Anna May
For readers familiar with American film culture, the Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, USA (Hollywood Walk of Fame) should not be unfamiliar. The name of nearly 2,700 of the world's best film and television music artists has become a typical representative of film culture.
Hollywood's Walk of Fame
On this well-known art avenue, there are also many Chinese movie stars that we are familiar with, such as Bruce Lee , Jackie Chan , Liu Yuling , etc. There is also one we are relatively unfamiliar with, but Her popularity and achievements in the United States may be higher and earlier than the previous ones. She is the protagonist we are going to introduce today - Anna May Wong (Anna May Wong) .
The Chinese star on the Walk of Fame
In addition, let's popularize another anecdote about the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is actually mainly rewarding outstanding representatives in five fields, and stars in each field will use the corresponding logo, such as the representative of movie camera Contribution to the film industry (all the Chinese-American stars above belong to this one), the TV logo represents a contribution to the TV industry, the gramophone record logo represents a contribution to the record industry, the radio microphone logo represents a contribution to the broadcast industry, and Tragic-comedy masks represent contributions to live drama. It's also worth mentioning that only one person has collected all five signs: Jean Autry . To put it another way, collecting five stars can certainly indicate a remarkable achievement, but the more important reason is that at the beginning of this project, the standard of Saxing was relatively loose. It is almost impossible to collect five stars now.
Maybe some people will say that leaving a star of your own on the American Walk of Fame doesn't mean anything. It is true to say that, even for the film industry, whether there is a star of its own on the Avenue of Stars does not prove too much. After all, there are still so many American international superstars who have not left their names on the Walk of Fame, such as the familiar little plum ( Leonardo DiCaprio ), Brad Pitt , Angelina Jolie , Will Smith , Mel Gibson , Robert De Niro and many more.
But for Anna May, she has another thing that all Chinese Americans, even all Asian Americans, can't match:
From tomorrow, her face will appear on the dollar currency.
If there are people who still think that it appears in a country's currency, it's no big deal. All I can say is that you are right.
is like the song "Although the dress is worn on the body, the heart is still Chinese". Anna May Huang, the son of a Chinese immigrant, resolutely destroyed her family and rescued her when the Chinese nation faced the invasion of Japanese imperialism. She did everything possible to shout, raise money, and donate medicine for China's war of resistance against Japanese aggression. We should recognize her. Even if she is a Chinese American.
Anna May Wong and her person
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 2, 1961) was a third-generation immigrant girl born in the United States. In the 1850s, Anna May Huang's grandparents immigrated to the United States from Taishan, Guangdong, during the " gold rush " era in the United States, as a group of Chinese workers who were humiliated as "pigs". By the time Anna May Huang was born, the gold rush dream of her ancestors had long since dissipated, and generations of the Huang family struggled to survive by running a laundry shop in Chinatown, where the Chinese gathered.
Nowadays, many people may not know that in the dark history of racial discrimination in the United States, the status of Chinese immigrants represented by "Chinese workers" in American society is far inferior to that of black people who have been excluded for a long time.The human race is at the bottom of the discrimination chain. In fact, even in today's American society, the social status of blacks is getting higher and higher, while the social status of Chinese is still low among minority groups compared to blacks.
What's more, in the early 20th century when Anna May Wong was born and raised, it was almost the darkest era of racial discrimination in the United States, which also destined that Chinese children like Anna May Wong would have a hard time getting a place in American society.
And by chance, Anna May Huang broke into the American film industry.
In 1919, Hollywood filmed the silent film "Red Lantern" in Chinatown, where the Chinese gathered. The 14-year-old Anna May Wong got a chance to act, and her performance unexpectedly won everyone's recognition. This also made her determined to drop out of school and concentrate on breaking into the American film industry from the role of an actor. You must know that in that era when the aftermath of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States was rippling, her choice destined her future life to not be smooth.
In 1922, Anna May Huang participated in Hollywood's first color film "The Sea Gone" , and her acting skills were widely praised. Then in 1924, she participated in the film " Baghdad thief " , and played the role of a Mongolian slave in it. At one time, it attracted much attention in mainland China at that time.
Since then, she has starred in a number of Hollywood movies, and her reputation is more familiar. However, her great fame and the discrimination against the Chinese in that era were like two boulders about to collide, and this woman was in the middle.
In the first half of the 20th century, when racial discrimination was at its strongest in the United States, the Chinese were humbled or even inferior to the social status of black people, which made the American film industry to smear the image of the Chinese as its best. Dark characters such as "Fu Manchu" who are full of unfounded suspicion and arrogant ridicule of European and American white pigs have become the representatives of the Chinese in the film.
In the context of this era, many works extremely vilify the Chinese.
maliciously vilify
But even so, Anna May Wong's role as a yellow-skinned, dark-eyed Chinese woman is still pitiful, plus she is usually forced to play Asian roles that fit the American stereotype of the era. Not going well. It is precisely because of this that Anna May Huang left the famous saying "died a thousand times"-because all the roles she played ended up in a tragic and tragic death.
Against such a background, Anna May Huang, as the earliest Chinese female star in Hollywood, all she can do is to endure it silently.
On the other hand, her image in the film has made her much criticized in the Chinese world, and even made her a scapegoat for the Chinese world's dissatisfaction with the release of the "Chinese Exclusion Act" in the United States.
The Americans did not like the Chinese actress, and the Chinese and Chinese ostracized her for her performance, and Anna May suffered a major setback in her life. After that, the film based on Pearl Buck 's Chinese novel " the earth " rejected her to appear in the film, which hit him hard and nearly ruined her film career. After that, she returned to her ancestral homeland in China in 1936 and met a large number of famous people from all walks of life in China.
actively supported the nation's war of resistance against Japan
Later, after he returned to the United States, Japan's war of aggression against China fully broke out. She has held many charity fundraisers in the United States, and even sold all kinds of jewelry that she had accumulated for half her life and donated money or medicines back to China.
In 1942, Soong Meiling visited the United States to promote China's resistance to Japan, causing a huge sensation in the American society. Later, when Song came to Hollywood to give a speech, facing more than 30,000 American audiences, Song refused Anna May Huang's attendance. This was a major blow to her psychologically.
Although she was oppressed by all kinds in the United States, and she was indifferently rejected when she wanted to contribute to the national war of resistance, which also made her feel disheartened for a while, but she quickly recovered her emotions and devoted herself to the war of resistance against China. in extensive publicity. Do your best to support the war. Until the end of and after World War II, Anna May Wong was still active in the American film and television circle.
Until 1961, when Anna May Huang died of a heart attack, this woman who was unmarried and had no children did not leave much to the world.Even after her death, according to her last wishes, nothing was written on her tombstone.
has been highly recognized as the only Asian face of the US dollar so far
Until today, the first Asian face appeared on the currency of the United States, this person is Anna May. In any case, her efforts to fight against the war are worthy of our respect, after all, the blood of the descendants of Yan and Huang will not change because of nationality.
as she describes herself "Since the birth of a Chinese child, the superstitions, beliefs and traditions of generations have flowed in his blood. I wish I was born in China. "
She called the Chinese her own" compatriots, these most ancient civilizations". There is no need for us to dwell on her Chinese American status after her death.
Finally, end with her words. In 1931, when Japan invaded Northeast China, Anna May Huang published an article "Northeast China" , condemning Japan's invasion of China, she wrote:
"Like the delicate lotus always blooming on the mud, despite the ravages of Japanese iron hooves, Chinese culture, with its perfect pure morality and noble spirit, will bloom above blood and violence."
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