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119-595: Wong Liu Tsong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961), known professionally as Anna May Wong , was an American actress, considered the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood , as well as the first Chinese American actress to gain international recognition. Her varied career spanned silent film , sound film, television, stage, and radio. Born in Los Angeles to second-generation Taishanese Chinese American parents, Wong became engrossed with films and decided at

238-516: A Presbyterian Chinese school. Classes were taught in English, but Wong attended a Chinese-language school afternoons and on Saturdays. About that same time, U.S. motion picture production began to relocate from the East Coast to the Los Angeles area. Movies were shot constantly in and around Wong's neighborhood. She began going to Nickelodeon movie theaters and quickly became obsessed with

357-570: A 1933 interview for Film Weekly entitled "I Protest", Wong criticized the negative stereotyping in Daughter of the Dragon , saying, "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?" Wong appeared alongside Marlene Dietrich as

476-620: A 54/44 split in California , a 58/40 split in New York , and a 48/51 split in America as a whole on Election Day itself. In the 2012 presidential election , 81% of Chinese American voters selected Barack Obama over Mitt Romney . Chinese American cuisine originated with this ethnic group. Many immigrants in the mid-20th century used Chinese restaurants as a way of having employment. By 2019, many such establishments were closing because

595-473: A Chinese character, Wong refused. She instead used her knowledge of Chinese style and gestures to imbue the character with a greater degree of authenticity. Following her return to Hollywood in 1930, Wong repeatedly turned to the stage and cabaret for a creative outlet. In November 1930, Wong's mother was struck and killed by an automobile in front of the Figueroa Street house. The family remained at

714-468: A beautiful lady pirate, the kind men fall for." In a few days Caniff was back with samples and 50 proposed titles; Patterson circled Terry and scribbled beside it and the Pirates . Caniff's biographer R. C. Harvey suggests that Patterson had been reading about women pirates in one of two books (or both) published a short time earlier: I Sailed with Chinese Pirates by Aleko Lilius and Vampires of

833-446: A film career, in 1923 Wong said: "Pictures are fine and I'm getting along all right, but it's not so bad to have the laundry back of you, so you can wait and take good parts and be independent when you're climbing." At the age of 19, Wong was cast in a supporting role as a scheming Mongol slave in the 1924 Douglas Fairbanks picture The Thief of Bagdad . Playing a stereotypical "Dragon Lady" role, her brief appearances on-screen caught

952-415: A full-time acting career. Reflecting on her decision, Wong told Motion Picture Magazine in 1931: "I was so young when I began that I knew I still had youth if I failed, so I determined to give myself 10 years to succeed as an actress." In 1921, Wong received her first screen credit for Bits of Life , the first anthology film , in which she played the wife of Lon Chaney 's character, Toy Ling, in

1071-416: A group of serial stars on a tour of the vaudeville circuits; when the tour proved to be a failure, Wong and the rest of the group returned to Hollywood. In 1926, Wong put the first rivet into the structure of Grauman's Chinese Theatre when she joined Norma Talmadge for its groundbreaking ceremony, although she was not invited to leave her hand- and foot-prints in cement. Wong and Talmadge also turned

1190-494: A hearing. Some even committed suicide as they feared being denied access to the country. Once they were approved and allowed into the country, Chinese women migrants faced additional challenges. Many were coerced into prostitution, with over 60% of the adult Chinese women living in California in 1870 working in the trade. Some women were lured to the U.S. with the promise of marriage only to become sex slaves, while others went to

1309-691: A leading lady. David Schwartz, the chief curator of the Museum of the Moving Image , notes, "She built up a level of stardom in Hollywood, but Hollywood didn't know what to do with her." She spent the next few years in supporting roles providing "exotic atmosphere", for instance playing a concubine in Tod Browning 's Drifting (1923). Film producers capitalized on Wong's growing fame but they relegated her to supporting roles. Still optimistic about

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1428-629: A mild level of depression which was higher than other ethnic groups. Further, the study reported that these depressive symptoms among older Chinese adults "tend to remain untreated." According to the United States Census Bureau , the various varieties of Chinese make up the third-most spoken language in the United States. It is almost completely spoken within Chinese American populations and by immigrants or

1547-489: A paper citing severe stigma of mental illness in the Chinese American community as a barrier to diagnosis and treatment. In a 1998 study of 29 diagnosed depressive Chinese American immigrants, more than half of respondents avoided labeling their symptoms as depression. While patients were able to accurately identify and report depressive symptoms such as "irritability" and "rumination," patients were more likely to attribute their depression to somatic and physical symptoms than as

1666-496: A political party. Chinese Americans tend to be clustered in majority- Democratic states and have increasingly voted Democratic in recent presidential elections, following the trend for Asian Americans in general, excluding the Vietnamese Americans . Polling just before the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election found John Kerry was favored by 58% of Chinese Americans and George W. Bush by only 23%, as compared with

1785-622: A positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II , when she devoted her time and money to help the Chinese cause against Japan . Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances. In 1951, Wong made history with her television show The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong , the first-ever U.S. television show starring an Asian-American series lead . She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at

1904-601: A prominent role in Shanghai Express , Wong's Hollywood career returned to its old pattern. She was passed over for the leading female role in The Son-Daughter in favor of Helen Hayes ; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer deemed her "too Chinese to play a Chinese" in the film. Wong was scheduled to play the role of a mistress to a corrupt Chinese general in Frank Capra 's The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933), but

2023-603: A psychological state. Among Asian-American youth in 1980, suicide accounted for 20.8% of Chinese American female deaths. Among males, it constituted 15.1% of deaths. The study also reported that suicide rates among Chinese American elderly were higher than that of the national suicide rate for African-American, Hispanic, and Native-American. A study published in the Journal of Aging and Health, stated that 18% to 29.4% of older Chinese adults in North America had at least

