Anna May Wong, Aging

By now, everyone must have heard that Chinese American actress Anna May Wong has earned a place on American quarters.  Key elements of her famous look, including the bangs and high eyebrows, remained with her as she aged.  The photo above, taken shortly before her death in the early 1960s, shows Wong in her mid-fifties.

It wasn’t easy being the first Chinese American film star. Strict movie industry rules, as well as US anti-miscegenation laws, limited the roles Wong could play. She was the temptress or the prostitute, but she could never kiss a Caucasian on screen. Wong railed against these limitations, and even spent time in Europe where her options were somewhat greater. However, she was never cast as anything but “other.” Even in her fifties, she was “China Mary” on a Wyatt Earp episode or “Madame Liu-Tsong” the antique dealer, always dressed in some American vision of Chinese attire.

As China Mary on the Wyatt Earp Show, 1960

According to a recent biography by Graham Russel Gao Hodges, Anna May Wong: From Laudryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend, Wong gained a bad reputation in China for the skimpy costumes she had worn in early films. After going to China in the 1930s, she paid more attention to what she wore on screen. She also began to wear almost exclusively Chinese clothes in public, including bias cut silk qipao. During World War Two, she was an active fundraiser for the Chinese national cause. Fashion shows were a frequent method, featuring models wearing “skillfully adapted Chinese color combinations, motifs, and patterns to suit the American face and figure.” (Hodges, 200)

I couldn’t find many pictures of Wong in her later years. According to her biographer, at home she wore black slacks and a sweater. Too bad there are no photos of that!

This entry was posted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, General and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Anna May Wong, Aging

  1. Bob Moeller says:

    Any information on her reaction to the founding of the PRC in 1949?
    Bob

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