#Asian-American

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The Green Turtle: The Shadow Hero

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Anna May Wong

Art by Alejandro Mogollo

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Balalaika won a (old) recent poll contest,With Revy coming in second place.

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In the middle of a non-discriminate kill hunt.

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Dìdi (弟弟, dir. Sean Wang).

Set in the recent past of the summer of 2008 in the Bay Area, [the] Oscar-nominated Taiwanese-American first-time filmmaker [...] takes his own experiences growing up to tell a tender coming-of-age story. Wang's small-scale, semi-autobiographical indie drama is rich with details of its time period featuring juvenile humour about friendship, crushes, and fitting as the son of an immigrant mother.

[thefandomentals]

Dan sat down with designer Banana-chan at Gen Con to chat about Jiangshi: Blood In The Banquet Hall, diaspora horror, and making a game about regular people (and vampires).

[the-greatest-fool]

Oh fuck, it’s almost June. Okay, here’s a quick and dirty Asian American literature sweep I recommend for AAPI month. Note this is not meant to cover all of AAPI—obviously, because they’re different ethnic groups and it barely even makes sense to combine the categories to begin with—but instead blast out some of the most famous works that, IMO, should already be household names outside of AsAm lit/studies. I also, just based off my own interests, included works that look at the interplay between race and gender and sexuality.

I included “trending” writers, but I also wanted to redirect some attention to work and writings that have been in this field for literally decades. This is off the top of my head and written on my phone, plus I doubt anyone will read this. I may return to this in the future.

Essayists & Memoirs:

Eric Liu, Notes of a Native Speaker

Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior

Alexander Chee, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings

Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror

Jay Caspian Kang, The Loneliest Americans

Hua Hsu, Stay True

Playwrights:

David Henry Hwang: Chinglish, Yellow Face, M. Butterfly

Novelists/Authors:

Louis Chu, Eat a Bowl of Tea

Amy Tan, Joy Luck Club

Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese

Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown

Elaine Hsieh Chou, Disorientation

Ling Ma, Severance

RF Kuang, Yellow Face

Poets:

Theresa Hak Kyung Chu

Arthur Sze

Justin Chin

Timothy Liu

Cathy Park Huang

Ocean Vuong

Other:

David L. Eng, Racial Castration

[film-classics]

Anna May Wong - The First Asian American Hollywood Star

Wong Liu Tsong (born January 3, 1905 in Los Angeles), known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered "The First Asian American Hollywood Star" who helped humanize Chinese Americans to mainstream American audiences during a period of intense racism and discrimination.

Born to second-generation Taishanese American parents, Wong decided at an early age to become an actress. She was working at Hollywood's Ville de Paris department store when Metro Pictures needed 300 female extras in 1919.

Finding it difficult to keep up with her schoolwork, Wong dropped out of Los Angeles High School in 1921 to pursue a full-time acting career. The following year, she played her first leading role, in the two-color Technicolor movie The Toll of the Sea (1922), earning her critical acclaim. Nonetheless, Hollywood was reluctant to create starring roles for her; her ethnicity prevented filmmakers from seeing her as a leading lady. She spent the next few years in supporting roles providing "exotic atmosphere," such as a scheming Mongol slave in The Thief of Bagdad (1924).

Tired of being both typecast and passed over for lead Asian roles in favor of non-Asian actresses, Wong left Hollywood in 1928 for Europe, where she became a sensation. She returned to Hollywood with a Paramount contract in the 1930s and became more outspoken in her advocacy for better film roles for Chinese Americans and  support of the Chinese struggle against Japan. Embarking on a year-long tour of China in 1936 to explore her roots and learn about Chinese theater, she chronicled her experience in a series of newspaper articles, which was later broadcast on television in the 1950s and included her narration.

Later in life, Wong invested in real estate and owned a number of properties in Hollywood while also doing some guest spots on television series. At the age of 56, Wong died of a heart attack as she slept at home in Santa Monica, California, two days after her final appearance on television.

Legacy:

Won the Photoplay Awards - Best Performances of the Month in Feb 1923 and Oct 1929

Auctioned off her movie costumes and donated the money to the Chinese Benevolent Association of California to support Chinese refugees.

Wrote the preface to a cookbook entitled New Chinese Recipes, one of the first Chinese cookbooks, the proceeds of which she donated to United China Relief in 1942

Donated her salary from Bombs over Burma (1942) and Lady from Chungking (1942) to the then United China Relief

Was the first Asian American Actress to lead a TV series The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, which was specifically written for her

Is the basis of the 1971 poem "The Death of Anna May Wong" by Jessica Hagedorn

Is the namesake for the Anna May Wong Award of Excellence, given yearly at the Asian-American Arts Awards, and the Anna May Wong Award, an annual award by the Asian Fashion Designers group since 1973

Commemorated by the country of Grenada with a stamp in 1992 in its USO 50th anniversary series

Featured in curated several retrospectives, such as A Touch of Class for BFI Southbank in 1995, Anna May Wong: From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend at the Museum of Modern Art in 2004, and Anna May Wong at the American Museum of the Moving Image in 2006

Is the subject of China Doll, The Imagined Life of an American Actress, an award-winning fictional play by Elizabeth Wong in 1995

Was given tribute by Lucy Liu who dedicated her Hollywood Walk of Fame speech to her in 2019

Is the basis of a series of persona poems in Sally Wen Mao's Oculus: Poems, published in 2019

Honored with a Google Doodle in 2020 on the 97th anniversary of the release of her first film that she plays the lead

Featured in several exhibits, including "Beyond the Icon: Anna May Wong" at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in 2021, "Anna May Wong Abroad" at Houghton Library in Harvard University in 2023, "Not Your China Doll: Art Inspired by Anna May Wong" at Chelsea Market in 2024, "Anna May Wong: Icon of the Silver Screen" at the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum in 2024 and “Unmasking Anna May Wong” at the Chinese American Museum in January 2025

Is the namesake of the Ballad of Anna May, a coffee shop in Singapore which opened in 2021 and the Anna May Bar & Lounge at Crustacean Beverly Hills, which opened in 2022

Depicted by the United States Mint on the reverse of the quarter coin as a part of the American Women quarters series, becoming the first Asian American on American coinage in 2022

Honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month for April 2022

Commemorated by Mattel with the release of a Barbie doll modeled on Wong in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in 2023

Honored by the Santa Monica City Council in 2023

Has a biopic from Working Title Films in development, with British actress Gemma Chan set as the lead

Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1708 Vine Street for motion picture

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Inez Fung

Atmospheric scientist Inez Fung was born in Hong Kong in 1949. Fung is one of the world's foremost experts on climate and the carbon cycle. She is currently a professor of atmospheric science at UC Berkley. Fung has won numerous awards, including NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, and the Carl Gustaf-Rossby Research Medal, the American Meteorological Society's highest honor for atmospheric scientists. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and was a contributor to the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Image source: Whitehouse.gov

[clemsfilmdiary]

Never Been Chris'd (2023, Jeff Beesley)

12/23/23

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#NowPlaying: "Reclaiming, part 1: Home is Little Tokyo" by State of the Human

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"Bring us ALL the Bacardi you have!"

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