriend etc., even if he was [[{{Yellowface}} playing an Asian character]], and the only Asian leading man in Hollywood at the time was Sessue Hayakawa (With whom she starred in just one film, ''Daughter of the Dragon''). This led to the biggest disappointment of her career, when she was passed over for the role of O-Lan in a film adaptation of ''Literature/TheGoodEarth'', despite the newspapers hyping her up as a shoo-in for the part, because UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode prevented her from being cast as the wife of the white Paul Muni, even though he was playing a Chinese character. She turned down the unsympathetic part of TheVamp Lotus, and took her career to Europe and Asia, where she was able to play the type of characters she wanted. She did return to America, playing some non-stereotypical characters in B-movies, some of which were actually written for her (''Film/DaughterOfShanghai'' for instance). Her health worsened in later years and she died of a heart attack just before she was to star in the film adaptation of ''Theatre/FlowerDrumSong''.

Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, and is nowadays recognised as the first Chinese-American movie star. Born to second generation Chinese-American parents in Los Angeles with the birth name Wong Liu Tsong (黃柳霜), Anna May quickly became enamoured with the movies and worked as an extra during her teenage years. Her first starring role came at the age of seventeen in ''Film/TheTollOfTheSea'', one of the first Technicolor movies. The HollywoodHypeMachine got behind her, "She should be seen again, and often, on the big screen", and a notable supporting turn in ''Film/TheThiefOfBagdad1924'' brought her to international attention. There was, however, one problem. Her race.

Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, and is nowadays recognised as the first Chinese-American movie star. Born to second generation Chinese-American parents in Los Angeles with the birth name Wong Liu Tsong, Anna May quickly became enamoured with the movies and worked as an extra during her teenage years. Her first starring role came at the age of seventeen in ''Film/TheTollOfTheSea'', one of the first Technicolor movies. The HollywoodHypeMachine got behind her, "She should be seen again, and often, on the big screen", and a notable supporting turn in ''Film/TheThiefOfBagdad1924'' brought her to international attention. There was, however, one problem. Her race.