Anna May Wong

Kelly Therese Pollock  0:00  
This is Unsung History, the podcast where we discuss people and events in American history that haven't always received a lot of attention. I'm your host, Kelly Therese Pollock. I'll start each episode with a brief introduction to the topic, and then talk to someone who knows a lot more than I do. Be sure to subscribe to Unsung History on your favorite podcasting app, so you never miss an episode. And please, tell your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, maybe even strangers to listen too. On this episode, we're looking at the life and career of Anna May Wong. Wong Liu Tsong was born on January 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, near Chinatown. Wong's father, Wong Sam Sing, owned a Chinese laundry, and he moved his growing family to a neighborhood further from Chinatown when Liu Tsong was still young, in order to run the laundry there. Liu Tsong and her older sister started at public school, but they were harassed by anti Chinese racial taunts. So they moved to a Presbyterian Chinese school in Chinatown, where they learned Cantonese, in addition to English. At the same time, that Liu Tsong was becoming fascinated with motion pictures, the movie industry was looking to Chinatown to provide interesting backdrops for its stories. Liu Tsong Wong spent her limited free time at the movies, or hanging around film sets, becoming known by the filmmakers as CCC, "curious Chinese child." At 14, she was an extra in the Red Lantern, an uncredited part, but one that thrilled her nonetheless. Adopting the name Anna May Wong, she dropped out of high school to pursue an acting career. At 17, she starred in "The Toll of the Sea," a silent film version of The Madame Butterfly story set in China. Despite glowing reviews, Wong had trouble finding parts at a time when Hollywood preferred to cast white actors in yellow face paint instead of Asian actors for the leading Asian roles. Asian Americans like Wong were relegated to bit parts and stereotyped roles. In 1924, Wong was cast in a Douglas Fairbanks film, "The Thief of Baghdad," where she played a deceitful Mongol slave. Wong tried to start her own production company, Anna May Wong Productions, in an attempt to film less racist stories, but a dishonest business partner sunk the endeavor. Frustrated by Hollywood's racism, Wong accepted a role in Berlin in 1928. She left for Europe, where she found more success, starring among other films, in "Piccadilly" in 1929. While Wong was in Europe, she filmed her first talkie, "The Flame of Love," in 1930, where she played the lead. She also starred on stage opposite a young Laurence Olivier. With studio promises of better roles, Wong returned to Hollywood, starring in "Daughter of the Dragon" in 1931, and "Shanghai Express," with her friend Marlena Dietrich, in 1932. But Hollywood racism still limited her career options and continued to frustrate her. When she was passed up for the lead role in "The Good Earth," a role that instead went to a German actress in yellow face, Wong left Hollywood in disgust to travel to China in 1936. In China, Wong was feted and she won over the Chinese media, which had been disdainful of her stereotypical portrayals in Hollywood. In China, Wong directed and produced a documentary of her trip, which she called, "My China Film," that includes scenes with her father in their ancestral village, and of her fittings for traditional Chinese clothing. Two decades later, Wong's film, with her added narration, was turned into an episode of "Bold Journey" on ABC Television. When she returned to Hollywood, Wong was finally able to play more nuanced roles. Saying of Paramount's 1937 "Daughter of Shanghai," where she played opposite her friend, Korean American Philip Ahn,  "I like my part in this picture better than any I've had before, not because it gives me better acting opportunities, nor because the character has exceptional appeal. It's just because the picture gives the Chinese a break. We have the sympathetic parts for a change. To me, that means a great deal." During World War II, Wong raised money for Chinese relief, auctioning off costumes, and hosting charity events, and fundraisers. She also starred in propaganda films, "Bombs Over Burma," and "The Lady from Chungking," that depicted Chinese guerrilla fighters battling with Japanese forces. Although her career waned after World War II, Wong continued to perform, including on television, where she played an art gallery owner who solved crimes in the one season of "The Gallery of Madame Liu Tsong" in 1951. It was the first US television series to star an Asian American woman in the lead role. Liu Tsong of course, was Wong's Chinese name. Sadly, when the DuMont Television Network folded, they trashed most of their film stock, including "The Gallery of Madame Liu Tsong," which is said to be on the bottom of the Hudson River. By this time, Wong was also a landlady after she bought a Spanish style house in Santa Monica, and divided it into four apartments, calling the property Moongate Apartments. She rented out three of the units while living in the fourth. In 1960, Wong was the first Asian American actress to be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It wasn't until 2019 that the second Asian American actress was awarded a star on the Walk of Fame. That actress was Lucy Liu, who said in her ceremony for her star,  "I was lucky that trailblazers like Anna May Wong and Bruce Lee came before me. If my body of work somehow helped bridge the gap between stereotypical roles first given to Anna May and mainstream success today, I'm thrilled to have been part of that process." In 1961, Wong was set to make a comeback, cast as Madame Liang in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Flower Drum Song." Sadly, health problems kept her from taking the roll. On February 3, 1961, Wong died of a heart attack in her Santa Monica home, at the age of only 56. Reportedly, a copy of "The Flower Drum Song" film script was next to her when she died. In 2022, the United States Mint began issuing Anna May Wong quarters as part of its American Women Quarters series, making Wong the first Asian American to appear on US currency. In 2023, Mattel introduced an Anna May Wong doll into its Barbie Inspiring Women series, the first Asian American figure in the series. Joining me now is Dr. Yunte Huang, professor of English at the University of California Santa Barbara, and author of "Daughter of the Dragon: Anna Mae Wong's Rendezvous with American History." First, though, here's a clip of Anna May Wong singing in Cantonese, on the Rudy Vallee Radio Show in July, 1935.