2142-648: A segment entitled "Hop". She later recalled it fondly as the only time she played the role of a mother; her appearance earned her a cover photo on the British magazine Picture Show . At the age of 17, Wong played her first leading role, in the early Metro two-color Technicolor movie The Toll of the Sea . Written by Frances Marion , the story was based loosely on Madama Butterfly . Variety magazine singled Wong out for praise, noting her "extraordinarily fine" acting. The New York Times commented, "Miss Wong stirs in

2261-591: A self-sacrificing courtesan in Sternberg's Shanghai Express . Her sexually charged scenes with Dietrich have been noted by many commentators and fed rumors about the relationship between the two stars. Though contemporary reviews focused on Dietrich's acting and Sternberg's direction, film historians today judge that Wong's performance upstaged that of Dietrich. The Chinese press had long given Wong's career very mixed reviews, and were less than favorable to her performance in Shanghai Express . A Chinese newspaper ran

2380-680: A series of articles printed in U.S. newspapers such as the New York Herald Tribune , the Los Angeles Examiner , the Los Angeles Times , and Photoplay . In a stopover in Tokyo on the way to Shanghai, local reporters, ever curious about her romantic life, asked if she had marriage plans, to which Wong replied, "No, I am wedded to my art." The following day, however, Japanese newspapers reported that Wong

2499-641: A small city with a large number of colleges. Income and social status of these Chinese American locations vary widely. As of 2012 about 333,333 people living in the United States with a Chinese background are not United States citizens. Although many Chinese Americans in Chinatowns of large cities are often members of an impoverished working class, others are well-educated upper-class people living in affluent suburbs. The upper and lower-class Chinese are also widely separated by social status and class discrimination. In California's San Gabriel Valley , for example,

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2618-851: A stampede ensued. After she left for a short trip to the Philippines, the situation cooled and Wong joined her family in Hong Kong. With her father and her siblings, Wong visited his family and his first wife at the family's ancestral home near Taishan. Conflicting reports claim that she was either warmly welcomed or met with hostility by the villagers. She spent over 10 days in the family's village and some time in neighboring villages before continuing her tour of China. After returning to Hollywood, Wong reflected on her year in China and her career in Hollywood: "I am convinced that I could never play in

2737-427: A student, Wong came down with an illness identified as St. Vitus's Dance which caused her to miss months of school. She was on the verge of emotional collapse when her father took her to a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine . The treatments proved successful, though Wong later claimed this had more to do with her dislike of the methods. Other Chinese thought such as Confucianism and particularly Taoism and

2856-591: A village near Taishan, Guangdong Province , China, in 1853. Anna May's father spent his youth traveling between the U.S. and China, where he married his first wife and fathered a son in 1890. He returned to the U.S. in the late 1890s and in 1901, while continuing to support his family in China, he married a second wife, Anna May's mother. Anna May's older sister Lew-ying (Lulu) was born in 1902, and Anna May in 1905, followed by six more children: James (1907–1971), Mary (1910–1940), Frank (1912–1989), Roger (1915–1983), Marietta (1919–1920), and Richard Wong (1922–2007). In 1910,

2975-695: Is a 21st century example of the Hollywood use of the Dragon Lady image, in her roles in Charlie’s Angels , Kill Bill , and Payback . Other American or British films in which Asian women are hyper-sexualized include The Thief of Baghdad , The Good Woman of Bangkok , and 101 Asian Debutantes , where Asian women are portrayed as prostitutes. Miss Saigon is an American musical with examples of this as well. Dragon Lady characters are visually defined by their emphasis on "otherness" and sexual promiscuity. An example of headwear for Dragon Lady costumes

3094-634: Is also another population center for Chinese Americans, as it contains the highest percentage of Chinese Americans in the Southern United States. In addition to the big cities, smaller pockets of Chinese Americans are also dispersed in rural towns, often university-college towns, throughout the United States. For example, the number of Chinese Americans, including college professors, doctors, professionals, and students, has increased over 200% from 2005 to 2010 in Providence, Rhode Island ,

3213-521: Is home to the largest Chinese American population of any metropolitan area within the United States, enumerating an estimated 893,697 in 2017 and including at least 12 Chinatowns . Continuing significant immigration from mainland China is fueled by New York's status as an alpha global city, its high population density, its extensive mass transit system, and the New York metropolitan area's enormous economic marketplace. The Manhattan Chinatown contains

3332-428: Is in China, as Chinese Christians flee to the United States from Chinese Communist persecution. Chinese Americans are divided among many subgroups based on factors such as language, religion, generational status, age and socioeconomic status . Sometimes, these subgroups have conflicting political priorities and goals. As of 2013, Chinese Americans were the least likely Asian-American ethnicity to be affiliated with

3451-477: Is the case with other racial caricatures—has generated a large quantity of sociological literature. Today, "Dragon Lady" is often applied anachronistically to refer to persons who lived before the term became part of American slang in the 1930s. For example, one finds the term in recent works about the "Dragon Lady" Empress Dowager Cixi (Empress Dowager Tzu-hsi; Chinese : 慈禧太后 ; pinyin : Cíxī Tàihòu ; Wade–Giles : Tz'u -hsi T'ai -hou ), who

3570-493: Is used as a secondary dialect to English. In addition, the immigration from Fuzhou , Fujian brings in a significant populace of Fuzhou people ( Eastern Min ), particularly Changle dialect speakers to major cities like New York City, San Francisco, and Boston. People from Fujian ( Minnan region ), Chaoshan , Taiwan and Southeast Asia mainly use Southern Min dialect ( Hokkien and Teochew ) as their mother tongue. Varieties of Wu Chinese , particularly Shanghainese and

