UCSB Professor Launches Book on Anna May Wong

Chaucer’s Books (3321 State Street) will host a book launch for UCSB English professor Yunte Huang, the author of “Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History (Liveright, release date Aug. 22) on Tuesday, August 22, 2023 at 6 p.m.

Description of “Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous With American History”- a New York Times  and Atlantic Magazine reading selection for August.

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.

About the Author Yunte Huang

Yunte Huang, a Guggenheim Fellow, has taught at Harvard and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is a professor of English. The author of Inseparable and the Edgar Award–winning biography Charlie Chan, both National Book Critics Circle Award finalists, Huang speaks frequently about American popular culture. He lives in Santa Barbara.

Praise For

Daughter of the Dragon capably tracks Wong’s life and career, creating a tender, fair portrait of an important performer . . . he presents a concise yet rich history of Asian American culture and politics at the turn of the century . . . Huang illustrates details about Wong with passion and fervor, clearly delineating her struggles and achievements. When Wong succeeds, readers will rejoice, and when her circumstances limit her, readers will feel her sorrow.

— Kirkus Reviews