Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren bog obam Here in Crazy Rich Asians
Speaker 1: made history. Aside from being the highest grossing romantic comedy
Speaker 1: in a decade, making two and thirty five million dollars
Speaker 1: worldwide within weeks of its release, the film featured an
Speaker 1: all Asian cast, making it the first Hollywood production to
Speaker 1: do so in twenty five years. Perhaps more mind blowing
Speaker 1: is that star Constance Wu became the first Asian American
Speaker 1: actress in forty four years to be nominated for a
Speaker 1: Lead Actress Golden Globe, and in one Stephen Yune became
Speaker 1: the first Asian American actor to ever be nominated for
Speaker 1: a Lead Actor Oscar part of a year of nominations
Speaker 1: with a diversity that's long overdue, but today let's look
Speaker 1: at the pioneering work of Asian American industry icon Anna
Speaker 1: May Wong. On January twenty two, of nWo audiences set
Speaker 1: eyes on Wong and her first starring role as Lotus
Speaker 1: Flower in the film The Toll of the Sea. The
Speaker 1: Los Angeles born actress would go on to appear in
Speaker 1: more than sixty movies throughout her career and leave a
Speaker 1: lasting legacy as Hollywood's first Chinese American film star, but
Speaker 1: a career on stage and screen, including a role in
Speaker 1: one of the very first Technicolor movies, didn't come easy
Speaker 1: for Wong, and it certainly didn't come without significant struggle
Speaker 1: and sacrifice that's shaped the entertainment industry and paved the
Speaker 1: way for more modern success stories. Born on January three,
Speaker 1: of five, Wong was the second of eight children. Her
Speaker 1: birth name is Wang Lu Song, which translates to frosted
Speaker 1: yellow willows. She later incorporated her English moniker Anna May
Speaker 1: into her stage name. Wong's grandfather had emigrated to the
Speaker 1: United States in the eighteen fifties from Taishan, China, and
Speaker 1: her father married a fellow California born descendant of Chinese immigrants.
Speaker 1: The couple opened a laundromat in l A and started
Speaker 1: a family. Wong initially attended California Street Public School, but
Speaker 1: transferred to the Chinese Mission School due to the racial
Speaker 1: prejudice and bullying that she and her siblings faced. In
Speaker 1: the nineteen teens, the film industry began migrating from New
Speaker 1: York to California, and Wong became fascinated by the world
Speaker 1: of cinema. She skipped school to visit production sets and
Speaker 1: see movies, and in nineteen nineteen attended a casting call
Speaker 1: for a movie called The Red Lantern and scored apart
Speaker 1: as an extra. Two years later, Wong dropped out of
Speaker 1: high school and began acting full time. At seventeen, she
Speaker 1: landed her first starring role in the Toll of the Sea,
Speaker 1: a silent version of the film Madam Butterfly. Snagging the
Speaker 1: part was a major triumph, but it didn't prove to
Speaker 1: be the career kickstarter that Wong had hoped for. Due
Speaker 1: to the US's anti miscegenation laws that prevented into racial
Speaker 1: marriage and even on screen kissing between actors of different races,
Speaker 1: and given Hollywood's reluctance to cast Asian American men in
Speaker 1: leading roles, Wong wasn't able to land any roles as
Speaker 1: a romantic lead. She left Hollywood for Europe in ninety eight. There,
Speaker 1: she was a huge success and starred in several notable
Speaker 1: stage productions and films, including Piccadilly In ninety nine. She
Speaker 1: used her newfound celebrity to advocate for several political and
Speaker 1: Chinese American causes and for better film roles, but by
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, Paramount Studios came calling and promised Wong
Speaker 1: leading roles if she returned to the US. The deal
Speaker 1: sounded sweet, but Wong was mostly relegated to playing roles
Speaker 1: that played on stereotypes of Asian people and cultures. She
Speaker 1: accepted the work solely on the idea that she would
Speaker 1: be able to take on more robust roles in the future.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty two, she appeared in Shanghai Express alongside
Speaker 1: her friend Marlene Dietrich, and decades later, she became the
Speaker 1: first Asian American to lead a U S television show
Speaker 1: in the nineteen fifty one series The Gallery of Madam
Speaker 1: lu Song. But she was sorely disappointed when she lost
Speaker 1: out to the German actress Louisa Reiner for the big
Speaker 1: role of oh Lan in the movie adaptation of pearl
Speaker 1: S Bucks The Good Earth. She had planned to travel
Speaker 1: to China, but put off her trip in hopes to
Speaker 1: play a Lan. The studio, however, pushed for Wong to
Speaker 1: play the part of Lotus, the cliche wicked concubine instead.
Speaker 1: Wong refused, she said in a ninety three interview for
Speaker 1: film weekly. I was so tired of the parts I
Speaker 1: had to play. There seems little for me in Hollywood
Speaker 1: because rather than real Chinese, producers prefer Hungarians, Mexicans, American
Speaker 1: Indians for Chinese roles. Wong did eventually travel to China,
Speaker 1: where she was also criticized by Chinese people who said
Speaker 1: her films degraded Chinese women, and despite having studied Mandarin Chinese,
Speaker 1: Wong felt she was too American to perform in traditional
Speaker 1: Chinese theater, ironic given that in Hollywood she was considered
Speaker 1: not American enough for most roles there. In nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
Speaker 1: but in nineteen sixty one, tragedy struck when the actress
Speaker 1: and trailblazer died of a heart attack at the young
Speaker 1: age of fifty six. Yes, she was posthumously recognized by
Speaker 1: the Asian American Arts Awards and the Asian Fashion Designers Group,
Speaker 1: which both have named annual awards in her honor. Today,
Speaker 1: Wong is still remembered as one of the most important
Speaker 1: Asian American leaders in the entertainment industry and beyond. Today's
Speaker 1: episode is based on the article Chinese American actress Anime
Speaker 1: Wall Alot, racism in life and on screen on how
Speaker 1: stuffworks dot Com. Written by Michelle Konstantinovski. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. For more
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