Year 1928 and 1929 were important years for Los Angeles born Chinese actress Anna May Wong. News reports about her Hollywood movies were decreased, instead, according to an American gossip columnist visiting Europe during Wong’s tenure, she was “acclaimed by nobility” in several European newspapers (Petersen, 2014). Severely limited by the noxious roles she was offered in Hollywood, which misrepresented Asian women, Wong left United States to Europe (Vechten, 2003). She then spent two years in Germany, England and France where helped her gain global attention and led her toward worldwide stardom. This special period in Wong’s life, was also a sensitive period for Chinese immigrants, for all the colored actors and actresses in Hollywood, who
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In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur (Chinese Exclusion Act). The act not only limit the labor immigrants from China but also set new rules to Chinese who had already entered the US. Although the act was expired in 1892, the government extended another 10 years in the form of Geary Act. This extension, made permanent in 1902, required every Chinese in the US to obtain a certification of residence (Chinese Exclusion Act). Although Anna May Wong was born in the US and never left to China, she was still forced to carry the certification. I once read an article about her in Chinese saying that she had her Chinese name, Wong Liu Tsong, but she opted for the American Name Anna May Wong. Therefore, she actually never thought herself as a Chinese but an American to the core. I guess the identity she saw herself could explain why she was under big stress. If we analyze her mental activities, because she always thought that she was American, at the time the requirements for the act were released, she thought this is none of her business. When the government of California forced her to also carry the certification, she felt depressed. At first, she could not understand why American government would give her, an American the same certification. Then she realized that, no matter her residency, the differences in her color, her …show more content…
To some extend, the act reinforced the already discrimination in Hollywood and the film industry and provided political backups for doing so. Long before the act was being released, there were already differentials existed in Hollywood to colored actors and actresses. This idea of differences was come from rampant thoughts of “Orient” by the west(Petersen, 2014). In western ideas, some even left off today, thought that eastern people are primitive, uncivilized and rude. Despite most westerns have never left the US and really see what Asian were, they assertively add labels to Asians in the US. The culture pervasively influenced the film industry in Hollywood and affected roles producers or directors could provide to Asian Actors and Actresses. If we sort out roles Wong played, for example slave girls, evil dragon ladies, mysterious and exotic mistresses, it is not hard to see these are all offensively stereotype renderings toward Asian women. As an actress, Wong again had nothing to do with this. This is her jobs and if she refused to take these roles, she was ruining her own career. Even though she had never left US at that time to see what China looked like, as a part of her identities, the innate heritages left to her from her parents kept warning her that roles she was playing are misrepresenting Asian images. She understood that American producers are unconsciously using her
In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur (Chinese Exclusion Act). The act not only limit the labor immigrants from China but also set new rules to Chinese who had already entered the US. Although the act was expired in 1892, the government extended another 10 years in the form of Geary Act. This extension, made permanent in 1902, required every Chinese in the US to obtain a certification of residence (Chinese Exclusion Act). Although Anna May Wong was born in the US and never left to China, she was still forced to carry the certification. I once read an article about her in Chinese saying that she had her Chinese name, Wong Liu Tsong, but she opted for the American Name Anna May Wong. Therefore, she actually never thought herself as a Chinese but an American to the core. I guess the identity she saw herself could explain why she was under big stress. If we analyze her mental activities, because she always thought that she was American, at the time the requirements for the act were released, she thought this is none of her business. When the government of California forced her to also carry the certification, she felt depressed. At first, she could not understand why American government would give her, an American the same certification. Then she realized that, no matter her residency, the differences in her color, her …show more content…
To some extend, the act reinforced the already discrimination in Hollywood and the film industry and provided political backups for doing so. Long before the act was being released, there were already differentials existed in Hollywood to colored actors and actresses. This idea of differences was come from rampant thoughts of “Orient” by the west(Petersen, 2014). In western ideas, some even left off today, thought that eastern people are primitive, uncivilized and rude. Despite most westerns have never left the US and really see what Asian were, they assertively add labels to Asians in the US. The culture pervasively influenced the film industry in Hollywood and affected roles producers or directors could provide to Asian Actors and Actresses. If we sort out roles Wong played, for example slave girls, evil dragon ladies, mysterious and exotic mistresses, it is not hard to see these are all offensively stereotype renderings toward Asian women. As an actress, Wong again had nothing to do with this. This is her jobs and if she refused to take these roles, she was ruining her own career. Even though she had never left US at that time to see what China looked like, as a part of her identities, the innate heritages left to her from her parents kept warning her that roles she was playing are misrepresenting Asian images. She understood that American producers are unconsciously using her