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Matt Glasby

This is the latest instalment in a feature series reflecting on instances of East meets West in world cinema, including China-US co-productions.
Anna May Wong was an anomaly in 1930s Los Angeles. Born Wong Liu-tsong to second-generation Taishanese Chinese-American parents in 1905, she rose to become Hollywood’s pre-eminent Asian star, appearing in classics like The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and Shanghai Express (1932).
Often, however, the material did not live up to her abilities. Across a career that lasted from 1919 to her untimely death in 1961, she played concubines, slaves and courtesans with depressing regularity.
Even Daughter of the Dragon (1931), her first sound film to give her top billing, featured Warner Oland in “yellowface” as the supervillain Fu Manchu.


A modest B-movie on the surface, 1937’s Daughter of Shanghai, directed by the prolific Robert Florey, stands out for all the right reasons.
As the title character, Wong has both dignity and agency, and her romance with hero Kim Lee (Korean-American actor Philip Ahn) made them the era’s first Asian-American couple portrayed by Asian-American actors.
“I like my part in this picture better than any I’ve had before,” she told Hollywood Magazine in 1938. “This picture gives Chinese people a break – we have sympathetic parts for a change! To me, that means a great deal.”
The film begins with newspaper headlines providing exposition while giving some sense of America’s attitude to immigration: “Foreign trade floods US,” says one. “Airplanes used to land aliens,” says another.

What follows is the coldest of cold opens, as we watch gangsters – among them future star Anthony Quinn – smuggling people into the US. When a government plane intervenes, they simply drop their human cargo into the sea – presumably to their deaths – with a brutally casual, “There goes US$6,000!”
The action moves to San Francisco’s Chinatown. Here we meet Wong’s heroine, Lan Ying, who works at the import business of her father, Quan Lin (Ching-wah Lee). When the gangsters threaten them, her father tries to report them to the immigration bureau, but is killed before he can do so.
To avenge his death, Lan Ying travels to Central America and goes undercover in a sleazy bar to crack the smuggling ring, only to discover the ringleader is closer to home.
Though dolled up in traditional Chinese clothes, she shows her modern mettle immediately. “You’d make a perfect princess,” coos customer Mrs Hunt (Cecil Cunningham). “I’d rather be Lan Ying Lin,” she fires back.

Soon she teams up with Kim Lee (Philip Ahn), a suave government agent, and the pair fall in love. Whether fighting gangsters or jumping out of planes together, they look like film stars – just not like the other stars of the day.
While unavoidably of its time, with stock secondary characters – a faithful black servant, a scrappy Irish chauffeur – and stiff upper lips all round, the way the film depicts its heroes feels both progressive and modern.
Lan Ying and her father are prosperous, law-abiding citizens, while Kim Lee risks his life to keep the country safe. We even see them speaking Chinese to one another with no subtitles, an acknowledgement that it is possible to be both Asian and American – a lesson the US still seems to struggle with.
As the playwright Philip W Chung puts it, “Watching it now, it’s still as revelatory as it must have felt in 1937.”

It is also, for its time, determinedly feminist. Lan Ying is brave and bold, pushing the story forward without anyone’s help. When she arrives in the bar looking for work, she sits at a table by herself, sipping rum and taking the place in.
“I don’t speak Chinese,” says one of the dancers dismissively. “I speak English,” she snaps back, unwilling to be put in her place.
Even when the characters objectify her, Florey’s camera always takes her side. When, during an audition, bar owner Hartman (Charles Bickford) says, “Stand up, let’s have a look at you,” the camera rises with her, so we look down on him from her point of view.
Later, as she performs a – very chaste – dance on stage as Lola Chen, Daughter of Shanghai, the focus is on the barflies staring at her rather than her body.
Florey made dozens of quickie thrillers like this – including four others in 1937 – but Daughter of Shanghai, and its star, have remained in the public consciousness. In Babylon (2022), Damien Chazelle’s epic about 1920s Hollywood excess, Li Jun Li played a Chinese cabaret singer based on the actress.

In 2006, Daughter of Shanghai was preserved by the US Library of Congress, which noted, “B-films during the studio era often resonate decades later because they explore issues and themes not found in higher-budget pictures … Daughter of Shanghai was more truly Wong’s personal vehicle than any of her other films.”
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American cinema

How Anna May Wong fought stereotypes in 1937’s people-smuggling drama Daughter of Shanghai

Philip Ahn (left) and Anna May Wong in a still from Daughter of Shanghai (1937). The pair’s romance in the film made them the era’s first Asian-American couple portrayed by Asian-American actors.

