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Wow, this film is everything that the Anna May Wong film (which I wrote about here) was not. San Francisco director Arthur Dong’s documentary Hollywood Chinese, which won the Golden Horse Award (the Chinese equivalent of the Oscars) in December, chronicles the contributions Chinese-Americans have made to Hollywood films. But more than just a filmography, Dong interviews a rich range of actors and directors about their experiences, including Ang Lee, Wayne Wang, Amy Tan, Joan Chen and Nancy Kwan. Actress Tsai Chin says she’s not proud to have acted in five Fu Manchu movies, but she needed to put food on the table. Nancy Kwan describes how a woman accused her of shaming Asian women by playing a prostitute in The World of Suzie Wong.
While interesting, these themes are not new. One way Dong’s film distinguishes itself from other Asian-American films and books is when he interviews white actors who took on “Chinese” roles in the yellowface films of the 1920s-60s. German actress Luise Rainer, who landed the lead role (and an Oscar) as O-lan in The Good Earth (1927), based on Pearl S. Buck’s novel, defends the film’s yellowface casting, saying that being “true to the character” is “more important than being exactly right on the outside.” One of the most uncomfortable, yet brilliant moments in the film is when we see a close-up of Christopher Lee, a white British actor who played the maniacal Fu Manchu in the 60s, as he explains how makeup artists used latex glue to create the look of Asian eyes, or the “epicanthal fold.” Lee tells us how “uncomfortable” it was to have his eyes glued. Just imagine how uncomfortable it was for Asian actors to lose “Chinese” roles to actors in yellowface.
Besides interviews, Hollywood Chinese is also rich with archival materials, including casting notes from The Good Earth, showing that Anna May Wong failed to impress directors, a 1930s photo of a Chinese-American acting union, and footage from the Q&A session following Better Luck Tomorrow’s (2002) Sundance screening, when director Justin Lin was criticized for portraying Asian-Americans in a negative light. Film critic Roger Ebert stood up and shouted, “Nobody would say to a bunch of white filmmakers, ‘How could you do this to your people?’ Asian-American characters have the right to be whoever the hell they want to be.” It’s a powerful moment that makes one think, why do we still have to have this conversation? Dong also reveals clips from the earliest yellowface depictions of Chinese, such as Beheading the Chinese Prisoner (1900), Massacre of the Christians (1900), and The Heather Heathen Chinese and the Sunday School Teachers (1904). All show America’s fascination with and fear of the Chinese— issues that are still very relevant more than 100 years later. Hollywood Chinese is screening in various locations in the U.S. right now, but hopefully it’ll come to Asia again soon. If it does, be sure not to miss it.