Anna May Wong  10:57  
Greetings ladies and gentlemen, and friends, it's good to be back in America. And I'm very happy to be amongst those present on Mr. Vallee's program too. For the benefit of the few who do not understand Chinese, the last number I did was a Chinese folk song entitled, "Jasmine Flower."

Kelly Therese Pollock  11:19  
Hi, Yunte. Thanks so much for joining me today.

Dr. Yunte Huang  11:21  
Well, thank you for having me, Kelly.

Kelly Therese Pollock  11:23  
Yes, I am so excited to learn about Anna May Wong. I want to start by asking you a little bit about how you came to write this book. I know this is the third in what you're calling a trilogy. So I wanted to understand a little bit about the trilogy and why you're writing this book.

Dr. Yunte Huang  11:39  
Right. So as you said, correctly, that this biography on Anna May Wong is really the third installment of what I want to call "Rendezvous with America." I'm a mystery buff, so the "Rendezvous at Midnight" reference  is nice, but it's more kind of Asian American, Asian Americans meeting American history in some ways. And so overall, my goal is to tell the Asian American story and share the Asian American experience in the making of American history. But of course I didn't plan it that way, until many years ago, and it's really all thanks to my first book of the trilogy on Charlie Chan. And in that book, as you know,  Charlie Chan was a very controversial film character,  but it turns out there's actually a real Cantonese cop in Honolulu who inspired the character. So I did that book, and because it's about Asian American image in popular culture and everything, Anna May Wong would inevitably come up in our thinking of Asian American history. And so I wrote a page or two about Anna May Wong, just as an example, since you know, Warner Oland, for instance, who figures quite prominently in my current book on Anna May Wong, was a good friend of Anna May Wong. They pair up in a number of films, in silent films, and later on, especially in this Fu Manchu series, as well as the Charlie Chan series. So they're partnered in a number of films, including "Shanghai Express" with Marlene Dietrich. So anyway, so I had to write a few pages on Anna May Wong. And so the second of the trilogy was on the Siamese twins. Once again, because of the Charlie Chan book, I had to dig, go back to 19th century, the Asian American experience and Chang and Eng Bunker, you know, Siamese twins, really represented that the early experience, whereas Charlie Chan represents more kind of 20th century controversy. And so after these two books, it's almost like natural in some ways, you know how things come together. So I'm quite happy about that, and about the three pieces now finally, together.

