Anna May Wong, 1929

Anna May Wong (1905–1961) was one of Hollywood’s first Asian-American stars and, for a long time, the only woman of Chinese descent to work in Hollywood in an era when non-Asian actors customarily took Asian roles. She became an overnight sensation with her first leading role in The Toll of the Sea (1922), a Madame Butterfly-inspired film, and appeared in over 60 films throughout her career. She is now also remembered for her outspokenness about racism and her opposition to the biased racial politics that often cast her in exoticised and stereotypical roles. She remarked: ‘Why is it the screen Chinese is nearly always the villain? And so crude a villain – murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass. We are not like that.’

This photograph by British society photographer, Dorothy Wilding (1893–1976), was taken in 1929, shortly after a frustrated Wong had left Hollywood for Europe, and the year the British silent melodrama Piccadilly, in which she starred, was released.

National Portrait Gallery, London. Given by the photographer's sister, Susan Morton, 1976
© William Hustler and Georgina Hustler/National Portrait Gallery, London