Daughter of the Dragon
Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History
Seiten
2024
WW Norton & Co (Verlag)
978-1-324-09513-2 (ISBN)
WW Norton & Co (Verlag)
978-1-324-09513-2 (ISBN)
A trenchant reclamation of the Chinese American movie star, whose battles against cinematic exploitation and endemic racism are set against the currents of twentieth-century history
Born into the steam and starch of a Chinese laundry, Anna May Wong (1905–1961) emerged from turn-of-the-century Los Angeles to become Old Hollywood’s most famous Chinese American actress, a screen siren who captivated global audiences and signed her publicity photos—with a touch of defiance—“Orientally yours.” Now, more than a century after her birth, Yunte Huang narrates Wong’s tragic life story, retracing her journey from Chinatown to silent-era Hollywood, and from Weimar Berlin to decadent, prewar Shanghai, and capturing American television in its infancy. As Huang shows, Wong’s rendezvous with history features a remarkable parade of characters, including a smitten Walter Benjamin and (an equally smitten) Marlene Dietrich. Challenging the parodically racist perceptions of Wong as a “Dragon Lady”, “Madame Butterfly” or “China Doll”, Huang’s biography becomes a truly resonant work of history that reflects the raging anti-Chinese xenophobia, unabashed sexism and ageism toward women that defined both Hollywood and America in Wong’s all-too-brief fifty-six years on earth.
Born into the steam and starch of a Chinese laundry, Anna May Wong (1905–1961) emerged from turn-of-the-century Los Angeles to become Old Hollywood’s most famous Chinese American actress, a screen siren who captivated global audiences and signed her publicity photos—with a touch of defiance—“Orientally yours.” Now, more than a century after her birth, Yunte Huang narrates Wong’s tragic life story, retracing her journey from Chinatown to silent-era Hollywood, and from Weimar Berlin to decadent, prewar Shanghai, and capturing American television in its infancy. As Huang shows, Wong’s rendezvous with history features a remarkable parade of characters, including a smitten Walter Benjamin and (an equally smitten) Marlene Dietrich. Challenging the parodically racist perceptions of Wong as a “Dragon Lady”, “Madame Butterfly” or “China Doll”, Huang’s biography becomes a truly resonant work of history that reflects the raging anti-Chinese xenophobia, unabashed sexism and ageism toward women that defined both Hollywood and America in Wong’s all-too-brief fifty-six years on earth.
Yunte Huang, a Guggenheim Fellow, has taught at Harvard and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is a Distinguished Professor of English. The author of the Edgar Award–winning biography Charlie Chan and Inseparable, both NBCC finalists, Huang speaks frequently about American popular culture.
| Erscheinungsdatum | 24.07.2024 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 40 black-and-white images |
| Verlagsort | New York |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 140 x 211 mm |
| Gewicht | 318 g |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte |
| Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV | |
| Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-324-09513-X / 132409513X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-324-09513-2 / 9781324095132 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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