Daughter of the Dragon

Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History

By: Yunte Huang

Narrated by: Rebecca Lam

A trenchant reclamation of the Chinese American movie star, whose battles against cinematic exploitation and endemic racism are set against the currents of twentieth-century history.

Born into the steam and starch of a Chinese laundry, Anna May Wong (1905-1961) emerged from turn-of-the-century Los Angeles to become Old Hollywood's most famous Chinese American actress, a screen siren who captivated global audiences and signed her publicity photos—with a touch of defiance—"Orientally yours." Now, more than a century after her birth, Yunte Huang narrates Wong's tragic life story, retracing her journey from Chinatown to silent-era Hollywood, and from Weimar Berlin to decadent, prewar Shanghai, and capturing American television in its infancy. As Huang shows, Wong's rendezvous with history features a remarkable parade of characters, including a smitten Walter Benjamin and (an equally smitten) Marlene Dietrich. Challenging the parodically racist perceptions of Wong as a "Dragon Lady," "Madame Butterfly," or "China Doll," Huang's biography becomes a truly resonant work of history that reflects the raging anti-Chinese xenophobia, unabashed sexism, and ageism toward women that defined both Hollywood and America in Wong's all-too-brief fifty-six years on earth.

©2023 Yunte Huang (P)2023 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Sympathetic portrayal of a screen icon and activist.

I like the narration Author puts Anna May Wong in context of Hollywood, Asian-American history, growth of Los Angeles. Sometimes, author pads the narrative with stories of other actors and movies which almost loses the focus on Wong.

Interesting listen!

Anna May Wong had a fascinating life and career. This book details that life with a lot of care and detail. Super interesting.

Was Fascinated but...

Really wanted to like this, but I tapped out without finishing. Cherry-picking information to build a narrative with lots of inaccuracies about the silent days. Very sad.

Interesting person, badly written tale

Reads like an academic dissertation about film industry racism with a few melodramatic phrases inserted