Kelly Therese Pollock  14:05  
So I do want to ask a little bit about your method and the kind of sources you looked at. I get the impression that you watched a lot of the films, which seems like a fun part of doing the work. You talk about how Anna May Wong herself was a writer and wrote a lot. So can you talk some about the things you were able to access while you were putting together this book?

Dr. Yunte Huang  14:28  
Well, speaking of watching films, and of course, I had to watch all the Anna May Wong films. But I should tell you, for instance, thanks to Netflix, and all that, and all the YouTube and so when I actually was doing for instance, I'll give you one example. I wasn't born in this country. And I grew up in China, went to college there and then came to the United States for graduate school and then got stuck, and happily in some ways. So I wasn't  too familiar with  American popular culture to begin with, although I studied American literature. So, for instance, again, when I was researching for the Siamese twins book, it turns out, you know, Chang and Eng Bunker, with conjoined bodies, after they made a lot of money, they eventually settled down. I'm sorry, it sounds like a digression. But I will come back. My students often complain that I ramble, but that everything actually is interconnected that you asked me about method. And that is really my method of research how, you know, it's like a detective, right?  You follow every clue and every hint, we, you know, smell, let's just say so anyway, so Chang and Eng Bunker  made a lot of money eventually, and they're sick and tired of the public eye. And so they settled, retired from the business, so showing their own bodies, as in freak shows, and all that and they chose a spot in a very remote area, as you may know, Kelly, in, you know, the corner of western North Carolina. And they settled, and married two white sisters, and they had 21 children, right, amazing story. But it turns out, that's how strange American stories often are, is that, you know, Mount Airy, North Carolina, was where they eventually settled and have, you know, have kids, raising kids and living on two farms. But it turns out, it's also the birthplace of Andy Griffith. And that was the basis of you know, Mayberry, The Andy Griffith Show. Not having grown up in his country, you know, I'd never seen any Andy Griffith Show, except occasionally, you know, the reruns on TV. So because I was doing research, of course, I had to watch like, 249 episodes are all of them. Speaking of binge watching, because I didn't really want to miss any possible connection, right. As a writer, I'm pretty thorough as a you know, as a cultural historian. I'm pretty thorough digging, you know, any connection, any clue. And so yeah, 249, so compared to that, well  60 or so Anna May Wong films was a piece of cake.

Kelly Therese Pollock  17:13  
I love that. So let's talk a little bit about the Southern California that Anna May Wong was born into. So she is born in early 1905. And, you know, the it's a quite a racist country, especially in California, especially toward Chinese Americans at this time. Can you talk a little bit about that, that culture she's born into and how that affects her life?

Dr. Yunte Huang  17:41  
Right. I mean, today, when people look at California as the you know, that's the bluest state, in the union. Oh can imagine in the late 19th century, early 20th century, as you say, you know, turn of the century, California or Southern California wasn't really a great place for Asians by by any means. I mean, I can give you examples, you know, the anti Chinese violence after the gold rush, right. I described that in actually all three of my books, because that's very important, you know, chapter of Asian American experience. So when Anna May Wong was brought, or was born in Los Angeles, she was born in her father's laundry, steam and starch. And laundry, interestingly, I just gave you an example, what kind of sentiment you know, overall general sentiment toward Chinese. A lot of cities in California would not allow Chinese to live outside of Chinatown. Unless, for instance, give you an example in San Francisco right at the time, Chinamen so called, were not allowed to live beyond Chinatown, with one exception, that if you run a laundromat, then you can do your business and  live in there as well. So they weren't like sort of like the vanguard, you know, pioneers moving out of Chinatown. So when Anna May Wong was growing up, yes, I she actually grew up outside of Chinatown, although close enough to enable the family to go back you know, go back to Chinatown for communal connection, grocery shopping and you know, food and everything language school she went to, so she decided I'll go into public school and then what if it's not going to happen? So they did her parents send them you know, her and her sister back to Chinatown for a few years before they were strong enough as children to handle that kind of all the bullying and everything. So that wasn't very kind of friendly environment. And of course, California is also considered the what is called the garrison state, right? Because this is where, you know, the continental limit of European civilization will meet the other side, which is Hawaii and the Polynesians and ultimately Asia. It's like the last, you know, defense line against the other side. So that that mentality was deep rooted in California Golden State. And it really shows up again, especially during World War II after Pearl Harbor. The internment of Japanese Americans was really a symptom of that this is the final line, right? So Japanese Americans living on the west coast will be sent to camps. But of course, if you're back in New York and something if you're Japanese, then you're fine. So that really shows a lot of kind of the local culture and the history and the general sentiment and attitude toward Asian Americans.