3689-528: The Chinese diaspora , behind the Chinese communities in Thailand and Malaysia . The 2022 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census estimated the population of Chinese Americans alone or in combination to be 5,465,428, including 4,258,198 who were Chinese alone, and 1,207,230 who were part Chinese. According to the 2010 census, the Chinese American population numbered about 3.8 million. In 2010, half of

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3808-521: The Fu Manchu series by Sax Rohmer or in the works of Matthew Phipps Shiel such as The Yellow Danger (1898) or The Dragon (1913). However, a 1931 film based on Rohmer’s The Daughter of Fu Manchu , titled Daughter of the Dragon , is thought to have been partly the inspiration for the Caniff cartoon name. Wong plays Princess Ling Moy, a version of Fu Manchu's daughter Fah Lo Suee . Terry and

3927-611: The Geary Act was passed to extend the Chinese Exclusion Act, and in 1902, the prohibition was expanded to cover Hawaii and the Philippines, despite the strong objections from the Chinese government and people. Only in 1898, as a result of the United States v. Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court decision, ethnic Chinese born in the United States become American citizens . The Chinese Exclusion Acts remained part of

4046-505: The Mid-Autumn Festival . A 2007 analysis indicated that most non-Asian Americans do not differentiate between Chinese Americans and East Asian Americans generally, and perceptions of both groups are nearly identical. A 2001 survey of Americans' attitudes toward Asian Americans and Chinese Americans indicated that one fourth of the respondents had somewhat or very negative attitude toward Chinese Americans in general. However,

4165-572: The Oxford English Dictionary list uses of "dragon" and even "dragoness" from the 18th and 19th centuries to indicate a fierce and aggressive woman, there does not appear to be any use in English of "Dragon Lady" before its introduction by Milton Caniff in his comic strip Terry and the Pirates . The character first appeared on December 16, 1934, and the "Dragon Lady" appellation was first used on January 6, 1935. The term does not appear in earlier " Yellow Peril " fiction such as

4284-640: The Page Law of 1875 banned all female Chinese migrants from entering the United States. Upon arrival to the U.S. Chinese men and women were separated from each other as they awaited hearings on their immigration status, which often took weeks. During this time the women were subjected to lengthy questioning that focused on their family life and origins. Their responses were then cross examined with others from their village, and any discrepancies were used to justify denial of entry. The stress of being separated from family caused many women to fall ill while they waited for

4403-787: The San Francisco riot of 1877 , the Issaquah and Tacoma riot of 1885 , the attack on Squak Valley Chinese laborers in 1885, the Seattle riot of 1886 , and the Pacific Coast race riots of 1907 . With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic , which is believed to have started in the city of Wuhan, China, numerous incidents of xenophobia and racism against Chinese people and people who are perceived to be Chinese have been reported. In 2008, researchers Georg Hsu and Yu Mui Wan published

4522-804: The Territory of Alaska , she portrayed an Eskimo in The Alaskan . She returned to Los Angeles to perform the part of Princess Tiger Lily in Peter Pan . Both films were shot by cinematographer James Wong Howe . Peter Pan was more successful, and it was the hit of the Christmas season. The next year, Wong was singled out for critical praise in a manipulative Oriental vamp role in the film Forty Winks . Despite such favorable reviews, she became increasingly disappointed with her casting and began to seek other roads to success. In early 1925 she joined

4641-588: The Transcontinental Railroad . Chinese laborers built the majority of the difficult route through the Sierra Nevada mountains and across Nevada . By 1869, there were at least 100,000 ethnic Chinese in the United States. By 1887, less than four hundred thousand Chinese entered the United States, concentrated in California. The Burlingame-Seward Treaty of 1868 between the United States and Qing China supported Chinese migration, but

4760-580: The Washington metropolitan area , with Montgomery County , Maryland and Fairfax County , Virginia , being 3.9% and 2.4% Chinese American, respectively. Boston's Chinatown is the only historical Chinese neighborhood within New England . The Boston suburb of Quincy also has a prominent Chinese American population, especially within the North Quincy area. San Francisco , California has

4879-545: The flapper look. In 1934, the Mayfair Mannequin Society of New York voted her the "world's best dressed woman." In the 1920s and 1930s, Wong was acclaimed as one of the top fashion icons. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood , Wong left for Europe in March 1928, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent

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4998-498: The " flickers ", missing school and using lunch money to attend the cinema. Her father was not happy with her interest in films, feeling that it interfered with her studies, but Wong decided to pursue a film career regardless. At the age of nine, she constantly begged filmmakers to give her roles, earning herself the nickname "C.C.C." or "Curious Chinese Child". By the age of 11, Wong had come up with her stage name of Anna May Wong, formed by joining both her English and family names. Wong

5117-655: The 1850s, Chinese workers migrated to work in the California Gold Rush , and also to do agricultural jobs and factory work, especially the garment industry. Some became entrepreneurs. Chinese often settled in ethnic neighborhoods called Chinatowns . In 1852, there were 25,000 Chinese migrants in America. From 1860 until 1869, the Central Pacific Railroad recruited large labor gangs, with many laborers on five-year contracts, to build on

5236-530: The 1930–1934 Hays Code of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America insisted only that "miscegenation (sex relationship between the white and black races) was forbidden" and said nothing about other interracial marriages. Other biographers have not corroborated this theory, including historian Shirley Jennifer Lim's Anna May Wong: Performing the Modern . MGM screen-tested Wong for

5355-502: The 1960s placed increasing value on family unification, allowing relatives of U.S. citizens to receive preference in immigration. As of 2023, illegal Chinese immigration to New York City has accelerated. The Chinese American Planning Council has subsequently been established with headquarters on the Lower East Side of Manhattan . There are a number of museums in the United States specifically focusing on and documenting