Philip Ahn (left) and Anna May Wong in a still from Daughter of Shanghai. Photo: courtesy of Park Circus/Universal

Anna May Wong in a still from Daughter of Shanghai. Photo: courtesy of Park Circus/Universal.

Anna May Wong and Philip Ahn in a still from Daughter of Shanghai. Photo: courtesy of Park Circus/Universal.

Li Jun Li as Lady Fay Zhu in a still from Babylon (2022). Photo: Paramount Pictures

How The Joy Luck Club paved the way for Asian representation long before Crazy Rich Asians

Lisa Lu (left) and Rosalind Chao in a still from The Joy Luck Club (1993). The film stands as only the second Hollywood film ever to tell a contemporary story with a majority Asian cast – the first, Flower Drum Song, had arrived 32 years prior.

(From left) Kieu Chinh, Ming-Na Wen, Tamlyn Tomita, Tsai Chin, France Nuyen, Lauren Tom, Lisa Lu and Rosalind Chao in a still from The Joy Luck Club.

Director Wayne Wang (second from left) on the set of The Joy Luck Club.

(From left) Tamlyn Tomita, Ming-Na Wen, Lauren Tom and Rosalind Chao in a still from The Joy Luck Club.

(From left) Tamlyn Tomita, Tsai Chin, Ming-Na Wen, Kieu Chinh, France Nuyen and Lauren Tom attend a 25th anniversary event for The Joy Luck Club in Beverly Hills on August 22, 2018. Photo: Getty Images

Soursweet, British drama on Hong Kong immigrants, showed grim reality of their new lives

Sylvia Chang in a still from Soursweet (1988). Film4’s drama about a Hong Kong family trying to make a new life in London was written by Ian McEwan and directed by Mike Newell, and had almost no Chinese people behind the camera.

Danny Dun (left) in a still from Soursweet.

Speedy Choo and Sylvia Chang in a still from Soursweet.

Sylvia Chang in a still from Soursweet.

Sylvia Chang and Danny Dun in a still from Soursweet.

A Great Wall, the first American film shot in China, told a genial East meets West tale

(From left) Xiu Jian, Li Qinqin and Kelvin Han Yee in a still from A Great Wall (1986), the first American film to be shot and co-produced in China. Photo Nanhai

Peter Wang (left) and Hu Xiaoguang in a still from A Great Wall (1986). Photo Nanhai

Shirley Sun and Peter Wang, the Chinese-American producer and director, respectively, of the film A Great Wall, during an interview with the Post in 1986. Photo: SCMP

Cecilia Cheung: Hong Kong actress, sex scandal victim and Chinese social media star

Cecilia Cheung at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards in 2004. The actress’ personal life garnered a lot of attention in the 2000s, with tabloids covering scandals and her high-profile romantic life. Photo: SCMP

Cheung in 1999. Photo: Oliver Tsang

Cheung speaks after receiving the award for best new performer, as veteran actors Liza Wang and Danny Lee look on, at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2000. Photo: Martin Chan

Cheung and Nicholas Tse in 2001. Photo: Reuters

Cheung in a still from Lost in Time (2003), for which she won best actress at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards. Photo: China Star Entertainment Group

Cheung and Tse at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2011, the year they filed for divorce. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Cheung and Stephen Chow in a still from King of Comedy (1999). Her feature-film debut remains one of her most memorable roles. Photo: The Star Overseas

Cheung and her three sons. Photo: Weibo

Cheung in a photo she posted on her Weibo account in 2023. Photo: Weibo

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Anna May Wong’s role in Daughter of Shanghai was one of the Chinese-American actress’ favourites. We look at why this B-movie stands out


Anna May Wong’s role in Daughter of Shanghai was one of the Chinese-American actress’ favourites. We look at why this B-movie stands out.


Cinema

Fame and celebrity

Hollywood

Asian-Americans

How Anna May Wong fought stereotypes in 1937’s people-smuggling drama Daughter of Shanghai

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Anna May Wong’s role in Daughter of Shanghai was one of the Chinese-American actress’ favourites. We look at why this B-movie stands out

Anna May Wong’s role in Daughter of Shanghai was one of the Chinese-American actress’ favourites. We look at why this B-movie stands out