Have Book, Will Travel

notes from Not Your China Doll's book tour so far

I’m sitting at the Hollywood Burbank Airport waiting for my flight to San Francisco and reflecting on the past few weeks. It’s been a whirlwind, to say the least, but a fun whirlwind!

We kicked off Not Your China Doll’s publication with a blowout party at Red Pavilion in Bushwick. It was everything I dreamed it would be and more.

Anna Wong, niece of Anna May Wong, flew in on the redeye from Los Angeles to join us for this special occasion. She gave a speech that nearly brought me to tears. Her insights into her aunt’s life were invaluable to me as I was writing the book and I’m so grateful for her friendship.

me and Anna Wong at NYCD’s book party

Friend Charlene Wang de Chen came up with the brilliant idea of creating a photo op moment that pays homage to one of Anna May Wong’s well-known portraits. She tapped into her set decorator skills to style this tableau and people really brought their A-game to the assignment of striking a pose!

Helen in Queens set up shop and gave insightful, life-altering tarot readings to what seemed like half the room. Eleanor Lee and Eddy Boguslavsky of Tea Arts & Culture served tea all evening, recreating the intimate tea parties AMW used to host in her 1920s bungalow (a special thanks to founder Wenting Zhang for making it happen). Rochelle Kwan, aka DJ YiuYiu 瑤瑤, put together a special playlist of 1920s and 30s tunes from Chinatown Records that set the mood and sent us sailing through a magical time warp.

With 6 events now under my belt, including stops at The Strand and Metrograph in NYC, Zibby’s Bookshop in Santa Monica, the Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles, and my hometown bookstore Vroman’s, I’ve been overwhelmed with gratitude for everyone’s love and support. I am perpetually in awe of how my community on both coasts—family and friends, old and new—has come out in spades to support a book about an incredible woman who deserved so much more during her lifetime. Anna May Wong is finally getting her flowers.

Here are a few more highlights from the road. And if you’re in the Bay Area, I’d love to see you at one of my events this coming week! Details below.

I’ve known Ed Park since we shared an office at Amazon Publishing 10 years ago, so our conversation about Anna May Wong at the Strand felt like catching up with an old friend. I especially loved his questions about The Good Earth, which I devote quite a bit of real estate to in the book—and he totally got why. Btw, Ed just wrote a brilliant novel called Same Bed Different Dreams that you should also check out!

at left: Mayukh Sen and I chat about Anna May Wong before a screening of Daughter of Shanghai at the Metrograph. (p.s. Mayukh has written a biography of Merle Oberon that I am eagerly awaiting next year!) at right: NYCD sits pretty in the movie theater concessions.

Just me and Lisa Ling hanging out, talking about Not Your China Doll at Zibby’s Bookshop in Santa Monica—which, by the way, would probably be Anna May Wong’s local bookstore if she were alive today! In all seriousness, it was a true honor and Lisa’s questions were especially thought-provoking. You can watch the replay of our conversation here.

at left: Nancy Wang Yuen, me, and Anna Wong; Nancy was a fantastic facilitator for the evening’s conversation and lent us insights from her own work as a sociologist (her book Reel Inequality is a must-read for understanding the challenges actors of color face in the industry today). at right: a strong showing of the Gee family who came out to support this event at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, including my cousin Laura Sander who helped translate German sources for the book. A special thanks to Reparations Club for selling a ton of books!

at left: me and Jeff Yang, author of Rise and The Golden Screen, get into the nitty gritty of Anna May Wong’s life at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. at right: Seeing a full shelf dedicated to your book at your hometown bookstore? Priceless.

Before I left town, I had to stop by the Arcadia Public Library, where there is a dedicated bookshelf for local authors in a locked archival room. How neat is it that NYCD now has a place on that shelf?

---

Upcoming Events

March 25, 6:15 pm - Screening of Piccadilly + Book Signing
Roxie Theater, 3125 16th Street, San Francisco, CA
Buy tickets

**JUST ADDED**
March 27, 7:15 pm - Screening of Shanghai Express + Book Signing
Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth Street, San Rafael, CA
Buy tickets

March 28, 5:30 pm - Book Talk at Book Passage
Book Passage, San Francisco, 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA
Open to the public

April 18, 6:30 pm - In conversation with Graham Hodges & Yunte Huang
MOCA, 215 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013
Reserve a spot

May 17, 10:00-11:15 am - Writing Asian & Asian American Biography
BIO International Annual Conference
Leon Levy Center for Biography, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Buy tickets

---

In the News

For LitHub, my essay on how writing biography as a woman in a male-dominated genre often changes the way history gets told and colors the way we understand important figures like Anna May Wong.

Veronica Esposito interviewed me for The Guardian and summarized the book with these delightful words: “[A] fast-paced, thoroughly researched biography . . . Salisbury, who has written and spoken widely on the Chinese-American experience and who grew up not far from Wong’s stomping grounds in southern California, is the ideal author to guide us through the actor’s life. She effectively leverages her personal experience with systemic injustice, as well as her wide-ranging knowledge of Hollywood and cinema, to give Wong the biography that she has long deserved.”

I was also happy to sit down with Harmeet Kaur at CNN to speak about Anna May Wong and how my book reframes the narrative around her trailblazing career. I even made it into the Sunday print edition of the Pasadena Star-News!

photo courtesy of Victor B. D’Agostino

For your listening pleasure, I recorded podcasts with Vulgar History and Front Row Classics. And if you’ve been wondering whether NYCD is available as an audiobook, the answer is yes—you can find it on Audible.

Thanks again for all of your support! Because of you, NYCD shot up to #1 on Amazon this week under new releases in the “Asian American & Asian” category. How’s that for the first two weeks on sale?