The Chinese American Museum’s next installment of its “Beyond the Page” series will see an author showcase her new book on the life of a Chinese American actress. The official West Coast launch of “Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong” kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 19.
Wong is often considered the first Chinese American film star. Some of her notable films included 1931’s “Daughter of the Dragon” and 1932’s “Shanghai Express.”
The biography is the debut book of Katie Gee Salisbury. However, she has deep roots in the literary world.
“I actually worked as an editor in book publishing for a long time,” Salisbury said.
A major turning point occurred in her career when she decided to go freelance around seven to eight years ago.
“That kind of opened up a lot of time for me to start thinking about projects that I wanted to work on as a writer,” Salisbury said.
That included a lot of writing about the experience of being mixed-race or Asian in the United States. Salisbury is half Chinese, half Anglo-Irish. Among her forays into the subject include her TED Talk, “As American As Chop Suey” and her newsletter, “Half-Caste Woman.” However, her interest in the life of Anna May Wong is much older.
“She’s someone I’ve been really fascinated by for the last 20 years, and have wanted to write about her for a very long time,” Salisbury said.
She first learned about Wong around 2004 when she was doing an internship at the Chinese American Museum (CAM) following her freshman year of college.
“My first day on the internship, the curator gave me a tour, and there was an exhibition at the time showing photographs of Los Angeles Chinatown through the years,” Salisbury said.
“There was a photo of Anna May Wong in a parade, and for whatever reason … when…
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