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