Everyone must have seen a lot of news these days that the portrait of Chinese American film star Anna May will be engraved with American currency, making her the first Chinese to be listed on American currency. So who is Anna May Wong? What is her life like? What does she mean by being on U.S. currency?
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong (Anna May Wong) can be said to be the first Chinese movie star of Hollywood , and this has a lot to do with her family's very unique background. Anna May Huang's grandparents and maternal grandparents were both Chinese who arrived in the United States during the gold rush in AD 1855, and her parents were both second-generation Chinese born in the United States, so Anna May Huang was born in 1905, but already It was an extremely rare third-generation Chinese at that time.
We said that the third generation of Chinese was extremely rare at that time because the United States introduced the "Chinese Exclusion Act" in 1882 AD, prohibiting all Chinese from immigrating to the United States. Therefore, after 1882 AD until World War II , the United States basically did not absorb any Chinese immigrants. However, this bill did not forcefully deport Chinese who had immigrated to the United States before it was passed, so Anna May Huang's ancestors and fathers stayed in the United States, which also gave her an extremely rare identity at that time.
Anna May Wong's mother and Anna May Wong (baby in her arms)
And when Anna May Wong was 5 years old, her parents moved their family to Figueroa Street, Los Angeles County, California, which was mostly Mexican And Eastern Europeans, there is only one family of Chinese, so Anna May Huang had not many opportunities to contact Chinese since she was a child, which also made her integrate into American culture more quickly and thoroughly.
And during Anna May Huang's childhood, the nascent American film industry began to move from the east coast of the United States to the surrounding Los Angeles, so the scene of filming was often seen around the Huang family, which naturally made Anna May Huang interested in movies. Before long, she started saving money on her own to buy movie tickets and go to the cinema.
Stills of Anna May Wong in the movie "The Sea Gone"
In 1919, at the age of 14, Anna May Wong had already started working in Hollywood, but at the time she was only working in a Parisian department store in Hollywood. But because she worked in Hollywood all day, she also got a chance to star in a movie soon after. At that time, a company called Metro Pictures invested in the filming of a Chinese-themed film "The Red Lantern", which required 300 girls to be extras, and Anna May Huang, who had always been interested in the film, just Introduced by an acquaintance, she played a little girl with a lantern, and she started her film career since then. In the two years since
, Anna May Huang has played tricks in many movies, which has also made her more interested in movies. In 1921, she decided to drop out of high school and start acting full-time in movies. That year, she got her first official role, playing a Chinese woman named "Li Baobao" in a film called "Bits of Life".
Anna May in "The Toll of the Sea"
In 1922, Anna May became the leading actress in Hollywood's first color film, "The Toll of the Sea," which quickly became popular. After that, she starred in films such as " Baghdad thieves ", "Chinatown Prosperity Dream" and "Shanghai Express", making her truly a well-known "movie star".
However, as we mentioned just now, the United States was still in a period of Chinese exclusion until World War II. Not only were Chinese people prohibited from entering the country, but the vast majority of the very few Chinese who were already in the United States were also of low status and were discriminated against. Therefore, Anna May Wong, who is Chinese, naturally cannot play a good role, so although she was already well-known at the time, the roles she played were still female slaves, dancers and prostitutes. And in these films, the image of the Chinese is extremely ugly, which also caused a lot of controversy for Anna May.
For example, the movie "Shanghai Express" in 1932, because there was a plot to vilify the Chinese, when it was released in Germany (there was basically no Chinese audience in the United States at the time), it caused a lot of confusion at the time.Strong dissatisfaction among Chinese students studying in Germany. Because this kind of voice was too strong, the Chinese official film censorship committee at that time asked the American Paramount Pictures, which shot the film, to recall the film within 10 days, otherwise it would be banned from entering the Chinese market. And Anna May Wong, who plays a role in it, is also seen in China as an accomplice who helps Westerners humiliate China.
And because the "Anti-Interracial Marriage Act" existed in the United States at that time, interracial couples were prohibited from appearing in literary and artistic works, and there were basically no Asian male actors in the American film industry at that time, so Anna May, who is Chinese, basically could not get the lead actress. Chances, because she can't act opposite the white male lead. So at that time, her acting career also quickly entered a bottleneck period, unable to make further breakthroughs. Moreover, the images of Chinese people in American films at that time were all the same, and they were all images that vilified Chinese people, such as the innocent and self-serving "Butterfly Girl", the seductive and dangerous "Dragon Girl", or the daughter of a bandit. These characters made Anna May Huang It's frustrating, but there's nothing you can do about it. In a later interview with the media, she made it clear: "They only let me play those roles, and I'm really sick of it."