Kelly Therese Pollock  20:42  
That attitude then spills over into Hollywood. And so despite there's a ton of movies being made about Asian Americans, and yet Anna May Wong has trouble getting roles, especially starring roles. Can you talk a little bit about that tension and, and what's going on there, that means that she's often, especially at the beginning of her career relegated to sort of sideline roles or evil roles?

Dr. Yunte Huang  21:07  
Right. Well, in some ways, she was lucky. It's hard to put it that way. But it is true, because when Hollywood was rising as a industry as a place and as a state of mind, eventually that strangely, especially the early films, the silent films, as you know, oftentimes, the director just put a camera, still camera, just, you know, static, put it there and just taking the scenes, and the Chinatown became a very kind of, almost ready made set for those early films. So that's something I write about a little bit. It's actually the what I call the umbilical cord that ties Hollywood to Chinatown in many ways. So not just the street scene but also laundry you know how mechanical that the labor was robotic. And also the fear that Chinese there are so hard working, but also they don't get tired. That exaggeration, right racist attitude, and what I call the techno-Orientalism, that on the one hand, they are beasts, they're animals, and they're almost like subhuman, in a sense their capacity to handle pain, for instance. So some of the earlier films, if you, if you do look at them, unfortunately, they're all you know, hidden, stored away in vaults, because studios are afraid to let them out obvious, for obvious reasons, they are very racist. And if you look at those early ones, there was a lot of violence against like Asian bodies. And these are all kind of what I call the ready-made footage. And it doesn't require a lot of editing almost. And so so in that sense, Hollywood was always in Chinatown in those early years. So in essence, Anna May Wong was lucky because she didn't have to go to Hollywood. Hollywood came to her, unlike, you know, what we call the movie girls in the early days, right? A lot of you know, young American women will from going anywhere small town, Midwest, Chicago, Illinois, or you know, Ohio, they'll buy one way train ticket to come to California, stop at Union Station and hoping for something. And that's not the case. And everyone do not have to buy a train ticket for them. And the bus will come to Chinatown to, you know, to hire the extras and all that. As you know, that's how she actually started out. And her first appearance was in 1919 "Red Lantern," and she was the kind of you know, uncredited extra, as a lantern carrier. She actually couldn't recognize her own face in the crowd. But she was very proud of it. So in that environment, she rose and like, like you said, on the one hand, as you know, fascination with Chinatown, the exoticism and the shops, the curio shops, the dark alleys, the smell and everything. That's one fascination. On the other hand, as you know, America of Hollywood has a long history of yellow face or red face, you know, white actors playing, you know, colored roles. So, throughout her career, you always see this paradox and that they're really I'm interested in that paradox, because that says a lot about America in a sense, how America is sort of like at war with itself. They like one thing, but they also hate something else. They're the same thing. So anyway, while for instance, because of her beauty, her talent and everything, so any what they at the time called the China flick, or even so yellow flicks, it means Chinese themes, you know films. It's not possible that they don't have Anna May Wong because she's the was the biggest star later on. But on the other hand, she will she could not have done these roles because of the Hollywood racism, the Hays Code and everything. So it's interesting. You want one thing. On the other hand, you can't have that. 

Kelly Therese Pollock  25:11  
Yeah, can you talk about the role of the anti miscegenation laws too, and how that affected the kind of role she was able to get?

