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Star of the Month: Anna May Wong
TCM, Beginning at 7 p.m.
For those who are unaware of actress Wong Liu Tsong — better known as Anna May Wong
— the next few months will offer some opportunities to discover this pioneer of Hollywood’s early era who is regarded as the first Chinese American movie star. Later this year, Wong will round out 2022’s inaugural group of women spotlighted in the U.S. Mint’s fouryear American Woman Quarters Program (this also makes Wong the first Asian American to appear on U.S. currency). More immediately, you’ll be able to enjoy the star’s
charismatic acting when she is honored by Turner Classic Movies each Thursday night in May — which is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month — with lineups featuring a number of her films. The titles primarily include her work in the silent and early sound eras. Those were particularly tough times for Asian American actors in Hollywood, who often faced being typecast in stereotypical supporting roles and losing
out on lead roles entirely due to the practice of “yellowface,” where white actors would portray Asian characters, often as a caricature. Despite such hurdles and frustrations throughout her career, Wong was able to achieve international stardom as an actress and a fashion icon, and you can see why this month on TCM beginning with tonight’s
lineup, which kicks off with The Toll of the Sea (pictured) (1922). A variation of the Madame Butterfly tale set in China instead of Japan, this silent film is one of the earliest Hollywood productions shot in color and features Wong in her first leading role, albeit one that placed her in one of the limited character stereotypes Hollywood offered
Asian American actresses at that time, that of a naive, self-sacrificing young woman. Also airing tonight are two silent films Wong made in 1927: Mr. Wu, a drama featuring her in one of the supporting roles she was
often relegated to as a result of Hollywood’s censorship against depicting mixed-race couples onscreen; and Old San Francisco, with Wong, in a supporting role as a gangster’s right-hand woman, stepping into another of Hollywood’s Asian female character stereotypes: the cunning and deceitful “dragon lady.” Airing between The Toll of the Sea and Mr. Wu is the TCM premiere of a 2019 documentary called Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood. The hourlong production expands its focus
beyond just Wong to take a look at Hollywood’s overall treatment of Asian Americans onscreen and off from World War II through the Cold War. Shirley J. Lim, an associate professor in the history department of Stony
Brook University and author of the 2019 book Anna May Wong: Performing the Modern, will co-host tonight’s titles with TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz.