Anna May Wong: a woman's commitment to inclusive cinema
Think of how difficult it could have been to be a woman and, at the same time, an Asian in the United States of the 1920s. Today the Google Doodle reminds us of it, celebrating Anna May Wong, the first actress of Asian origin to make her Hollywood debut. There hasn't been a day when this woman stopped fighting against prejudices to have her cinematographic talent recognized.
Born in 1905 in the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, Anna May Wong, born Wong Liu Tsong, comes from a humble family of Chinese origin, and since she was a child, she has very clear ideas: she wants to be an actress.
Racism and an oppressive family: a dream opposed from the beginning
But between saying and doing, as we know, there is the sea, but also the prejudices, stereotypes and racism that Asian immigrants were forced to suffer every day. Anna, however, must not only clash with the dullness of US society, because there is also a profoundly traditionalist family that fears that their daughter could cause scandal.
Despite this, in 1922, at the age of 17, the actress made her debut in one of the first color films in the history of cinema, "The Toll of the Sea", but, no longer being cast exclusively as a secondary actress or mere extra, In fact, we remember that at the time the Hays Code was in force, a collection of strict rules, including the prohibition to represent on the big screen love relationships between actors of different ethnicities, Anna decides to leave for Europe.
The Old Continent is completely fascinated by the image of this woman who does not allow herself to be pigeonholed into rigid mental schemes and it is here that she gets significant roles as in the 1929 film "Picadilly". The official consecration comes once she returns home. , where she stars opposite an iconic Marlene Dietrich in “Shanghai Express”, a film by Josef von Sternberg.
Glory and fame are not enough to definitively eradicate ethnic discrimination: in fact, Wong continues to receive significantly lower salaries than her non-Sino-American colleagues and, in 1935, the most serious episode in the history of her career, when the actress is completely snubbed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for the starring role in the film "The Good Earth", seeing herself prefer a non-American actress, the German Luise Rainer, who will even be awarded the Oscar . In addition to the damage, also the insult.
The bitter disappointment pushes her to temporarily leave the scene to set out to discover China and its cultural heritage. Here, however, she suffers a second form of racism: the Chinese people accuse her of being "too American".
He returns to the fore after the Second World War with a part in the series “The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong”, which is worth mentioning as the first program in which the protagonist is a woman of Asian origin.
See also
A style icon that left us too soon
Anna May Wong was not just an actress, but a true style icon. An extraordinary beauty wrapped in her long red cheongsam (traditional Chinese dress), hand fan and candelabra earrings. In the 1930s she was even elected "best dressed woman in the world" by the Mayfair Mannequin Society of New York.
Unfortunately, in 1961, Anna suffered a heart attack and, at the age of 56, she left that world which, perhaps too late, had realized its immense value. The rediscovery of the actress took place in 2000, when the woman, unfortunately post-mortem, was finally recognized for the merits that had been denied her in life. We, just like Google, want to celebrate her for her courage to go against stereotypes and the determination with which she demanded that her due be recognized. Forgive us, Anna, if we realized it too late.
