It was Anna May Wong’s persistence that brought her fame throughout her life and is the reason why she is remembered today. Wong grew up in Hollywood as a third generation immigrant to laundryman Wong Sam Sing and his wife, Lee Gon Toy. Wong was obsessed with movies as a kid. She would save up her money from helping her dad make laundry deliveries to buy tickets to the movies. She would often skip school to sneak around movie studios and ask bigwig movie producers to cast her in a role.
At the young age of 14 her hard work finally paid off when she was given the opportunity to be an uncredited extra in The Red Lantern. Three years later she earned her first lead role in The Toll of the Sea. Her best role in Hollywood was in the 1930’s Oscar winning film Shanghai Express. Today Wong is known as the first Chinese American movie star.
Throughout her career, Wong stood up against Hollywood’s racism toward Asian women. During this time, directors often casted Caucasian women as Asian women in lead roles. Even though Wong was undoubtedly talented, she was deemed “too Chinese to play Chinese.” Instead of lead roles, Asian actresses were given supporting roles, often villainous, deceitful characters. Wong turned down these stereotypical roles for B-list movies that allowed her to play stronger characters. At one point in her life she even moved to Europe because she was not willing to add to the racial discrimination Hollywood movies were fueling at the time.
Wong made it clear that she would not let the color of her skin determine her career. She stood up for herself and avoided roles that did not support her beliefs of who she was as an actress. Although she was not appreciated during her time, her fight for equal opportunity and her elegance in her craft is why she is remembered as a Hollywood icon today.