SPOTLIGHT May 2026: Anna May Wong, Chinese-American Actress and Global Cultural Icon
The more you learn about Anna May Wong, the more inspiring and fascinating she is. Hollywood is hard, no matter who you are, but for people of color, finding success in Hollywood starring on the big screen has historically been nearly impossible. That makes Anna May Wong’s rise and longevity all the more impressive. As the first Chinese American Hollywood star to gain international recognition, she was a pioneer and trailblazer, carving out a path for Asian actors during an era of extreme racism and systemic exclusion. Straightforward, famously kind, incredibly talented, determined, and whip smart, she was a global cultural icon. Her perseverance and grace in the face of prejudice inspired future generations of Asian American performers in theater, and in front of and behind the camera.
When the Hollywood studio system denied her, offering her only stereotypical roles, she moved to Europe and found more complex, complicated, and challenging roles, as well as a chance to perform onstage in theaters across the continent. Her success with diverse roles blossomed in the U.S., as well. In recognition of the over 60 movies in which she performed, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame when it was established in 1960. In 2022, she became the first Asian American to appear on US currency as part of the American Women Quarters Program. The next time you visit Grauman’s Chinese Theater in LA, know that Anna May Wong tossed the first shovel of dirt for the construction of the famed classic cinema.
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This year’s theme is “Power in Unity: Strengthening Communities Together.” As posted on the Federal Asian Pacific American Council (FAPAC), this year’s theme “highlights the importance of leveraging our collective power, telling our stories, and being bridge builders in our communities.” Anna May Wong’s life and career capture the spirit of that theme, which is why she is the perfect choice as AWFJ’s May SPOTLIGHT.
BEGINNINGS
Anna May Wong was born in 1905, into a family that had moved to the US from China in the 1850s. Named Wong Liu Tsong, which means “yellow willow frost”, she grew up as one of seven children in LA’s Chinatown, where her father was the owner of a respected laundry business. Though she started out in public elementary school, Anna May was bullied enough that her family moved her to a Chinese school, where she often skipped classes to go to the cinema, and dreamed of being onscreen. Hanging around film productions led to her first role after naming herself Anna May at the age of 11. In 1919, she appeared in The Red Lantern as an extra, and there was no looking back from there!
FINDING A FOOTHOLD IN THE BUSINESS
Once working in Hollywood, she took any role that came her way, and didn’t limit herself to auditions for traditional Chinese girls. In the 1920s, she portrayed a wide variety of ethnicities, including an Eskimo, an American Indian, a Middle Easterner, a Polynesian, and a Hispanic, but she was mostly cast as a Chinese servant, or, as her fame rose, a villainous “dragon lady”. When Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. saw her in the 1921 silent film Bits of Life, where she received her first screen credit and played opposite Lon Chaney, he asked her to be in the 1924 film The Thief of Bagdad. The stereotyping continued, as she her role was credited as The Mongol Slave. Unfortunately, bigotry and miscegenation laws meant she could not share a kiss with white co-stars, and was stuck in those stereotypical roles.
PERSEVERENCE IN THE FACE OF BIGOTRY/ACCEPTANCE IN EUROPE
In 1928, tired of the constant fight to play more multi-dimensional characters, and unable to break with the miscegenation laws that limited her casting, she left Hollywood for Europe. There, she chose to expand her work to theater, landing the lead at London’s New Theatre, in The Circle of Chalk, co-starring Laurence Olivier. In Europe, where she wasn’t seen through the lens of racial/ethnic bigotry, Wong rose to become the toast of high society. She was able to stretch herself as an actress, with roles that called for more nuanced, less stereotypical performances. She reached a (silent) zenith with 1929’s Piccadilly, considered one of the greats of British silent film, but it was European talkie The Flame of Love, in which she performed in English, German, and French, with different leading men, that resulted in the highest praise from both critics and audiences.
Wong returned to New York, to perform on Broadway in Edgar Wallace’s On the Spot, where she got positive reviews, but during her run, her mother was killed in a car accident. She returned to Hollywood to play the lead in Daughter of the Dragon, (a Fu Manchu feature), hoping she would be offered more complex characters. Unfortunately, in that film she played a stereotypical “dragon lady”, and went on to co-star as a sex worker, opposite Marlena Dietrich, in 1932’s Shanghai Express. She held her own, and, some would say, eclipsed Dietrich, considered a screen goddess, in every scene they shared. Needing an infusion of positivity, Wong went back to Europe for a whirlwind multi-city tour of a one-woman show, selling out theaters across the continent.