Dr. Yunte Huang  25:18  
Right. So, it does not just, you know, what I call the virtual form of foot binding really, right, because the Hays Code or the earlier you know, kind of industry rules will not allow interracial kissing, for instance, and kiss as you know, as some film historians say, it's really the face and soul of 20th century love. You know, without romantic kissing, you know, rom com will never happen. And because of that, it's like small technical detail that really dooms her career  and to a great extent. And so that's, that's really kind of, you know, virtual form of foot binding. But but then we can't forget, we are talking about real human being, and their anti miscegenation law, not just, you know, applies to film. It applies to reality as well. So interracial marriage was not recognized at the time, and it wasn't until 1967, right? Loving versus Virginia, eventually kind of regarded miscegenation laws unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. And at the time of that ruling, there were still 16 states in the Union, where anti miscegenation law was still on the books. So if you look at her personal life, so I spent actually a lot of time trying to describe, you know, what, what was it like, when she was, I would say, aged, okay, in later part of her life was quite tragic, right? I think it has much to do, of course, with the anti miscegenation law. And she can't marry a white man, she could have romance but can't, you know, couldn't. Her good friend, James Wong Howe, a very famous photographer who won the Oscar twice, he married his Caucasian wife, in France, because you know, it wasn't going to happen in the United States, and they came back and lived in the United States in California. But they were afraid to let their marriage you know, become public. So that, you know that's the tragedy. You know, that people are drawn, of course, to spec spectacles. And, you know, her story is a spectacular story of a Chinese woman, you know, rising from her father's laundry to become a global celebrity. And people are drawn to that kind of, you know, a shine and the spectacle, but I'm very interested in digging what's underneath, you know, the depth and the length of her struggle, and the depth of that tragedy, and what it says about us and all that.

Kelly Therese Pollock  28:01  
So she goes to Europe, then, because she's having trouble with her career in the United States. And this is not uncommon. Of course, there are other entertainers and writers and artists who did the same thing. Can you talk a little bit about that this is, you know, sort of immediately before, Nazism is rising in, in Germany, and she's in Germany, and she's enjoying her time in Germany, and able to make movies there. What What was that like? And you know, she does a lot of like learning languages to be able to work there. What was that part of her life like?

Dr. Yunte Huang  28:35  
Yes. So because of, you know, she was fed up in Hollywood, and she will actually later on, she'll run away again. But her first runaway, was to Europe, as you pointed out, in 1928. And she arrived, you know, Weimar Republic, right. And it was a short lived kind of golden period, in Germany, and before the rise of the Nazis as you, as you said, and then also kind of that story, that experience how she rose, you know, in Europe. The irony here is this, that, basically, she went to Europe, to be recognized as American. Because, you know, in the United States, she's just Chinese. She's not really American. Right. And so when she went to Europe, people recognized her as an American American star, you know, an actress from Hollywood, that's actually how she was hired, because the Germany was trying to compete with Hollywood, and what is the best way to go to Hollywood, Hollywood, all American American, and strangely, they found a Chinese star, right. And, of course, racism against Asians is a different kind of, I think, you know, I wouldn't say different level, but it's a different kind of historical experience. The, you know, Chinatown in Germany didn't really exist. It's a very small kind of yellow corner so called. And so so she became a star in Europe, using, again, her exoticism. And people are attracted to exoticism. So what what, like, what is what was she in the eye of Europeans at the time? That's a very interesting question, right? Because we know what she was in America at that time, people look at her, she was just Chinese girl, right. And in Europe, however, strangely, she embodies that China, oh, you know, middle kingdom, and as well as California. So that's a kind of interesting mix. And you can say it's sort of like a mis-recognition, but it's a willful mis-recognition from the European side. So for instance, people often ask me, like, "What is my favorite Anna May Wong film?" Right? I was anticipating that question. So I might as well say it right now, "Piccadilly," 1929. And this is really, the swan song of the silent era. It's a silent film. And because she was away from Hollywood, and somewhat, you know, distanced from the constraints of Hollywood, I wouldn't say Britain allowed her to do whatever she wanted. Actually, that's not the case at all. But at least she enjoys certain kinds of freedom the same way, as you mentioned, you know, her trajectory, like going to Europe, it's quite common. To some extent, Josephine Baker, right was a totally comparable case. So in "Piccadilly," she was playing, you know, the Uptown, the West End, and the East End, the Limehouse, and the posh clubbing scene and everything, the contrast. So she was  able, in real life, and also in the film, especially kind of shuttle between these two sides. And she was able to do all the dance. And so I think that going to Europe really allowed her to mature and to be recognized as, as a real talent, a global star. So that really helped her, you know, her second part of her career when she came back to Hollywood.

