Product Description
Anna May Wong was one of Hollywood's most well-known Chinese American actresses.Between 1919 and 1960, she starred in over fifty movies,sharing billing with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Marlene Dietrich and Werner Oland.Her life, though, is the prototypical story of an immigrant's difficult path through the prejudices of American culture.Born in Los Angeles in 1905, she was the second daughter of six children born to a laundryman and his wife.Her life there fuelled her fascination with Hollywood and, in 1919 she secured a small part in her first film, The Red Lantern.Her most famous film roles were in Thief of Baghdad, Old San Francisco and Shanghai Express.Discrimination against Asians, though, was commonplace and when it came time to make a film version of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, she was passed over for the role that was ultimately given to the Luise Rainer.In a narrative that recalls both the pathos of life in Los Angeles's Chinese neighborhoods and the glamour of Hollywood's pleasure palaces, Graham Hodges recounts the life of a Hollywood legend.
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Customer Reviews (18)

Nice enough, but inaccurate as heck
Sadly I have yet to read another biography on Anna May Wong, so I can not recommend one.But this one really should be passed over...or taken with a grain of salt.

Hodges writing style is dry.Its almost as if he took several documents...then told us he did."Anna went to China in such and such year, she then returned on such and such date".Page after page this gets annoying.There are also several typos and misspellings...an odd thing for a published book.

My biggest complaint is Hodges perpetuated the myth that Anna May Wong was buried in an unmarked grave.Several biographers have repeated as such but in actuality Anna is buried under her chinese name (it took a website Forget the Talkies, to find this out).Seems simple enough to research; especially by someone claiming to be so in touch with Chinese history and symbolisim (he goes on and on about her hairstyles).Not worth the read, try another bio.

The psychology of the identity crisis...
This was a good story for anyone who has an interest in Chinese-Americans, The Golden Age of Hollywood, or the psychology of the identity crisis. Although I have only seen one movie that includes Anna May Wong (The Thief of Bagdad), I have found myself caught up in her beauty and sexy, but rather meloncholoy persona. Her story is, in fact, a sad one that includes alcoholism, loneliness and non-acceptence from Americans and Chinese alike. It is also a story that crosses paths with interesting people of her time including Douglas Fairbanks, Marlene Dietrich, Anthony Quinn, Lin Yutang, and Madame Chaing Kai-Shek.

This book has sparked my curiousity and I plan on trying to watch some of the Anna May Wong movies mentioned in this book such as "Chu Chin Chong", "Shanghai Express", "Piccadilly" and "Lady of Chunking".

Good Summer Reading
This book is a good summer read. It is a good combination of academia and effective storytelling. For younger readers this will help to illuminate some of the constraints people of color were burdened with vs. Hollywood etc. This is a charming and sympathetic portrait of a beautiful and talented artist. More stills of the lovely Anna May would have been most welocme. There were so few women of color who were "allowed" to be glamourous,beautiful and cultured...that Anna May retained her dignity under these conditions is a victory to be celebrated.

The world was waiting for a great bio of Anna May ...
... and it still is. This book gets all of the facts but none of the story. It's disappointing most of all for what it could have been, given the huge amount of time the author obviously spent researching his subject.

HODGES BRILLIANT SHINING LIGHT
Professor Hodges locked me in his basement and made me read Anna May Wong over and over and over and OVER again while wearing a leather motercycle yamaka. He fed me nothing but scraps of fatty bacon.she was INTOXICATING.I directed my MALE GAZE at this modern marvel.This masterpiece.If you have not read it, YOU MUST.Bask in the radiance of this brilliant man. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Labour/Le Travail, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2007. The length of the article is 1450 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Graham Russell Gao Hodges, Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend.(Book review)
Author: Yiman Wang
Publication: Labour/Le Travail (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 60Page: 311(3)

Article Type: Book review

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by Thomson Gale on January 27, 2006. The length of the article is 2440 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Surveillance for early detection of disease outbreaks at an outdoor mass gathering--Virginia, 2005.
Author: M. Coletta
Publication: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (Newsletter)
Date: January 27, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 55Issue: 3Page: 71(4)

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Product Description
This digital document is a journal article from The Journal of Academic Librarianship, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the effects of the use of dual-screen monitors by library staff in an academic library. A self-administered survey questionnaire was used to gather information from library staff to examine the positive and negative effects of utilizing dual-screen monitors. ... Read more