Anything But Silent
Anna May Wong in
SONG
Thursday, May 28th at 7:30 PM
With live accompaniment by Ben Model
And discussion with Katie Gee Salisbury, author of Not Your China Doll
$20 Public | $13 Members | Free For Young Film Fan Members!
Anna May Wong’s first role abroad
was written expressly for her and was directed by star-maker Richard Eichberg. Wong plays Song,
a woman rescued from the violent clutches of two libertines by Jack (Heinrich George), a cabaret performer
who brings her into his act as a knife-thrower. Though Song proves devoted,
Jack chases money and a past love — until a series of complications make him
see her true loyalty and strength. Wong delivers a beautifully nuanced
performance, that showcased the depth and emotional complexity she was rarely
allowed to explore in Hollywood’s limited, stereotyped roles. (Germany, 1928, 104 mins, Silent with
English intertitles | Dir. Richard Eichberg)
Author Katie Gee Salisbury has spoken and written about Anna May Wong on MSNBC, in the New York Times and in Vanity Fair. She also writes the newsletter Half-Caste Woman. She was a 2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship finalist and gave the TED Talk “As American as Chop Suey.” A fifth-generation Chinese American from Southern California, she now lives in Brooklyn. Not Your China Doll is her first book.
Set against the glittering backdrop of Los Angeles during the gin-soaked Jazz Age and the rise of Hollywood, Not Your China Doll celebrates Anna May Wong, the first Asian American movie star, to bring an unsung heroine to light and reclaim her place in cinema history.
Before Constance Wu, Sandra Oh, Awkwafina, or Lucy Liu, there was Anna May Wong. In her time, she was a legendary beauty, witty conversationalist, and fashion icon. Plucked from her family’s laundry business in Los Angeles, Anna May Wong rose to stardom in Douglas Fairbanks’s blockbuster The Thief of Bagdad. Fans and the press clamored to see more of this unlikely actress, but when Hollywood repeatedly cast her in stereotypical roles, she headed abroad in protest. Anna May starred in acclaimed films in Berlin, Paris, and London. She dazzled royalty and heads of state across several nations, leaving trails of suitors in her wake. She returned to challenge Hollywood at its own game by speaking out about the industry’s blatant racism. She used her new stature to move away from her typecasting as the China doll or dragon lady, and worked to reshape Asian American representation in film. Filled with stories of capricious directors and admiring costars, glamorous parties and far-flung love affairs, Not Your China Doll showcases the vibrant, radical life of a groundbreaking artist.
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