Hollywood finally shines spotlight on Anna May Wong

ANNA MAY WONG

It is appropriate that it took women of Asian descent to put a spotlight on the silver screen’s first Chinese American star, Anna May Wong.

Actress Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians, The Eternals) and producer Nina Yang Bongiovi (Sorry to Bother You, Fruitvale Station) are teaming up to develop a film about Anna May Wong, the Hollywood's first Asian American movie star, who fought a lonely battle against the movie industry's penchant for casting AAPI actresses to stereotypical roles. 

Chan will play the title role of the Los Angeles-born pioneer actress who started in silent films and transitioned to speaking roles.

Golden Age icon whose career brought her international recognition even as she continued to face opportunity limitations in the industry and other forms of prejudice and discrimination.

Chan, one of the busiest movie actresses and outspoken against the epidemic of anti-Asian hate in Great Britain and the U.S., will portray the Hollywood legend and also executive produce. 

Yang Bongiovi, who has a reputation of backing productions risk-adverse Hollywood wouldn't touch, will produce alongside Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. 

Gemma Chan's "look" at New York City's Met Gala was a tribute to Anna May Wong..

Wong's role in Hollywood is getting more attention in the last few years as the topic of diversity and inclusion in the movie industry has become a hot topic in the AAPI community. 

Her role in the early years of Hollywood was partially told in Netflix's  2020 limited series Hollywood. This year, Wong's image was used on a U.S. quarter, the first Asian American to be depicted on U.S. currency.

Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociologist wrote about Wong in her book "Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism,"  She found it remarkable that Wong spoke out in interviews on the prejudices she endured, despite there being little history for her to pull from.

“It was different because there wasn’t a lot of awareness what Asian American is and means, and she actually did speak out a lot about that,” Yuen explained to CAAM. 

“I had the benefit of all the people that came before me, all the historians, all the scholars, all the activists,” she added. “For her, she was alive during a time when there wasn’t that. She couldn’t take a course in Asian American studies.”

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