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The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) cordially invites you to a captivating evening dedicated to the legendary Anna May Wong, Hollywood’s first Asian American star, whose luminous journey shattered stereotypes and paved the way for future generations. This event brings together three distinguished authors, Graham Russell Gao Hodges, Yunte Huang, and Katie Gee Salisbury, each of whom has chronicled the remarkable life of Anna May Wong in their books.

Graham Russell Gao Hodges’ Anna May Wong: From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend (2023) illustrates the epic tale of Wong’s rise to stardom amidst the challenges posed by prevailing prejudices. Hodges captures Wong’s prolific career, her iconic roles alongside Hollywood royalty, and her tenacious spirit in the face of discrimination, providing a comprehensive overview of her impact on film and American culture.

Yunte Huang, in Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History (2023), offers a profound re-examination of Wong’s legacy within the tumultuous currents of twentieth-century history. Huang traces Wong’s journey from the streets of Chinatown to the global stage, highlighting her encounters with luminaries and her relentless fight against the racial and sexist stereotypes in Hollywood.

Katie Gee Salisbury, in Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong (2024), paints a vivid picture of Wong’s legacy against the glittering backdrop of the Jazz Age and the burgeoning Hollywood. Salisbury celebrates Wong’s ascent from a humble family laundry business to becoming a symbol of grace, who not only captivated audiences worldwide but also unapologetically challenged Hollywood’s racist caricatures.

Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate the vibrant life and enduring legacy of Anna May Wong, whose brilliance and determination continue to inspire and resonate across generations.

About Graham Russell Gao Hodges

Graham Russell Gao Hodges is the George Dorland Langdon, Jr. Professor of History and Africana Studies at Colgate University where he teaches Asian American History among other topics. In addition to his biography of Anna May Wong, 3rd Ed. Chicago Review Press, 2023, he is the author of ten books on Black American and New York City histories and is the author of acclaimed biographies on Thaddeus Kosciuszko, David Ruggles. He is now writing a biography of Henry Highland Garnet, forthcoming from Yale University Press in 2027. He has directed eight NEH summer teachers’ institutes and received an NEH research fellowship in 2017. He lives in New York City and Hamilton, New York.

About Yunte Huang

Yunte Huang is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A Guggenheim Fellow in 2014-2015, he is the author of Transpacific Displacement (U of California Press, 2002), Transpacific Imaginations (Harvard UP, 2008), and Chinese Whispers (U of Chicago Press, 2022). His creative nonfiction book, Charlie Chan (Norton, 2010), won the Edgar Award and was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. His Inseparable (Liveright, 2018), also a finalist for the NBCC award, was named Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, NPR, and Newsweek. He has published articles in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, PMLA, and others, and has been featured on NPR, CBS, BBC, C-SPAN, and others. He is also the translator into Chinese of Ezra Pound’s The Cantos, and the translator into English of Che Qianzi, No Poetry, as well as the editor of The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature (Norton, 2016). His new book, the third and final installment of his “Rendezvous with America” trilogy, Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History (Liveright, 2023), was named one of the Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

About Katie Gee Salisbury

Katie Gee Salisbury has spoken and written about Anna May Wong on MSNBC, in the New York Times and in Vanity Fair. She also writes the newsletter Half-Caste Woman. She was a 2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship finalist and gave the TED Talk “As American as Chop Suey.” A fifth-generation Chinese American from Southern California, she now lives in Brooklyn. This is her first book.