5474-629: The 1980s, more Mandarin -speaking immigrants from Northern China and Taiwan immigrated to the U.S. In the 1990s, a large wave of Fujianese immigrants arrived in the US, many illegally, particularly in the NYC area. The Chinese population in much of the 1800s and 1890s was almost entirely contained to the Western U.S., especially California and Nevada, as well as New York City. There are three major waves of recent Chinese immigration into America: Nearly all of

5593-453: The 2012 Pew Research Center Asian-American Survey, 52% of Chinese Americans aged 15 and over said that they did not have any religious affiliation. This is also compared with the religious affiliation of Asian-American average of 26% and a national average of 19%. Of the survey respondents, 15% were Buddhist , 8% were Catholic, and 22% belonged to a Protestant denomination. About half of Chinese Americans (52%)—including 55% of those born in

5712-737: The Chinese American experience, the most prominent being the Museum of Chinese in America in Manhattan's Chinatown , established in 1980; as well as others, including the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, the Chinese American Museum of Chicago , the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco, and the Chinese American Museum in Washington, D.C. The chart on the right shows

5831-580: The Chinese Coast by Bok ( pseudonym for unknown). Women pirates in the South China Sea figure in both books, especially the one by Lilius, a portion of which is dedicated to the mysterious and real-life "queen of the pirates" (Lilius’ phrase), named Lai Choi San ( Chinese : 來財山 ). "Lai Choi San" is a transliteration from Cantonese , the native language of the woman, herself—thus, the way she pronounced her own name. Caniff appropriated

5950-481: The Chinese Theatre. I have no feeling for it. It's a pretty sad situation to be rejected by Chinese because I'm 'too American' and by American producers, because they prefer other races to act Chinese parts." Wong's father returned to Los Angeles in 1938. Chinese American The Chinese American community is the largest overseas Chinese community outside Asia . It is also the third-largest community in

6069-405: The Chinese name, Lai Choi San, as the "real name" of his Dragon Lady, a fact that led both Lilius and Bok to protest. Patterson pointed out that both books claimed to be non-fiction and that the name belonged to a real person; thus, neither the fact of a woman pirate nor her name could be copyrighted. (Neither Bok nor Lilius had used the actual term "Dragon Lady".) Sources are not clear on whether it

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6188-571: The Chinese theater and through English translations to better perform some Chinese plays before international audiences. She told the San Francisco Chronicle on her departure, "... for a year, I shall study the land of my fathers. Perhaps upon my arrival, I shall feel like an outsider. Perhaps instead, I shall find my past life assuming a dreamlike quality of unreality." Embarking in January 1936, Wong chronicled her experiences in

6307-554: The Chinese-born people in the United States lived in California and New York . About half or more of the Chinese ethnic people in the U.S. in the 1980s had roots in Taishan, Guangdong , a city in southern China near the major city of Guangzhou. In general, much of the Chinese population before the 1990s consisted of Cantonese or Taishanese -speaking people from southern China, predominately from Guangdong province. During

6426-488: The German critics' response to Song , The New York Times reported that Wong was "acclaimed not only as an actress of transcendent talent but as a great beauty". The article noted that Germans passed over Wong's American background: "Berlin critics, who were unanimous in praise of both the star and the production, neglect to mention that Anna May is of American birth. They mention only her Chinese origins." In Vienna, she played

6545-693: The Pirates was an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff . Joseph Patterson , editor for the Chicago Tribune New York Daily News Syndicate , hired Caniff to create the new strip, providing Caniff with the idea of setting the strip in the Orient. A profile of Caniff in Time recounts the episode: Patterson... asked: "Ever do anything on the Orient?" Caniff hadn't. "You know," Joe Patterson mused, "adventure can still happen out there. There could be

6664-470: The U.S. and 51% of those born overseas—describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated. There are also many Chinese people in New York City who identify as Jewish due to intermarriage with Jews. Some posit that Judaism has similar habits to Confucianism such as the emphasis on scholarship. There is a significantly higher percentage of Chinese Christians in the United States than there

6783-605: The U.S. came from a small area of eight districts on the west side of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province. The eight districts consist of three subgroups—the four districts of Sze Yup , the district of Chung Shan , and the three districts of Sam Yup —each subgroup speaking a distinct dialect of Cantonese . In the U.S., people from Sze Yup generally worked as laborers; Chung Shan people specialized in agriculture; and Sam Yup people worked as entrepreneurs. In

6902-515: The U.S. in June 1935 with the goal of obtaining the role of O-lan, the lead female character in MGM's film version of The Good Earth . Since its publication in 1931, Wong had made known her desire to play O-lan in a film version of the book; and as early as 1933, Los Angeles newspapers were touting Wong as the best choice for the part. Nevertheless, the studio apparently never seriously considered Wong for

7021-417: The U.S. in order to reunite with their families. Ninety percent of the Chinese women who immigrated to the U.S. between 1898 and 1908 did so to join a husband or father. By 1900, only 4,522 of the 89,837 (5%) Chinese migrants were women. In 1880, the diplomat James B. Angell was appointed to negotiate a new treaty with Qing China. The resulting Angell Treaty of 1880 restricted Chinese immigration and banned

7140-745: The United States , and it took place after the accidental killing of Robert Thompson, a local rancher . The Rock Springs massacre occurred in 1885, in which at least 28 Chinese immigrants were killed and 15 other Chinese were injured. Many enraged white miners in Sweetwater County felt threatened by the Chinese and they also blamed them for their unemployment. As a result of competition for jobs, white miners expressed their frustration by committing acts of physical violence in which they robbed, shot, and stabbed Chinese in Chinatown. The Chinese quickly tried to flee, but in doing so, many of them ended up being burned alive in their homes, starving to death in hiding places, or being exposed to animal predators which lived in

