The accomplishments of Anna May Wong were recently highlighted by the New York Historical Society. She was a Chinese-American born in Los Angeles in 1905. She was sent to an all Chinese-American School after she was bullied in a predominantly white public school. At the age of fourteen she was an extra in a movie called The Red Lantern. After this positive experience she dropped out of school to pursue a career in film. Her first big break came when she was seventeen. She played the lead character in the silent film The Toll of the Sea. Success in the entertainment industry would not be easy. In the early nineteen hundreds it was common for white actresses to play Asian characters in yellowface and Asian stereotypes were often unavoidable. Even though her roles were limited her popularity soared. In order to fight prejudice she adopted a free spirited flapper lifestyle and traveled to Europe. In 1928, she accepted an offer to star in a movie in Berlin. She stayed in Europe until 1935 starring in many feature films. She returned to Hollywood for a chance to act in The Good Earth, but the part was given to Luise Rainer, a white actress in yellowface. After this rejection she traveled to China to reunite with her family. At the end of her career she became the first Asian-American to star in her own television series.