Kelly Therese Pollock  32:11  
So you just mentioned that that was the end of the silent era. And she's able to make that transition then into the talkies as they start, but she had to really work at it. Right? Can you talk a little bit about that, that transition, which a lot of actresses and actors were not able to make, and she is able to make it but it's not easy.

Dr. Yunte Huang  32:33  
Absolutely. And that once again, shows how not just how talented she was, but tenacity that she really worked hard. So she survived the transition, unlike many silent stars, who fell, you know, on the side, she was able to make the transition to from silent film to talkie. And later on, once again, she was able to make the transition from film to television, that's the later on part of a career. But back to this, this transition, you know, yes. So she went left California, went to Europe. So "Piccadilly" was a silent film, and she was able to do you know, all the acting, without having to say a line, speak a line. But then she was immediately hired to, because her ambition was always in theater, actually stage kind of theater, you know, high art. So she was after "Piccadilly," she had the lead role in "A Circle of Chalk," which was based on an older kind of Chinese play translated into German, and then re-translated into English. And so without any theatrical, you know, kind of professional training, because of her talent in "Piccadilly," she was given this lead role playing Hai-tang, and imagine the, the effect. So, it's like, if you're suddenly to, you know, turn on the volume on, you know, on a silent film. So, critics were shocked on the one hand, they thought she was, uh, she was great, you know, acting, you know, the emotional crying and everything. But the minute she's opened her mouth, the California twang came out. And as you know, especially in theater, British accent is, you know, highly sought after, you know. I learned my lesson when I first got out of graduate school in Buffalo and went to teach at Harvard, my first teaching job, and I suddenly I heard a lot of British accent and then when I dug a little deeper, they were just good old Americans, you know, feigning that kind of British accent a tiny bit a little touch, it's like food, you know, you add a little soy sauce or pinch of salt will change the dynamics right? So it made her realize in order to survive the transition, she needed coaching tutoring. So she spent a lot of money hiring a coach from Oxford. And so she left California with a strong California accent kind of, you know, essential valley girl accent. And when she returned to America in 1930, she was speaking with a kind of almost like high class British accent. So that's how she kind of fashioned herself. So she was a very hard worker. Certainly.

Kelly Therese Pollock  35:36  
Yeah. And then one of the movies I think that final movie she made in Europe, she did in three different languages? That's amazing!

Dr. Yunte Huang  35:44  
Absolutely. I, you know, in my book, I call her the the star coolie right, you know, the coolie labor. So star coolie is kind of a sort of, you know, it's twisted term. And yeah, so she picked up German. And she also picked up French. And usually when they make these multilingual films, and usually they have a total different cast for each, you know, each film, language filming. At the time, you know, France, Germany and, and UK, they joined forces together trying to compete with Hollywood. And, you know, Netflix today, for instance, you know, they they do that, right, you know, in different the same story, but totally different countries and you know, they have a total different cast, right. But because  Anna May Wong was so hard working and, and she was able to pull it off, the studios really took advantage of her. I think it's really exploitation, of course, and but what she was also, you know, proud and happy to do it, that she was able to pull it off in three different languages. But of course, eventually, when it's taking a stance, you really need to go to some place to recover, because it's so exhausting and everything.

Kelly Therese Pollock  36:58  
You mentioned that this was her first running away from Hollywood. The second one, of course, she goes to China, and she's Chinese American, but had never been there before to China. Can you talk a little bit about that that trip seems so formative then to the rest of her life after that, can you talk about that, that trip, what she was hoping to do, and you know, what she experienced while she was there?