7259-400: The actress after having seen her in films, attended the play on its opening night and subsequently composed Eight Poems of Li Po , dedicated to her. Wong made her last silent film, Piccadilly , in 1929, the first of five British films in which she had a starring role. The film caused a sensation in the UK. Gilda Gray was the top-billed actress, but Variety commented that Wong "outshines

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7378-441: The actress an honorary doctorate in 1932. Contemporary sources reported that this was probably the only time that an actor had been so honored. In both America and Europe, Wong had been seen as a fashion icon for over a decade. In 1934, the Mayfair Mannequin Society of New York voted her "The World's best-dressed woman" and in 1938 Look magazine named her "The World's most beautiful Chinese girl". After her success in Europe and

7497-407: The age of 11 that she would become an actress. Her first role was as an extra in the movie The Red Lantern (1919). During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first films made in color, and in Douglas Fairbanks ' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon and had achieved international stardom in 1924. Wong had been one of the first to embrace

7616-590: The age of 56, from a heart attack. For decades after her death, Wong was remembered principally for the stereotypical " Dragon Lady " and demure "Butterfly" roles that she was often given. Her life and career were re-evaluated in the years around the centennial of her birth, in three major literary works and film retrospectives. Anna May Wong was born Wong Liu Tsong ( 黃柳霜 , Liu Tsong literally meaning "willow frost") on January 3, 1905, on Flower Street in Los Angeles, one block north of Chinatown, in an integrated community of Chinese, Irish, German and Japanese residents. She

7735-405: The attention of audiences and critics alike. The film grossed more than $ 2 million and helped introduce Wong to the public. Around this time, Wong had a relationship with Tod Browning, who had directed her in Drifting a year earlier. After this second prominent role, Wong moved out of the family home into her own apartment. Conscious that Americans viewed her as "foreign-born" even though she

7854-409: The character was Asian but being portrayed by a white actor. The only leading Asian man in U.S. films in the silent era was Sessue Hayakawa . Unless Asian leading men could be found, Wong could not be a leading lady . Wong continued to be offered exotic supporting roles that followed the rising " vamp " stereotype in cinema. She played indigenous native girls in two 1924 films. Filmed on location in

7973-420: The characters played by actress Anna May Wong , the term comes from the female villain in the comic strip Terry and the Pirates . It has since been applied to powerful women from certain regions of Asia , as well as a number of Asian and Asian American film actresses. The stereotype has generated a large quantity of sociological literature. "Dragon Lady" is sometimes applied to persons who lived before

8092-413: The cities of Monterey Park and San Marino are both Chinese American communities lying geographically close to each other but they are separated by a large socioeconomic gap. Some noteworthy historical Chinese contributions to America include building the western half of the Transcontinental Railroad , the levees in the Sacramento River Delta , Chinese American food , deep oil extraction in Texas, and

8211-452: The descendants of immigrants, especially in California . In 2002, over 2 million Americans speak some variety or dialect of Chinese, with Standard Chinese (Mandarin) becoming increasingly common due to new immigration from China and supplanting the previous widespread Cantonese and Taishanese . In New York City , although Standard Chinese (Mandarin) was spoken as a native language among only 10% of American-born Chinese speakers, it

8330-425: The early Chinese migrants were young men from rural villages of Toisan , as well as the eight districts in Guangdong Province . The Guangdong province, especially Toisan , experienced extreme floods and famine in the mid-nineteenth century, as well as mass political unrest such as the Red Turban unrest . This prompted many people to migrate to America. The vast majority of the 19th century Chinese immigrants to

8449-433: The family moved to a neighborhood on Figueroa Street where they were the only Chinese people on their block , living alongside mostly Mexican and Eastern European families. The two hills separating their new home from Chinatown helped Wong to assimilate into American culture. She attended public school with her older sister at first, but then when the girls became the target of racial taunts from other students, they moved to

8568-703: The film in the role of the Little Bride. MGM's refusal to consider Wong for this most high-profile of Chinese characters in U.S. film is remembered today as "one of the most notorious cases of casting discrimination in the 1930s". After the major disappointment of losing the role in The Good Earth , Wong announced plans for a year-long tour of China, to visit her father and his family in Taishan . Wong's father had returned to his hometown in China with her younger brothers and sister in 1934. Aside from Mei Lanfang's offer to teach her, she wanted to learn more about

8687-532: The films appeared—make no use of the term "Dragon Lady". (One writer, however, did refer to the Empress Dowager as "a little lady Bismarck.") Today’s anachronistic use of "Dragon Lady" in such cases may lead the modern reader to assume that the term was in earlier use than appears to be the case. Anna May Wong was the contemporary actress to assume the Dragon Lady role in American Cinema in

8806-581: The first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work. Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, and went on to appear in Daughter of the Dragon (1931), with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg 's Shanghai Express (1932), Java Head (1934), and Daughter of Shanghai (1937). In 1935, Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for

8925-675: The first spadeful of earth using a gold-plated shovel. In the same year, Wong starred in The Silk Bouquet . Re-titled The Dragon Horse in 1927, the film was one of the first U.S. films to be produced with Chinese backing, provided by San Francisco's Chinese Six Companies . The story was set in China during the Ming dynasty and featured Asian actors playing the Asian roles. Wong continued to be assigned supporting roles. Hollywood's Asian female characters tended toward two stereotypical poles:

