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Not Your China Doll

The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
“Enlightening, nuanced, and honest.”—Lisa See
Set against the glittering backdrop of Los Angeles during the gin-soaked Jazz Age and the rise of Hollywood, this debut book celebrates Anna May Wong, the first Asian American movie star, to bring an unsung heroine to light and reclaim her place in cinema history.

One of Entertainment Weekly's "Books We Are Excited to Read in 2024"
 
Before Constance Wu, Sandra Oh, Awkwafina, or Lucy Liu, there was Anna May Wong. In her time, she was a legendary beauty, witty conversationalist, and fashion icon. Plucked from her family’s laundry business in Los Angeles, Anna May Wong rose to stardom in Douglas Fairbanks’s blockbuster The Thief of Bagdad. Fans and the press clamored to see more of this unlikely actress, but when Hollywood repeatedly cast her in stereotypical roles, she headed abroad in protest.
 
Anna May starred in acclaimed films in Berlin, Paris, and London. She dazzled royalty and heads of state across several nations, leaving trails of suitors in her wake. She returned to challenge Hollywood at its own game by speaking out about the industry’s blatant racism. She used her new stature to move away from her typecasting as the China doll or dragon lady, and worked to reshape Asian American representation in film.
 
Filled with stories of capricious directors and admiring costars, glamorous parties and far-flung love affairs, Not Your China Doll showcases the vibrant, radical life of a groundbreaking artist.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 22, 2024
      Freelance book editor Salisbury debuts with a spirited biography of actor Anna May Wong (1905–1961), whom Salisbury credits with introducing “the American public to a compelling vision of Chinese American and Asian American identity at a time when our community visibility was either limited or vilified.” Wong was 18 when she filmed her breakout role in the 1924 blockbuster The Thief of Bagdad, but her fame was tainted by Hollywood’s endemic racism. She was frequently exoticized on screen (she played a scantily clad “Mongol slave” in Thief) and barred from substantive roles, even when the characters were Asian. (When MGM adapted Pearl S. Buck’s novel The Good Earth, which follows the lives of Chinese peasant farmers, producers claimed Wong didn’t have enough star power and selected white actor Luise Rainer for the female lead.) Wong also had to grapple with the Chinese community’s ambivalent feelings about her success. On a tour of China in the mid-1930s, she was by turns cheered by adoring fans and admonished by journalists for perpetuating stereotypes. Though Salisbury covers the tragic aspects of Wong’s life (she struggled with alcoholism and died of a heart attack at age 56), this biography emphasizes its subject’s grit and perseverance in carving out a niche in an industry inhospitable to actors of color. It’s a rousing testament to Wong’s talents. Photos. Agent: Alia Hanna Habib, Gernert Co.

    • Library Journal

      May 31, 2024

      Salisbury opens her debut by recounting her thoughts upon seeing a photo of the Chinese American film star Anna May Wong, who seemed, at least in the author's memory, to be nearly mythic in her elegance and beauty. After this winning introduction narrated by the author, narrator Caroline McLaughlin glides in for the rest of the book, an account of Wong's life and career, which were filled with glamour as well as frustration, heartbreak, and regret. Even listeners unfamiliar with Wong might be unsurprised at her treatment in early Hollywood. She was relegated to smaller parts, often alongside white actors in yellowface. Disgusted by Hollywood's racist attitudes, Wong moved overseas and achieved fame across Europe and beyond. As the book recounts Wong's trials and tribulations, McLaughlin gives distinctive voices to her family and the Hollywood celebrities that surround her. Listeners will be immersed in decades long gone, making this storied time feel present and real--perhaps an easier task than it should be, as many disparaging attitudes and prejudices are still present in today's movie industry. VERDICT This excellent exploration of an important actor's life may appeal to those fascinated by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong's When Women Invented Television or Nghi Vo's Wong-inspired fantasy novel The Siren Queen.--Matthew Galloway

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This audio biography doesn't shimmer as brightly as its subject, the wildly talented and stereotype-defying Chinese American actor Anna May Wong. The author narrates the preface slowly in a wooden tone. Caroline McLaughlin narrates the rest in a scratchy voice that evokes the tinny, high-pitched quality of audio recordings made during Wong's career apex in the early twentieth century. While the author deftly illustrates the inherent racism in Hollywood studio culture, she only scratches the surface of Wong's personal life. This results in an audiobook that sounds like a catalog of Wong's movies, their casts, and their plots. McLaughlin struggles to enliven the author's heavy reliance on quotations from film reviews to describe how audiences responded to Wong's many enigmatic performances. J.T. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

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