FROSTED YELLOW WILLOWS, Anna May Wong : Her Life, Times and Legend.

 A documentary based on the life of third-generation Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong was presented today by its director Ms. Elaine Mae WOO, from Los Angeles, attending the  2007 edition of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

Anna May Wong was born Wong Liu Tsong on January 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, California. Her parents ran a laundry in the city's Chinatown section. Fascinated as a youngster with Hollywood and spurred on by a burning ambition to enter the industry and become an actress, she started out as a model while still in high school. At  14, her actor cousin, James Wong Howe, got a small part for her in  Dinty (1920),. She went on with bit roles in  Shame (1921) and Bits of Life (1921) until the director of  The Thief of Bagdad (1924). hired her to play a Mongol slave girl which was her breakthrough role. As a Chinese-American, the obstacles to stardom were enormous but she bagan getting recognition, a huge achievement for a coloured woman at that time. 

Ensuing roles however, were limited to Chinese or Asian-themed movies, many directors casting her as a prostitute. In  A Trip to Chinatown (1926), she marked the Hollywood scene in her Chinese garb and hairdoe with bangs as an exotic beauty, attracting the attention of German director Rchard EICHBERG, beckoning her to cross the ocean to play in his next feature in Germany.

Staying in Europe for 3 years, living the high life and playing in other movies in England and Germany, she then staged her own one-woman show, taking it to France, Italy, England, Switzerland, Spain, etc...with considerable success.

After a successful transition to the talkies, Paramount then signed her for  Shanghai Express (1932) with Marlene Dietrich, followed by Dangerous to Know   with George Raft, playing a gangster's moll seeking revenge at being two-timed. She was then at the zenith of her career.

By the 40's fewer roles  were in the coming, mainly because her career had been severely restricted to depicting non-Caucasian characters and the growing racism in American society and fear of the "yellow threat".

 After Lady from Chungking (1942), Anna didn't appear on-screen again until Impact (1949). and subsequent roles  were negligible until her career dwindled down to television where she did a series, "The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong" (1951), which fell flat after 7 runs.

In the 50's, she had reoccurring bouts with illness and attempts to overcome a  drinking problem led to hospital stays but she managed to act in 2 other important productions in the  1960's. Diagnosed with heart problems and cirrhosis of the liver, she died from a massive heart attack aged 56.  

Her Chinese name  "Second-Daughter Yellow Butterfly"  has been interpreted as "Frosted Yellow Willows."