9044-568: The headline: "Paramount Utilizes Anna May Wong to Produce Picture to Disgrace China" and continued, "Although she is deficient in artistic portrayal, she has done more than enough to disgrace the Chinese race." Critics in China believed that Wong's on-screen sexuality spread negative stereotypes of Chinese women. The most virulent criticism came from the Nationalist government , but China's intellectuals and liberals were not always so opposed to Wong, as demonstrated when Peking University awarded

9163-711: The highest per capita concentration of Chinese Americans of any major city in the United States, at an estimated 21.4%, or 172,181 people, and contains the second-largest total number of Chinese Americans of any U.S. city. San Francisco's Chinatown was established in the 1840s, making it the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of the largest neighborhoods of Chinese people outside of Asia, composed in large part by immigrants hailing from Guangdong province and also many from Hong Kong . The San Francisco neighborhoods of Sunset District and Richmond District also contain significant Chinese populations. Houston, Texas

9282-779: The highest concentration of Chinese Americans at 4.0%, or 55,000 people. According to the 2012 Census estimates, the three metropolitan areas with the largest Chinese American populations were the Greater New York Combined Statistical Area at 735,019 people, the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area at 629,243 people, and the Los Angeles Area Combined Statistical Area at about 566,968 people. New York City contains by far

9401-452: The highest ethnic Chinese population of any individual city outside Asia, estimated at 628,763 as of 2017. The Los Angeles County city of Monterey Park has the highest percentage of Chinese Americans of any municipality, at 43.7% of its population, or 24,758 people. The New York metropolitan area , which includes New York City , Long Island , and nearby areas within the states of New York , New Jersey , Connecticut , and Pennsylvania ,

9520-423: The house until 1934 when Wong's father returned to his hometown in China with Anna May's younger brothers and sister. Anna May had been paying for the education of her younger siblings, who put their education to work after they relocated to China. Before the family left, Wong's father wrote a brief article for Xinning , a magazine for overseas Taishanese, in which he expressed his pride in his famous daughter. With

9639-536: The introduction of Chinese and East Asian culture to America, such as Buddhism , Taoism , and Kung fu . Chinese immigrants to the United States brought many of their ideas, values, and culture with them. Some of these have continued to influence later generations, such as the Confucian respect for elders . Similarly, education and the civil service were the most important path for upward social mobility in China. The first Broadway show about Asian Americans

9758-910: The largest concentration of ethnic Chinese in the Western hemisphere ; while the Flushing Chinatown in Queens has become the world's largest Chinatown. As of 2023, illegal Chinese immigration to New York City , and especially to the Flushing, Queens Chinatown, has accelerated. Also on the East Coast , Greater Boston and the Philadelphia metropolitan area are home to significant Chinese American communities, with Chinatowns in Boston and Philadelphia hosting important and diverse cultural centers. Significant populations can also be found in

9877-492: The law until 1943. With relations already complicated by the Treaties of Wangxia and Tianjian, the increasingly harsh restrictions on Chinese immigration combined with the rising discrimination against Chinese living in the United States in the 1870s-early 1900s. During and after World War II , severe immigration restrictions were eased as the United States allied with China against Japanese expansionism . Later reforms in

9996-764: The lead male character, her white husband in the film. Wong's biographer, Graham Russell Hodges, commented that this may be why the film remained one of Wong's personal favorites. While in London, Wong met Mei Lanfang , one of the most famous stars of the Beijing Opera . She had long been interested in Chinese opera and Mei offered to instruct Wong if she ever visited China. In the 1930s, the popularity of Pearl Buck 's novels, especially The Good Earth , as well as growing American sympathy for China in its struggles with Japanese imperialism, opened up opportunities for more positive Chinese roles in U.S. films. Wong returned to

10115-475: The leading role of the Chinese character O-Lan in the film version of Pearl S. Buck 's The Good Earth . MGM instead cast Luise Rainer to play the leading role in yellowface . One biographer believes that the choice was due to the Hays Code anti-miscegenation rules requiring the wife of a white actor, Paul Muni (ironically playing a Chinese character in yellowface) to be played by a white actress. But

10234-552: The lyrics to " These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You) ", possibly as an evocation of his longing for her after they parted. Wong's first talkie was The Flame of Love (1930), which she recorded in French, English, and German. Though Wong's performance⁠—particularly her handling of the three languages⁠—was lauded, all three versions of the film received negative reviews. During the 1930s, American studios were looking for fresh European talent. Ironically, Wong caught their eye, and she

10353-513: The mountains; some of them were successfully rescued by a passing train. A total of 78 homes were burned. During the Hells Canyon massacre of 1887, at least 34 Chinese miners were killed. An accurate account of the event is still unavailable, but it is speculated that the Chinese miners were killed by gunshot during a robbery by a gang of seven armed horse thieves. Other acts of violence which were committed against Chinese immigrants include

10472-660: The movie Daughter of the Dragon , which premiered in 1931. Josef von Sternberg 's 1941 The Shanghai Gesture contains a performance by Ona Munson as 'Mother' Gin Sling, the proprietor of a gambling house, that bears mention within presentations of the genre. Contemporary actresses such as Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies may be constrained by the stereotype even when playing upstanding characters. These actresses portrayed characters whose actions are more masculine, sexually promiscuous, and violent. Lucy Liu

10591-468: The mutually unintelligible Wenzhounese , are spoken by a minority of recent Chinese immigrants hailing from Jiangsu , Zhejiang , and Shanghai . Although many Chinese Americans grow up learning English , some teach their children to speak Chinese for a variety of reasons: preservation of an ancient civilization, preservation of a group identity, preservation of their cultural ancestry, desire for easy communication with each other and their relatives, and

10710-616: The naturalization of Chinese migrants. Two years later, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited all Chinese from immigrating for 10 years, and required all Chinese people to carry identification. This was the first act to restrict immigration in American history. Then, six years later, the Scott Act of 1888 illegalized reentry to the United States after a visit to China, even for long-term legal residents. In 1892,

