Anna May Wong

A moving illustrated biography of Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American Hollywood star, and her hardships, triumphs, successes, and scandals, by the leading Anna May Wong expert Shirley Jennifer Lim brings us a story of tenacity and determination in this lush biography, sure to become the essential account of Anna May Wong's life and legacy. Anna May Wong shows the real woman behind the actress's facade and will inspire a new generation of writers, image creators, fashionistas, and television and film enthusiasts in the 21st century. Wong's dazzling talent is not in question, yet what often goes unsaid was her feat of perseverance in the face of cinematic and theatrical rejection as well as daunting societal barriers such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and racialized housing segregation. Her legacy spans through her 50-plus films, pathbreaking television series, sumptuous fashion looks, Broadway and vaudeville shows, iconic photographs, groundbreaking journalism, and global fame, making her one of the only Asian American actors to become a household name. Wong's lack of obedience to a heteronormative lifestyle in conjunction with her wild sexual encounters, debauched night life, and friendships with cultural figures such as Walter Benjamin, Marlene Dietrich, Ramón Novarro, Vincent Price, Rosa Rolanda Covarubbias, Philip Ahn, Hedda Hopper, Carl Van Vechten, Evelyn Waugh, Blanche Knopf, and Paul Robeson, shed light on what it meant to be a trailblazing actress almost a century ago. Anna May Wong uses the actress's own personal correspondences, never-before-seen archival photos, and creative endeavors such as her writings published in the New York Herald Tribune and her self-made film about China (broadcast on ABC) to tell the story of the "World's Most Beautiful Chinese" American woman, who rose past the boundaries of the silent and studio eras of white Hollywood.

Shirley Jennifer Lim is the go-to Anna May Wong expert and professor of history and affiliate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Asian and Asian American Studies, and Africana Studies at SUNY Stony Brook. She is the author of A Feeling of Belonging: Asian American Women’s Public Culture, 1930–1960 and Anna May Wong: Performing the Modern, which was a finalist for the Organization of American Historians’ Mary Nickliss Prize. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and NPR’s Morning Edition, and news programs such as C-NBC, Inside Edition, and CBS-2 News at 9 A.M. She has discussed Anna May Wong on Turner Classic Movies, two PBS documentaries (Asian Americans and Unladylike 2020), BBC 4 (Screenshots), and podcasts like History This Week (History Channel) and Mobituaries.