Graham Russell Gao Hodges
Auteur van Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend
Over de Auteur
Graham Russell Gao Hodges is the George Dorland Langdon, Jr. Professor of History and African-and Latin American Studies at Colgate University. He is author of many books, including David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City and Taxi! A Social History toon meer of the New York City Cabdriver. toon minder
Werken van Graham Russell Gao Hodges
Friends of Liberty: A Tale of Three Patriots, Two Revolutions, and the Betrayal that Divided a Nation: Thomas… (2008) 81 exemplaren
David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City (2010) 35 exemplaren
Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North: African Americans in Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1665-1865 (1997) 20 exemplaren
The Black loyalist directory : African Americans in exile after the American Revolution (1995) 13 exemplaren
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I am very interested to learn more about AMW as well as her genealogy, but the writing so far in this book is just ok--fairly dry. The author pats himself on the back a lot ("This book remains the best source about her family, headed by matriarch Lee Shee" p. xii) and to be fair, it is true that other books focus on her American family vs. her father's first family left behind in China. Doubtless he has put a lot of time in researching the subject (~1999-2004) spurred on by his discovery of an autographed photo of the actress that caught his eye (author is not Chinese but coincidentally or not coincidentally he has married a Chinese-American scholar who has been very helpful), but you would hope that by the publication of this 3rd edition, there wouldn't be such basic inconsistencies as these two conflicting statements re: Lee Shee's age at death--
---Lee Shee died in 1942 at the age of seventy-four. (preface to 3rd edition, p. xii)
---Lee Shee....had lived to the age of seventy-eight in Chang On, (p. 7).
Granted, it's often difficult to know for sure exactly when Chinese people from this era were born, particularly when relying on memories of dates from the lunar calendar (my own grandmother chose to celebrate her birthday on the same day as her eldest child, and the year of her birth was really a guess), but maybe don't pat yourself on the back so much if you're going to print inconsistencies like this.
So, I guess take all the facts with a grain of salt? The sources listed in the back appear to be mainly English-language articles and writings, but he also does mention his contact with AMW's half-brother's descendants in Taishan, China (who are an immense help in providing information about AMW's family roots in Chinese genealogical records), as well as a visit to the ancestral village, and his knowledge of Chinese-American history appears to be comprehensive and consistent with what I know, although he probably could learn a lot more about discriminatory US policies against other minorities:
---A series of laws starting with the Burlingame Treaty in 1868, through the Page Law of 1875, and culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882...amplified...over the next twenty years in a series of measures that specifically curtailed the rights of Chinese Americans. Such discriminatory laws made the Chinese the only ethnic group in the history of the United States to suffer restrictions aimed directly at them. [emphasis mine] (p.3) -- the endnotes cite three sources for this paragraph of information but even a 4th grader with an overly simplified education in US history could tell you there's something wrong with that statement, and really as a professor that teaches African American studies (at Colgate University in NY) you'd think the author would know better too? I just can't figure out any way to interpret that statement, in any century, that would make it true.
Descriptions of film plots go on for pages, and drag somewhat (not the best way to experience 1920s cinema, perhaps, and I do recommend watching at least one of her films if you can to put all these film studies notes into context) but I did like when it focused on what roles AMW had to work with and what influence she was able to wield in terms of her dialogue, the depth of her characters (huge improvements to the flat caricatures the roles were originally written as). There is a comprehensive and thoroughly researched look at the different ways in which AMW was received by France, Germany, England, and China, but be prepared to slog through plenty of pages that may be somewhat dull, especially in the beginning and middle.
Recommended instead:
Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History by noted Chinese-American historian/author Yunte Huang, which gives careful and thorough attention to the forms of racism that were present in AMW's time and which affected her family and others.
Agent Josephine (2022 biography of the great Ms Baker)
The Doctors Blackwell (2021 nonfiction about the pioneering women who fought for their right to attend medical school)
and especially Lon Chaney Speaks (2020 graphic nonfiction about this talented silent actor and child of deaf parents)… (meer)