After reading the current addition I am so anxious to receive your book this week! I so hope the film of AMW is a truthful and honest one. She was a gifted woman on so many levels and the world needs to know this story. Likewise they need to read your book and keep up with your column. I am so glad you are there and thanks for being you!
Katie, this is such a wonderful essay on “half-caste” and many other matters. And Library Journal! Fantastic review - they don’t hand those out to just any book, as I well know!
My two teenage boys, born and raised in Hong Kong to a Chinese-speaking English dad and a multilingual Malaysian Chinese mum, have no idea of being half anything; they are quite themselves, no labels required. It is interesting and IMO a fairly hopeful development. Absent reactionaries changing society back, the world is moving on despite all the snags.
It seems quite true that Anna May understood that her fame, especially in light of many of her roles, created a sense of identification with the struggles and misfortunes of the characters.
In fact, it could be said that the character and the actress were conflated. This was especially true in China.
The logic was, from what I have read, that actresses were likely prostitutes. Actresses who _played_ prostitutes were certainly ones.
The best that can be said is that she performed a triumph in "method acting".
In her cabaret shows she often indicated her empathy with Hui Fei, her character in "Shanghai Express". She recited a poem-"The Street Girl", about the plight of the women who wanted to find a way out, but could find none. The same theme as "Half-Caste Woman".
In Italy, she gave short monologues, the gist of which was: "now that you see me in person, you can see I'm different from the characters I've played."
So, she understood the potency of her image in movies. That the very worst derision often came from her ancestral home must have been especially distressing.
The identification spilled into art. A popular image in painting and illustrations during her career was "The Madonna of the Streets"-a poor, perhaps homeless woman, carrying a child. So, the woman represents, stands in for, the Virgin Mary; the child, Jesus.
As Germany descended into Nazi control in 1933, German Artist Dorte Wulff, created an illustration: "Madonna of the Street Girls". It's an extremely graphic image.
It can represent no-one but Anna May Wong, down to the "lid of the teapot" hair style she wore as Hui Fei in "Shanghai Express". With a halo. This Madonna wears only a yellow cape, and it covers nothing.
The character of Hui Fei is almost universally detested on the train. Yet she is a true Patriot to China. The scorn evaporates when she kills the most direct threat to China and the Chinese people, an evil, outlaw warlord.
She is sanctified by the formerly disdainful passengers. The Shanghai press regales her as the "brave Chinese girl".
Hui Fei is as disgusted with the false acclaim as with the derision. She walks away at the end of the movie in anonymity and freedom, with a $20,000 reward. Her character needs neither false renown nor unwarranted contempt.
The fact that her character is motivated out of revenge for her rape "is of no consequence". Anyone can kill an outlaw for any reason; an outlaw is excommunicated from society.
So, yes, Wong's personal identification with character in the song and in the movie is apt, indeed.
She was always the same person, whatever the role was. She understood her outcaste characters who were "wondering what the end will be".
After reading the current addition I am so anxious to receive your book this week! I so hope the film of AMW is a truthful and honest one. She was a gifted woman on so many levels and the world needs to know this story. Likewise they need to read your book and keep up with your column. I am so glad you are there and thanks for being you!
Katie, this is such a wonderful essay on “half-caste” and many other matters. And Library Journal! Fantastic review - they don’t hand those out to just any book, as I well know!
Congratulations!
My two teenage boys, born and raised in Hong Kong to a Chinese-speaking English dad and a multilingual Malaysian Chinese mum, have no idea of being half anything; they are quite themselves, no labels required. It is interesting and IMO a fairly hopeful development. Absent reactionaries changing society back, the world is moving on despite all the snags.
Chanteuse! Since she is a silver screen starlet, hope for this to be adapted to a film…and live show. ;)
It seems quite true that Anna May understood that her fame, especially in light of many of her roles, created a sense of identification with the struggles and misfortunes of the characters.
In fact, it could be said that the character and the actress were conflated. This was especially true in China.
The logic was, from what I have read, that actresses were likely prostitutes. Actresses who _played_ prostitutes were certainly ones.
The best that can be said is that she performed a triumph in "method acting".
In her cabaret shows she often indicated her empathy with Hui Fei, her character in "Shanghai Express". She recited a poem-"The Street Girl", about the plight of the women who wanted to find a way out, but could find none. The same theme as "Half-Caste Woman".
In Italy, she gave short monologues, the gist of which was: "now that you see me in person, you can see I'm different from the characters I've played."
So, she understood the potency of her image in movies. That the very worst derision often came from her ancestral home must have been especially distressing.
The identification spilled into art. A popular image in painting and illustrations during her career was "The Madonna of the Streets"-a poor, perhaps homeless woman, carrying a child. So, the woman represents, stands in for, the Virgin Mary; the child, Jesus.
As Germany descended into Nazi control in 1933, German Artist Dorte Wulff, created an illustration: "Madonna of the Street Girls". It's an extremely graphic image.
It can represent no-one but Anna May Wong, down to the "lid of the teapot" hair style she wore as Hui Fei in "Shanghai Express". With a halo. This Madonna wears only a yellow cape, and it covers nothing.
The character of Hui Fei is almost universally detested on the train. Yet she is a true Patriot to China. The scorn evaporates when she kills the most direct threat to China and the Chinese people, an evil, outlaw warlord.
She is sanctified by the formerly disdainful passengers. The Shanghai press regales her as the "brave Chinese girl".
Hui Fei is as disgusted with the false acclaim as with the derision. She walks away at the end of the movie in anonymity and freedom, with a $20,000 reward. Her character needs neither false renown nor unwarranted contempt.
The fact that her character is motivated out of revenge for her rape "is of no consequence". Anyone can kill an outlaw for any reason; an outlaw is excommunicated from society.
So, yes, Wong's personal identification with character in the song and in the movie is apt, indeed.
She was always the same person, whatever the role was. She understood her outcaste characters who were "wondering what the end will be".