MY CHINA FILM
Though she hoped to be cast as O-lan, the lead in The Good Earth, Wong lost the role to European white performer Luise Ranier, who won an Oscar FOR playing the Chinese character in “yellow face”. She was offered a co-starring role as a concubine, but turned it down on principle. Bitterly disappointed, she left Hollywood once again, and set off to visit the country of her family’s origin, China. There, Anna May Wong was treated as a huge celebrity, but the media criticized her for taking roles that limited understanding of Chinese culture. She chronicled her trip in a travelog, a 1936 documentary My China Film, which she both produced and directed. Sadly, the film no longer exists. You can watch moments from her Shanghai visit in outtakes restored by the UCLA Film and TV archive which were not part of My China Film, on YouTube
Returning to Hollywood, she starred in the historic film, 1937’s Daughter of Shanghai. It allowed her to move beyond stereotype and play a dignified, Americanized leading role in which she starred against another Asian American lead, Philip Ahn. This was the first Hollywood feature film featuring a romance between two Chinese American characters, and would become Anna May Wong’s favorite film from her career. It was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2006.
BRAVERY AND ACTIVISM
In 1937, Japan invaded Shanghai. Anna May Wong felt compelled to use her fame to bring attention to the situation and China War Relief. She paused her film career to champion the cause of the Chinese against Japanese aggression, working with the charity United China Relief by headlining fundraisers, offering speeches, and attending high profile events. Appearing in films like Bombs Over Burma (1943) she supported the Allied powers, even donating her salary from 1942’s Lady from Chungking to the United China Relief. She also volunteered to entertain the troops, including making a visit to those in Alaska. This wartime dedication and commitment shifted how audiences and the general public saw her. She was a humanitarian who supported Chinese allies.
LOST TV MILESTONE
In 1951, Anna May Wong once again made history as the first Asian American to star in their own TV show. Playing on the DuMont Television Network, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsog, which was specifically written for her, was about a sophisticated Chinese-American art dealer and detective. She wasn’t just the first Asian American woman, she was the first female to lead a solo detective show in American television history, predating all others by years. Unfortunately, much like Anna May Wong’s travelog to China, the 13 episodes are lost in time. When the studio closed, they reportedly dumped all their footage, including this historic show, into the Hudson river to save storage costs. What a tragic loss to film and tv history!!
A LASTING LEGACY
Anna May Wong died on February 3rd, 1961 of a heart attack. She had just been cast in a rare studio film that had nearly all Asian actors, Henry Koster’s The Flower Drum Song.
The performer is still such an important example of Asian American representation that a 2020 documentary short featuring diverse AAPI voices speaking about their experience was named Searching for Anna May Wong. As of June 2025, an Anna May Wong biopic is still being developed by Working Title Films. The producers are collaborating with Anna May Wong’s niece Anna Wong, and Gemma Chan, who has long expressed her desire to portray her, is attached to star.
Those who want to read about or do a deeper dive into the fascinating life and contributions of Anna May Wong can watch writer/director/producer Yunah Hong’s 2010 documentary Anna May Wong: In Her Own Words, and Elaine Mae Woo’s 2007 doc Anna May Wong: Frosted Yellow Willows – Her Life, Times and Legend, and the wonderful biography Not Your China Doll by Katie Gee Salisbury, which recenters Wong’s life as a trailblazer worthy of admiration, rather than a sad victim of Hollywood bigotry.
WHY WE CHOSE HER
Anna May Wong is compulsively watchable. Even today, after so many years, Asian American women performing in the screen industries bear the burden of representation, while bearing the brunt of judgment for anything short of transformative. We’ve also been through multiple “corrections” of forward movement for diverse voices, including rabid racism during the pandemic, and open bigotry from the current US administration towards Asian American citizens. It would be wonderful if we had risen above the challenges Anna May Wong endured in her all-too-short lifetime, but although we’ve made some strides forward, we still have much work to do.
Still, movies like Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Farewell, and Crazy Rich Asians, and shows like Fresh Off the Boat, Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, and Master of None, all of which center the Asian American perspective, are making a big difference. There is even a sequel in the works of the record breaking 1993 film The Joy Luck Club, as well as either a film or tv show based on Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians follow up, China Rich Girlfriend.
Many of those involved in the industry now look at the work, commitment, and tireless efforts of Anna May Wong and find inspiration in her life and career. Take some time this month, as we consider the many contributions of AAPI artists in film and television, to watch her films. She shows a nuance and artistry never seen before or since, and deserves to be celebrated and remembered. — Leslie Combemale