Dr. Yunte Huang  37:21  
Right. So after success in Europe, she came back and was a given, you know, some important roles, lead roles, including in "Daughter of the  Dragon," in which she actually had the lead role. And then she was in "Shanghai Express," playing second fiddle to Marlene Dietrich, although she was great. Despite all that, she was never able to find a lead role again, for quite a number of years. But there's one role she really wanted badly. And that would have made a huge difference for her career, was "The Good Earth," based on Pearl Buck's you know, Pulitzer Prize winning novel, and that was like the biggest China movie, so like "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" today. Everybody was talking about it way before, you know, the movie came out and was a big budget film. And she really wanted the role of O-Lan, Chinese peasant woman. But of course, it was given away to a an Austrian actress, Luise Rainer. Although to you know, Rainer's credit, she actually won an Oscar for it. But But that's, you know, Hollywood culture, the yellow face was still trendy, and there was still the must do thing, right. And really, that really broke Anna May Wong's heart and spirit. And she was really fed up. So she left for China, because her family, her father, especially, you know, had to retire to China and she and went along with her other siblings. So she wanted to go see China, in her fatherland she had represented all these years without knowingly. So anyway, so she went there in 1936. And she initially, initially she wanted to spend six months, but she ended up actually spending nine months and visiting quite a number of cities, and she met her father and everything. But there's one kind of a purpose of her trip, going back to her again, her interest, commitment of theater, she really wanted to bring Chinese opera, you know, Peking Opera, Chinese style opera, to the west. And, you know, think professionals are still trying to figure out how to do it today, even because Chinese opera is so different from say, Italian opera, but it's a kind of, you know, honorable, long, rich history. But in terms of cultural translation, it's kind of hard to do. So she was very devoted to that. And she just spent a lot of time in Shanghai, and Peking, trying to learn from the masters. So her purpose was to go bring Chinese theater to the west and maybe present it to the world. But she ended up, unfortunately, buying a lot of costumes, Chinese  theatrical costumes, because you realize Chinese theater is such a difficult art that especially you need to be fluent in Mandarin Chinese, or whatever dialect you speak or the the opera. That's because there's a diverse, you know, variety of operas, language, Cantonese opera, there's Peking opera, there's Huangmeixi, and Kunqu, and all that. And the most of the operas are regional and required, you know, a local dialect. Peking Opera requires Mandarin Chinese. And anyway was despite the fact that she went to Chinese school in her early years, she spoke mostly Cantonese. Mandarin was still kind of sketchy, a little bit. So without that linguistic skill, it is not possible, you know. The enunciation and everything is just not possible. So she realized that there's a limit to what she could do. But she ended up buying a lot of costumes, like I said, and did a lot of research, bought a lot of books, and she's really a serious student, and brought everything back to California.

Kelly Therese Pollock  41:20  
It's shortly after that, that World War II starts, or at least the Japanese invasion of China, and then eventually, what leads to World War II. Can you talk a little bit about Anna May Wong and what what she's doing during World WarII, and really trying to raise raise awareness of what's happening in China and raise funds for China?

