05/06/2026
Appearing in over sixty movies throughout her career, Anna May Wong was the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood. In addition to her roles in silent films, television, and stage, Wong landed a role in one of the first movies made in Technicolor. Internationally recognized, her legacy continues to influence entertainers around the world.
Anna May Wong was born on January 3, 1905 in the Chinatown area of Los Angeles, California. Her birth name was Wong Liu Tsong, which means “Frosted Yellow Willows,” and she was given the English name Anna May by her family.
When film production moved from New York to California in the 1910s, Wong started visiting movie sets. She would often skip school and use her lunch money to go to the movies. At age nine, she decided she wanted to become a movie star. She came up with her stage name, Anna May Wong, at age eleven by combining her English and Chinese names.
Wong worked as an extra in many movies while still attending school. In 1921, Wong dropped out of Los Angeles High School to become an actress full-time. That same year, she landed a role in the film “Bits of Life.” At age seventeen, Wong landed her first leading role in “The Toll of the Sea” (1922), the first feature length film made by Technicolor.
Wong continued to audition for lead roles, but she was always cast as a supporting character or as typical “Asian characters.” Anti-miscegenation laws in the US at the time prevented in*******al marriages and even prevented in*******al actors from kissing on-screen. In March of 1924, she created her own production company called Anna May Wong Productions, so she could make her own films about her culture.
While working on films in the US, Wong was still asked to play stereotypical Asian roles. When the director of the film “Dangerous to Know” asked her to use Japanese mannerisms when playing a Chinese character, Wong refused. She later appeared in one of her most famous films, “Shanghai Express,” with her friend Marlene Dietrich. In the 1950s, she became the first Asian American to lead a US television show for her work on “The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong.”
Learn more about Wong: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/anna-may-wong
