From Anna May Wong to Lucy Liu

Dragon lady, lotus blossom, seductress. Asian-American actress Anna May Wong played all the Asian stereotypes during her film career, which began more than 80 years ago, during the silent film era. More often than not, the characters she portrayed were killed, by either murder or suicide. In today's Hollywood, Lucy Liu, arguably the only bankable Asian-American star working in films today, manages to survive most of her films -- is this the only progress that has been made?

Wong's choice of roles was limited by what Hollywood studios were offering her at the time. In the early 20th century, anti-miscegenation laws were still in effect in the U.S., including California's 1880 law that prohibited issuing marriage licenses for white and Chinese couples as well as black and white couples. The 1930 production code stated, "Miscegenation (sex relationship between the white and black races) is forbidden." Even kissing was not allowed. The anti-miscegenation law remained in effect until 1948 -- by which time Wong had essentially retired from films. Eventually, she became so frustrated with the limited roles available to her that she left Hollywood in 1928 to go to Europe for three years, making films in England, Germany and France, and appearing in stage productions. "I think I left Hollywood because I died so often," Wong said.

Wong had a remarkable career, acting in more than 80 films over a 23-year period, successfully making the transition from the silent to the sound era. Forty-three years after her death in 1961, Anna May Wong is undergoing a revival of sorts. Retrospectives of her work were presented earlier this year at the New York Museum of Modern Art and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. In addition, two biographies have been published, Anthony Chan's Perpetually Cool: The Many Lives of Anna May Wong (Roman & Littlefield, 2003) and Graham Hodges' Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).

Four of Wong's films screened in the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival in March. In The Toll of the Sea, a 1922 silent film, 17-year-old Wong played her first starring role as Lotus Flower. Despite a moving performance, her character's inevitable decisions -- telling her son she is not his mother, but rather his Chinese nanny and giving him up to her white lover and his white wife and then Lotus Flower's eventual suicide -- are frustrating. The Madame Butterfly self-sacrificing storyline overshadowed the beauty of the film -- it was one of the first Technicolor productions. After The Toll of the Sea, Wong was offered some supporting roles and lost leading Asian roles to white actresses in yellowface. It is no wonder that she left for Europe.

In the 1929 British silent film Picadilly, Wong's character Shosho is a scullery maid turned successful nightclub dancer. In this film, Wong had a starring role. Sadly, her on-screen kiss with her white co-star was cut by the British censors and her character is eventually killed. In Shanghai Express, released in 1932 and starring Marlene Dietrich, Wong has a supporting role as a prostitute who is raped by the Eurasian leader of the revolutionaries. In Daughter of Shanghai, released in 1937, she stars as the adventurous Chinese American Lan Yin Lin who is searching for the smuggling ring responsible for the death of her father. She works with an Asian American government agent, played by Asian American actor Philip Ahn. In the film, he eventually asks her to marry him -- but they do not kiss on screen. So even when she is with an Asian man, she is still not allowed any real romance. But at least her character is not killed.

How far have Asian American actresses come since then? Unfortunately, not very far. In U.S. cinema today, only one Asian American actress seems to be working regularly -- Lucy Liu.