Advertisement
Opinion | Anna May Wong US coin is a timely reminder of deep US-China ties
- Recognition of the film star’s efforts in championing fairer Asian representation in Hollywood movies offers a chance to look back on the deep and unbreakable connection between China and the US
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
2
Last month, the US Mint said that Anna May Wong, Hollywood’s first Chinese-American film star, would appear on new US quarters. Given the rising tensions between China and the United States, and the talk of economic decoupling, the announcement was a timely reminder that the two countries have been linked even in their darkest days.
Advertisement
Wong was born in Los Angeles in 1905, in a neighbourhood near Chinatown. It was a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act was still in force; the Los Angeles Chinatown massacre of 1871 was still in people’s memory; and white people wore make-up to take on Asian roles in films. It was a time when China and the US could not be further apart, yet they were still connected by people such as Wong.
The predicament she faced was twofold: she had trouble landing film roles, and the roles she managed to get were generally underpaid and stereotypical depictions of cruel and murderous or treacherous villains.
To compound her situation, when she visited China as a glamorous actress, she was attacked for misrepresenting Chinese people and playing roles that catered to the exotic Oriental imagination of the West.
Wong’s sad experiences were the result of multiple interrelated factors: how American society perceived itself and Chinese people; how Chinese society perceived itself and Westerners; what position each country had in the world; and, the relation between the two countries.
Advertisement
The forces that made Wong miserable a century ago are still around today. Although the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, we still see Chinese Americans facing unnecessary and unimaginable pressure as a result of China-US tensions.
Advertisement