Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend

by Graham Russell Gao Hodges

Book Overview

Anna May Wong was the best known Chinese American actress during Hollywood's golden age, a free spirit and embodiment of the flapper era much like Louise Brooks. She starred in over fifty movies... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312293194
• ISBN13: 9780312293192
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Good Summer Reading

This book is a good summer read. It is a good combination of academia and effective storytelling. For younger readers this will help to illuminate some of the constraints people of color were burdened with vs. Hollywood etc. This is a charming and sympathetic portrait of a beautiful and talented artist. More stills of the lovely Anna May would have been most welocme. There were so few women of color who were "allowed" to be glamourous,beautiful and cultured...that Anna May retained her dignity under these conditions is a victory to be celebrated.

The most thorough of Wong's biographies

This meticulously researched, in-depth probe of Wong's storied career sheds new light on her life, her character, and the racist attitudes of America in the period in which she lived. Hodges' pursuit of archival materials as well as his tracing of Wong's path on her travels through Europe and China (including articles written in European media) provide new information and insights we could not have gained otherwise. For those interested in the history of Hollywood, Asians in America, East-West relations, and racial tensions in the last century, this is a very valuable and highly readable addition to our understanding.

An insightful and thorough book about a fascinating woman

Graham Hodges shows great sympathy for the difficult position that Anna May Wong occupied as the international film industry's only Asian-American actress. Asian-American readers should find this account of the difficulties faced by an earlier generatin of talented Asians enlightening and inspiring. Too "Oriental" for the America of the time but too Westernized to be accepted by the Chinese, Wong was not completely accepted by either society. Fed up with the stereotyped roles as either victim or villain that Hollywood handed her, Wong went first to Europe where she won scores of new admirers, then to China. There, Wong received a mixed reception-though she was treated as a celebrity, the Nationalist government considered her a stooge of Hollywood. The Anna May Wong that emerges from this carefully researched account is plucky, courageous and persistent. Hodges treats his subject with the sensitivity and respect she deserves at the same time that he is not afraid of venturing into the ticklish area of Wong's personal life. Anti-miscegenation laws and societal taboos were obstacles to Wong's having lasting relationships and there were few Chinese men the actress could have happily married in the United States of half a century ago. Wong has long deserved a biography. Hodges is to be congratulated for having written this engaging, perceptive and carefully researched account of her life.

Come to look for the book!

Inspired by Graham Hodges' introductions to the MoMA film series of Anna May Wong, I come here to look for the book. I think Hodges is a terrific speaker and very intelligent scholar. I am excited about Anna May Wong, whom I just learned about recently, by Hodges' comments and the films I saw during the past few days.

A Great Book

I have just finished this book, Anna May Wong by Graham Hodges. it is terrific-- well researched, well analyzed, and well written. I recommend this one to those who are interested in Anna May Wong, the top Asian actress.