Saturday, May 09, 2009

Anna May Wong

This picture of Anna May Wong appears in the current issue of Smithsonian magazine, in an article about the photographer Edward Steichen. Edward Steichen set the tone for fashion photography as a photographer for Vogue magazine during the 1920s and 1930s. Anna May Wong was the most successful Chinese-American actress of all time, and her story captures the complexity of Chinese-American life during the first part of the 2oth century. To learn more, I would probably buy "Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend" which is by Graham Russell Gao Hodges (YouTube version).