10829-679: The naïve and self-sacrificing "Butterfly" and the sly and deceitful "Dragon Lady". In Old San Francisco (1927), directed by Alan Crosland for Warner Brothers , Wong played a "Dragon Lady", a gangster's daughter. In Mr. Wu (1927), she played a supporting role as increasing censorship against mixed-race onscreen couples cost her the lead. In The Crimson City , released the following year, this happened again. Tired of being both typecast and passed over for lead Asian character roles in favor of non-Asian actresses, Wong left Hollywood in 1928 for Europe. Interviewed by Doris Mackie for Film Weekly in 1933, Wong complained about her Hollywood roles: "I

10948-408: The perception that Chinese is a very useful language. The official standard for United States public notices and signage is Traditional Chinese . Religions of Chinese Americans (2012) The majority of Chinese Americans do not report a religious affiliation . 43% of Chinese Americans switched to a different religion and 54% stayed within their childhood religion within their lifetime. According to

11067-478: The price point commanded by the public was not sufficiently profitable, and younger generations gained more lucrative careers and were not interested in inheriting the restaurants. Dragon Lady Dragon Lady is usually a stereotype of certain East Asian and occasionally South Asian and/or Southeast Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering, mysterious, and often sexually alluring. Inspired by

11186-400: The promise of appearing in a Josef von Sternberg film, Wong accepted another stereotypical role – the title character of Fu Manchu 's vengeful daughter in Daughter of the Dragon (1931). This was the last stereotypically "evil Chinese" role Wong played, and also her one starring appearance alongside the only other well-known Asian actor of the era, Sessue Hayakawa. Though she was given

11305-511: The role went instead to Toshia Mori . Again disappointed with Hollywood, Wong returned to Britain, where she stayed for nearly three years. In addition to appearing in four films, she toured Scotland and Ireland as part of a vaudeville show. She also appeared in the King George Silver Jubilee program in 1935. Her film Java Head (1934), though generally considered a minor effort, was the only film in which Wong kissed

11424-478: The role, telling MGM head of production Irving Thalberg , "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." The role Wong hoped for went to Luise Rainer , who won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Wong's sister, Mary Liu Heung Wong, appeared in

11543-428: The role. The Chinese government also advised the studio against casting Wong in the role. The Chinese advisor to MGM commented: "whenever she appears in a movie, the newspapers print her picture with the caption 'Anna May again loses face for China' ". According to Wong, she was instead offered the part of Lotus, a deceitful song girl who helps to destroy the family and seduces the family's oldest son. Wong refused

11662-531: 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. Completely unconscious of the camera, with a fine sense of proportion and remarkable pantomimic accuracy ... She should be seen again and often on the screen." Despite such reviews, Hollywood proved reluctant to create starring roles for Wong; her ethnicity prevented U.S. filmmakers from seeing her as

11781-402: The star" and that "from the moment Miss Wong dances in the kitchen's rear, she steals 'Piccadilly' from Miss Gray." Though the film presented Wong in her most sensual role yet of the five films, once again she was not permitted to kiss her white love interest and a controversial planned scene involving a kiss was cut before the film was released. Forgotten for decades after its release, Piccadilly

11900-570: The starring role, this status was not reflected in her paycheck: she was paid $ 6,000, while Hayakawa received $ 10,000 and Warner Oland , who is only in the film for 23 minutes, was paid $ 12,000. Wong began using her newfound celebrity to make political statements: late in 1931, for example, she wrote a harsh criticism of the Mukden Incident and Japan's subsequent invasion of Manchuria . She also became more outspoken in her advocacy for Chinese-American causes and for better film roles. In

12019-515: The strange experience of talking to my own people through an interpreter ." The toll of international celebrity on Wong's personal life manifested itself in bouts of depression and sudden anger, as well as excessive smoking and drinking. Feeling irritable when she disembarked in Hong Kong, Wong was uncharacteristically rude to the awaiting crowd, which then quickly turned hostile. One person shouted: "Down with Huang Liu-tsong—the stooge that disgraces China. Don't let her go ashore." Wong began crying and

12138-543: The study did also find several positive perceptions of Chinese Americans: strong family values (91%); honesty as entrepreneurs (77%); high value on education (67%). Early Chinese Americans struggled to survive in the United States because of prejudice, discrimination, and violence. In 1880, motivated by yellow peril and sensationalism surrounding the upcoming presidential election, a mob numbering 3,000 instigated an anti-Chinese riot in Denver, Colorado. A man named Look Young

12257-462: The supporting role of Lotus, the seductress, but it is ambiguous whether she refused the role on principle or was rejected. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village, studying Chinese culture, and documenting the experience on film at a time when prominent female directors in Hollywood were few. In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures , portraying Chinese and Chinese Americans in

12376-612: The teachings of Laozi had a strong influence on Wong's personal philosophy throughout her life. The family's religious life also included Christian thought, in the form of Presbyterianism , and as an adult she was a Christian Scientist for some time. However, she never officially joined the church, and her interest in it waned as she became involved with the New Thought Unity Church . Finding it difficult to keep up with both her schoolwork and her passion, Wong dropped out of Los Angeles High School in 1921 to pursue

12495-417: The term became part of American slang in the 1930s. "Dragon Lady" is one of two main stereotypes used to describe women, the other being "Lotus Blossoms". Lotus Blossoms tend to be the opposite of the Dragon Lady stereotype, having their character being hyper-sexualized and submissive. Dragon Lady is also used to refer to any powerful but prickly woman, usually in a derogatory fashion. Although sources such as