Dr. Yunte Huang  41:42  
Right. So World Wat II began much earlier, you know, in Asia, than anywhere else, the Japanese invasion in 1937. And actually, two of her siblings were in Shanghai when Shanghai was bombed. But fortunately, you know, her siblings were fine, or managed to manage to get out safely. So during what, in that period, you know, that's the other aspect of my book is that the nitty gritty details lie underneath the spectacle. For instance, because she was Chinese and the Japanese invasion, and the outbreak of the full scale scale war, inevitably will involve her in terms of fundraising in Chinatown, and in speaking out against Japanese and everything, right. So so people might think, "Okay, she's Asian American, and, you know, we are all in this together." But no, during World War II, of course, Chinese tried to distance in California tried to distance themselves from Japanese, especially during, you know, the internment, right. And Chinese would wear labels and wear buttons that say, "I'm Chinese, and I'm not Japanese," trying to distance themselves. So there's a kind of inner kind of conflict going on. So we need to, you know, to be honest, because of that's a real sentiment people had at the time, but like I said, she's mostly involved in fundraising, going to using her, you know, celebrity status, to raise money for for war relief in China. But she also very importantly, made two films in that period, "Bombs over Burma," and "Lady from Chungking." And the critics will regard it sort of like propaganda films, you know, and the Hollywood actually turned out a lot of kind of anti Japanese films and a very racist, of course, even the State Department tried to talk to Hollywood studio producers to like tone it down a little bit, because we don't want to get into this conflict with Japan right now. Because before Pearl Harbor, as you may know, America was actually not willing to get involved in the in another European war, basically, right. They learned a lesson from the first one until Pearl Harbor broke out and then they became inevitable. So Anna May Wong was kind of really caught up. Earlier, you asked me about, you know, my method as a writer. And I really want to show not in a sense of kind of easy contextualization, but I really want to show how one person's, you know, story cannot really be told in a meaningful way without really looking at what's going on elsewhere. So even locally in Southern California, after Pearl Harbor, the fear, the paranoia, right. And where I live right now, in in Santa Barbara, you know, many people don't know that, you know, Santa Barbara is the the only place actually in continental USA that was actually attacked by Japanese, right, because the Japanese submarine one day, you know, came up and looked at the Santa Ynez Mountains and the submarine sent over some shells after shells. The shelling of Santa Barbara didn't cause any damage, they tried to destroy the oil refinery, and but they hit mostly eucalyptus trees and the hills. But imagine the panic at the time, the Japanese actually showed up in offshore here. So that was kind of dim out period that people cannot turn on lights. So people are driving around in the dark and pedestrians got killed as a result, not by Japanese shelling. So Anna May Wong was, you know, trying to do fundraising and driving around at night and going to you know, all these social events and everything in the context of this fear of Japanese invasion, people panicking. And then, of course, follow up by the US soldiers actually being sent to, you know, to the battlefield. And so she will ended up touring the camps, and joining the USO campaign and everything. So she did all she could during those years.

Kelly Therese Pollock  46:01  
So there's a million more things we could talk about, of course, but I think at this point, people should just go buy your books. So can you tell people how to get a copy of your book?

Dr. Yunte Huang  46:10  
Oh, it's available, like like they say anywhere books are sold. The book is called, "Daughter of the Dragon." The title is borrowed from the vintage Anna May Wong film, "Daughter of the Dragon."

Kelly Therese Pollock  46:23  
Is there anything else you wanted to make sure we talked about?

Dr. Yunte Huang  46:26  
I think in the context of say, you know, what's going on with "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," and the writers' strike and everything, I guess her story, I want to emphasize not just you know, it's multi layered. Right. It's it's a story of Southern California. It's a story of Hollywood, the sexism, racism, but also very importantly, ageism, which still kind of haunts Hollywood today. But it's also really a story of America, of course, that America if America like, you know, falls in love with her looks, and she's really strikingly good looking, that romance really also became a taboo because of her looks. And that's really one you know, if there's a one line kind of story, I want to tell it is this.

Kelly Therese Pollock  47:15  
Yunte, thanks so much for speaking with me today. And thank you for this terrific book. I really enjoyed learning about Anna May Wong and then started googling her videos and started watching so many movies, so I I really appreciate it. 

Dr. Yunte Huang  47:28  
Well, thank you Kelly.

Anna May Wong  47:31  
When I sang this next song for the first time in Rome, imagine my embarrassment when my talent went completely wrong. But the audience was most gracious and turned what I felt was failure into success. So much so the managers stood in the wings every performance after that muttering, "Make mistake. Make mistake." Mr. Valley tells me the song is very popular here under the title "Tell Me That You Love Me Tonight." I will sing a combination of the Italian and British selection.

Singing

Teddy  50:19  
Thanks for listening to Unsung History. Please subscribe to Unsung History on your favorite podcasting app. You can find the sources used for this episode and a full episode transcript @UnsungHistorypodcast.com. To the best of our knowledge, all audio and images used by Unsung History are in the public domain or are used with permission. You can find us on twitter or instagram @Unsung__History, or on Facebook @UnsungHistorypodcast. To contact us with questions, corrections, praise, or episodes suggestions, please email Kelly@UnsungHistorypodcast.com. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate, review, and tell everyone you know. Bye!

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