Audio only
Anna May Wong
From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood LegendBy Graham Russell Gao HodgesNarrated by Emily Woo ZellerLength10h 41m
About this audiobook
Anna May Wong remains one of Hollywood’s best-known Chinese American actors.
Between 1919 and 1960, Anna May Wong starred in over fifty movies, sharing billing with stars such as Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Ramon Novarro, and Warner Oland. Her life, though, is the prototypical story of an immigrant’s difficult path through the prejudices of American culture.
Born in Los Angeles in 1905, she was the second daughter of seven children born to a laundryman and his wife. Childhood experience fueled her fascination with Hollywood. By 1919 she secured a small part in her first film, The Red Lantern, and she continued to act up until her death. Her most famous film roles were in The Toll of the Sea, Peter Pan, The Thief of Baghdad, Old San Francisco, and Shanghai Express.
But discrimination against Asiana, in both in the film industry and society, was commonplace, and when it came time to make a film version of Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth, she was passed over for the Chinese female lead role, which was ultimately given to the white actor Luise Rainer.
In a narrative that recalls the pathos of life in Los Angeles’s Chinese neighborhoods and the glamour of Hollywood’s pleasure palaces, Graham Russell Gao Hodges recovers the life of a Hollywood legend.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.8 (306)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, LibraryThing, StoryGraph
GenreBiography and Memoir, History
Length10 hrs 41 mins
Narrated byEmily Woo Zeller
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateMay 30, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m4.7 (2.8K)$24 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m4.7 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
John Muir: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth & Letters to a Friend (Annotated)John Muir10h 13m4.7 (1.1K)$1.99 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m4.7 (3.2K)$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m4.7 (5K)$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (385)$20 · $0.00
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m4.6 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
Just as I AmCicely Tyson16h 8m4.6 (99K)$33 · $0.00
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
Ghosts of HiroshimaCharles Pellegrino8h 59m4.5 (877)$23
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m4.6 (3.2K)$18 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m4.6 (9.8K)$40 · $0.00
The SurvivorJosef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin9h 22m4.6 (2.5K)$29 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
You may also like
AutobiographyMargaret Sanger21h 43m4.1 (318)$2 · $0.00
CoolidgeAmity Shlaes21h 4m4.1 (10.8K)$46 · $0.00
YellenJon Hilsenrath11h 55m4.2 (711)$29 · $0.00
Sandy KoufaxJane Leavy6h 15m4.2 (9K)$24 · $0.00
In Praise of Difficult WomenKaren Karbo11h 17m3.8 (3.6K)$23 · $0.00
Marie CurieKathleen Krull2h 27m4.2 (270)$15
Father Henson's Story of His Own LifeJosiah Henson4h 3m4.4 (775)$1 · $0.00
Ladies of LibertyCokie Roberts10h 2m4.0 (3.2K)$29 · $0.00
We Are Our Mothers' DaughtersCokie Roberts7h 44m4.0 (1.3K)$26 · $0.00
Terrible VirtueEllen Feldman7h 43m3.6 (1.5K)$26 · $0.00
Broad StrokesBridget Quinn5h 29m4.3 (2.7K)$20
My Own Story (Illustrated Edition)Emmeline Pankhurst11h 51m4.3 (4.7K)$2 · $0.00
A Founding MotherStephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie17h 21m4.4 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Autobiography of Benjamin FranklinBenjamin Franklin6h 3m4.0 (115.1K)$20
A Son of the SoilMrs. Oliphant20h 28m3.4 (10)$2.30 · $0.00
Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Women's RightsAlice Stone Blackwell7h 22m4.3 (15)$2 · $0.00
One Last Shot: Based on a True Story of Wartime HeroismKip Wilson4h 4m3.9 (497)$20 · $0.00
Lorraine HansberryCharles J. Shields12h 9m4.0 (597)$23 · $0.00
Hema MaliniRam Kamal Mukherjee9h 46m3.5 (69)$29 · $0.00
Hope and HistoryWilliam J. vanden Heuvel11h 14m4.2 (45)$23