12614-858: The title role in the operetta Tschun Tschi in fluent German. An Austrian critic wrote, "Fräulein Wong had the audience perfectly in her power and the unobtrusive tragedy of her acting was deeply moving, carrying off the difficult German-speaking part very successfully." While in Germany, Wong became a friend of Leni Riefenstahl , who was at that time an actor and had not yet taken up film directing. Her close friendships with several women throughout her life, including Marlene Dietrich and Cecil Cunningham , led to rumors of lesbianism which damaged her public reputation. These rumors, in particular of her supposed relationship with Dietrich, further embarrassed Wong's family. They had long been opposed to her acting career, which

12733-519: The total number of ethnic Chinese in the United States since 1850. The states with the largest estimated Chinese American populations, according to the 2010 Census , were California (1,253,100; 3.4%), New York (577,000; 3.0%), Texas (157,000; 0.6%), New Jersey (134,500; 1.5%), Massachusetts (123,000; 1.9%), Illinois (104,200; 0.8%), Washington (94,200; 1.4%), Pennsylvania (85,000; 0.7%), Maryland (69,400; 1.2%), Virginia (59,800; 0.7%), and Ohio (51,033; 0.5%). The state of Hawaii has

12852-621: Was Flower Drum Song which premiered on Broadway in 1958; the hit Chinglish premiered on Broadway in 2011. In most American cities with significant Chinese populations, the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) is celebrated with cultural festivals and other celebrations. In Seattle , the Chinese Culture and Arts Festival is held every year. Other important festivals include the Dragon Boat Festival and

12971-463: Was Patterson or Caniff who coined that actual term, though it was almost certainly one of the two. Since the 1930s, when "Dragon Lady" became fixed in the English language, the term has been applied countless times to powerful East, Southeast and South Asian women, such as Soong Mei-ling , also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Madame Nhu of Vietnam, Devika Rani of India , and to any number of Asian or Asian American film actresses. That stereotype—as

13090-406: Was alive at the turn of the 20th century, or references to Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong as having started her career in the 1920s and early 1930s in "Dragon Lady" roles. In both these cases, however, articles written in the early 1900s about the Empress Dowager or reviews of Wong’s early films such as The Thief of Bagdad (1924) or Daughter of the Dragon (1931)—reviews written when

13209-540: Was born and raised in California, Wong began cultivating a flapper image. In March 1924, planning to make films about Chinese myths , she signed a deal creating Anna May Wong Productions ; when her business partner was found to be engaging in dishonest practices, Wong brought a lawsuit against him and the company was dissolved. It soon became evident that Wong's career would continue to be limited by American anti-miscegenation laws , which prevented her from sharing an on-screen kiss with any person of another race, even if

13328-474: Was later restored by the British Film Institute . Time magazine's Richard Corliss calls Piccadilly Wong's best film, and The Guardian reports that the rediscovery of this film and Wong's performance in it has been responsible for a restoration of the actress' reputation. While in London, Wong was romantically linked with writer and broadcasting executive Eric Maschwitz , who wrote

13447-418: Was lynched, and nearly all of Chinatown was destroyed. 185 Chinese men were held in jail for three days for their own safety. Most of the rioters arrested were dismissed, and the alleged murderers of Look Young were tried and found not guilty. In 1871, 17–20 Chinese immigrants were murdered in Los Angeles by a mob of around 500 men. This racially motivated massacre was one of the largest mass- lynchings in

13566-477: Was married to a wealthy Cantonese man named "Art". During her travels in China, Wong continued to be strongly criticized by the Nationalist government and the film community. She had difficulty communicating in many areas of China because she was raised with the Taishan dialect rather than Mandarin . She later commented that some of the varieties of Chinese sounded "as strange to me as Gaelic . I thus had

13685-546: Was not considered an entirely respectable profession at the time. London producer Basil Dean brought the play A Circle of Chalk for Wong to appear in with the young Laurence Olivier , her first stage performance in the United Kingdom. Criticism of her California accent , described by one critic as a "Yankee squeak", led to Wong seeking vocal tutoring at Cambridge University , where she trained in received pronunciation . Composer Constant Lambert , infatuated with

13804-653: Was offered a contract with Paramount Studios in 1930. Enticed by the promise of lead roles and top billing, she returned to the United States. The prestige and training she had gained during her years in Europe led to a starring role on Broadway in On the Spot , a drama that ran for 167 performances and which she would later film as Dangerous to Know . When the play's director wanted Wong to use stereotypical Japanese mannerisms, derived from Madame Butterfly , in her performance of

13923-499: Was so tired of the parts I had to play." She commented: "There seems little for me in Hollywood, because, rather than real Chinese, producers prefer Hungarians, Mexicans, American Indians for Chinese roles." In Europe, Wong became a sensation, starring in notable films such as Schmutziges Geld (aka Song and Show Life , 1928), Großstadtschmetterling ( Pavement Butterfly , 1929) and Der Weg zur Schande ( The Road to Dishonour , 1930), all three directed by Richard Eichberg . Of

14042-615: Was the second of seven children born to Wong Sam-sing, owner of the Sam Kee Laundry, and his second wife, Lee Gon-toy. Wong's parents were second-generation Chinese Americans; her maternal and paternal grandparents had arrived in the U.S. no later than 1855. Her paternal grandfather, A Wong Wong, was a merchant who owned two stores in Michigan Bluffs , a gold-mining area in Placer County . He had come from Chang On,

14161-528: Was working at Hollywood's Ville de Paris department store when Metro Pictures needed 300 female extras to appear in Alla Nazimova 's film The Red Lantern (1919). Without her father's knowledge, a friend of his with movie connections helped her land an uncredited role as an extra carrying a lantern. Wong worked steadily for the next two years as an extra in various movies, including Priscilla Dean and Colleen Moore pictures. While still

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