Anna May Wong, race in America, and forgotten histories
Half-Caste Woman is a free monthly newsletter written by me, Katie Gee Salisbury.
I’m a storyteller based in Brooklyn. In 2020 I began working on a book about Anna May Wong, the first Asian American movie star, for Dutton Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. This newsletter is a place for me to share revelations from the writing process and ruminate on all the interesting bits of research that are neither here nor there and most likely won’t end up in the book.
As someone who identifies as mixed—I’m half Anglo-Irish, half Chinese—race and representation in film/tv, politics, and in America at large is something I think about a lot. Also, words that make people uncomfortable, like “half-caste.” You’ll hear about that too.
Join me in excavating the life and times of Anna May Wong in young Hollywood.