Not Your China Doll

The definitive story of Anna May Wong, the first East-Asian Hollywoodstar, and how she blazed a trail for the Chinese diaspora. Set against theglittering backdrop of Los Angeles in the gin-soaked Jazz Age and the rise ofHollywood, this debut book celebrates Anna May Wong, the first Asian Americanmovie star, to bring an unsung heroine to light and reclaim her place incinema history. In her time, Anna May was a legendary beauty, wittyconversationalist, and fashion icon. Plucked from her family’s laundrybusiness in Los Angeles, she rose to stardom in Douglas Fairbanks’sblockbuster The Thief of Bagdad. Fans and the press clamored to see more ofthis unlikely actress, but when Hollywood repeatedly cast her in stereotypicalroles, she headed abroad in protest. Anna May starred in acclaimed films inBerlin, Paris, and London, she dazzled royalty and heads of state acrossseveral nations, leaving trails of suitors in her wake. She returned tochallenge Hollywood at its own game by speaking out about the industry’sblatant racism. She used her new stature to move away from her typecasting asthe China doll or dragon lady, and worked to reshape Asian Americanrepresentation in film. Along with unprecedented access to Anna May’s personaleffects courtesy of the Wong family, in Not Your China Doll, Katie GeeSalisbury also draws on her own experiences as an Asian American woman toshowcase the vibrant, radical life of a groundbreaking artist.