Actress Anna May Wong is now the first Asian American to appear on U.S. currency — the quarter. Opposite George Washington’s stately profile, she’s gently resting her chin on her outstretched hand as she gazes into the distance. Wong was an international sensation a century ago. As the first Chinese American movie star in Hollywood, she made more than 60 films, but was usually cast as the villain or the sex pot, never the lead. She died more than six decades ago.
Wong, who was born in Los Angeles, was put into small roles, typically a “scantily-clad, young maiden,” and she rarely portrayed a Chinese American. That’s according to Karen Leong, a professor at Arizona State University who focuses on women, gender, and Asian Pacific and American studies.
“She often was ‘the other.’ The person against whom white femininity was contrast [sic]. … This desirable, young, heterosexual cis female contrasted with Anna May Wong's role. And as her roles became bigger, the contrast continued. She very rarely played a protagonist, a sympathetic one.”
Wong’s inability to clinch top roles came to a head in the 1930s, when she was denied the lead in “The Good Earth,” based on the novel of the same name by Pearl S. Buck. However, the author had wanted Wong to star.
Instead, she was forced to audition for the role of Lotus — “sort of a prostitute or concubine … the rival for the main male protagonist Wang Lung’s affections.”
Leong says Wong was passed over by the casting director, who described the actress as not beautiful enough.
“At that time, she was nearing 30 … and she was already considered too old for that sort of seductress part in some ways. … So she was limited by age, race, and not being seen as a real actress. … The role went to Luise Rainer, who did receive an Oscar for that role.”
To find leading roles, Wong went to Great Britain and used Hollywood racism to pave her own way.
“She was able to star as a featured player, the main lead, and a number of films in London for a while. She still was in these villainous roles because Hollywood in the United States was a large market,” Leong explains. “She very shrewdly uses that to gain more sympathy. … She fought back. [But] there were limits to how she could fight back. It's very similar to other women of color film actors, Louise Beavers, Hattie McDaniel.”
Leong adds, “If you wanted to act, there were limitations to what you could represent, how you could be visible. And so you see her trying and working and continually coming up with ideas and continually trying to come up with ways to produce herself. So yes, there were barriers. And yet what we see in her is this continual invention, this continual resilience, this continual desire and passion to be seen as a whole person — something that all Asian American women in the United States often face, whether it be in the past or now.”