Lecture on Anna May Wong
March 15, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Mānoa Campus, Burns 2118
Anna May Wong created 芒鈧揗y China Film芒鈧 as her response to not being cast in Metro Goldwyn Meyer芒鈧劉s award-winning film about Chinese peasants, The Good Earth (1937). Immediately after that casting rejection, Wong travelled to China for the first and only time in 1936 to see the real China, the 芒鈧搉ative land芒鈧 of her parents where she arranged to have her experiences there filmed by Newsreel Wong. In contrast to The Good Earth, 芒鈧揗y China Film芒鈧 is the result of a Hollywood film studio actress seizing the means of production. Her film reveals her craftsmanship as an American actress learning to play a Chinese by equipping herself to perform the role of a transnational Chinese. In addition, rather than being a straightforward documentary travelogue, 芒鈧揗y China Film芒鈧 reflects differing agendas and multiple Chinas.
Shirley Jennifer Lim is Associate Professor of History and affiliate faculty in Women and Gender Studies, Asian and Asian American Studies, and Africana Studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She has held a Research Fellowship at Australian National University (2010). The author of A Feeling of Belonging: Asian American Women芒鈧劉s Public Culture, 1930-1960 (NYU 2006), she is currently working on a book-length manuscript entitled 芒鈧揚erforming the Modern.芒鈧
Event Sponsor
American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Center for Biographical Studies, International Cultural Studies Program, Hawaii American Studies Association, Mānoa Campus
More Information
Vernadette Gonzalez, (808) 956-5404, vvg@hawaii.edu, Lecture on Anna May Wong (PDF)