Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong

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. (Mar.)