So Anna May Wong also traveled to Europe for a while, wanting to try a different role in European films. But although she got different roles in these European films, it also gave the media a lot of material to hype her lace news. At that time, some media even hyped her having a homosexual affair with the famous movie star Marina Dietrich. , in the social environment at the time, this had a considerable impact on her reputation.
In 1935, American female writer Pearl Buck who grew up in China's rural Chinese novel " land " was going to be adapted into a movie. It is said that in the American film circle at that time, Anna May Huang was definitely the best person to play the heroine. , But because of the deep-rooted discrimination against Chinese in American society at that time, Anna May Huang was not selected in the end and missed the role of "The Earth", which was later very successful.
Afterwards, a disheartened Anna May decided to travel to China in January 1936. She arrived in Shanghai on the first lunar month, and then went to Taishan, Guangdong, to visit her father and younger siblings who had returned to her ancestral home. However, because many people in China were still dissatisfied with her performance in American movies for damaging the image of the Chinese, she was not even able to enter her father's house in Taishan . After that, Anna May Huang stopped in Shanghai and Peiping successively. During this period, she had several meetings with domestic movie queen Hu Die , and learned Peking opera from Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang .
After the outbreak of China's full-scale Anti-Japanese War in 1937, the anti-Chinese atmosphere in the United States that required China to contain Japan gradually reversed, so some American film companies also shot some low-cost films that positively portrayed the image of the Chinese, and Anna May Huang naturally became the protagonist. He has successively appeared in films that positively portrayed the Chinese, such as "Shanghai Daughter" and "Chongqing Heroes". During this period, Anna May Huang sold her costumes, and donated the sales proceeds, along with her salary in some movies, to some non-governmental organizations in the United States that supported China's war of resistance. In 1942, she also published a Chinese food cookbook in the United States, and donated all royalties to 's anti-Japanese war related affairs. In addition, during this period, she also participated in many activities related to supporting the Anti-Japanese War to raise funds for the Anti-Japanese War.
After World War II, Anna May Wong made several more films and starred in a series tailored just for her, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong. But these films and episodes were less influential, so Anna May appeared to be struggling financially during this period, which also led to a gradual deterioration in her health. In 1952, as a supporter of the U.S. Democratic Party, Anna May Wong also supported Adlai Stevenson , who represented the Democratic Party for the presidency of the United States. In 1960, Anna May Wong also became one of the first Hollywood stars to be selected for the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has a star medal with her name engraved on the Walk of Fame , becoming the first Asian film star to receive this honor. But just a year later, she died of a heart attack on March 1, 1961, at the age of 56.
Looking at Anna May Huang's life, it can be said that she is indeed a Hollywood actor with a unique status, the first to haveA Chinese filmmaker with a certain international reputation. However, although Anna May Huang has a Chinese identity, and this Chinese identity has a great impact on her exclusion in her acting career and her later important historical status, she is still a 100% American actress, and she has shaped her acting career. The images of Chinese in the United States, whether positive or negative, can be said to be determined by the popular fashions of American society, so they are actually symbols of American culture.
So finally, let's briefly talk about the US 25 cent coin that will be engraved with Anna May Wong's portrait this time. Anna May Wong's portrait will be engraved on the back of the quarter, which has had a portrait of the first president of the United States on the front since 1932, Washington . Before 1998, there was only one pattern on the back of the quarter, an eagle standing on a bundle of arrows.
But starting in 1999, the United States issued several series of quarters in commemorative coins. The first series is the 50 US States series. The front of this series is still Washington's head portrait, and the back is the representative patterns of US states, such as well-known historical figures, landmark buildings and special products. Since then, non-state territories in the United States, such as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico , have also been included in the plan. So after that, there are dozens of patterns on the back of the 25 cents.
The forthcoming Anna May portrait coin
And this year, the United States launched the American Women's Series of quarters. It is planned to release 20 reverse designs, which will be engraved with 20 different female portraits. Among them, the first five women have been identified. They are well-known women of African American, LGBT, Native American, Hispanic and Asian descent in American history, and the Asian one is Anna May Wong, a coin with a portrait of Anna May Wong. It will be officially released on October 25, 2022. (The picture comes from the Internet)
