Anna May Wong : from laundryman's daughter to Hollywood legend

Anna May Wong is undoubtedly one of the most well-known and most popular Chinese American actresses ever to have graced the silver screen.

Between 1919 and 1960, she starred in over fifty movies.

She shared equal billing with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Marlene Dietrich and Werner Oland.

Her life, though, is almost the prototypical story of an immigrant's difficult path through assimilation into American culture.

She was born in Los Angeles in 1905 and was the second daughter of six children born to a laundryman and his wife.

Her life in Los Angeles 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, most of all, Shanghai Express opposite La Dietrich.

Discrimination against Asians continued, however, 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 Luise Rainer.

Apparently, Wong was 'too Asian' for the role. In a narrative that recalls both the pathos of life in Los Angeles's Chinese neighbourhoods and the glamour of Hollywood's pleasure palaces, Graham Hodges recounts the life of a Hollywood legend.