(Women Talking about History - Issue 1093)
In the history of human entertainment, Hollywood is undoubtedly the dream temple of the entertainment industry, and there are many shadows of Chinese stars. Those familiar are such as Bruce Lee , Zhou Runfa , Jackie Chan , Gong Li , Michelle Yeung , Liu Yuling and other Chinese superstars. Compared with the Chinese superstars who debuted in the film and television industry at the age of 49, became famous in Hollywood at the age of 16, and were even better than Chaplin at the age of , it would be a big deal.
The "China Grand Theater" located in the heart of the Avenue of Stars is a Hollywood landmark building. It is famous for its square cement floor that brings together the handprints and footprints of the world's best and most outstanding filmmakers. It is known as "Hollywood's most precious honor."
For the construction industry, whenever a major project starts, a ribbon cutting and foundation laying ceremony will always be held to add some joy, and those who hold the shovel must have a great background. Not only in China, but the United States is no exception. In 1925, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Hollywood China Grand Theater invited top art masters from the world, including Chaplin, Douglas Van Punk, Harold Lloyd , to support it. What surprised the whole world the most was that the embedder of the "first rivet" as the foundation laying symbol was actually a Chinese actress named Anna May Wong, who had just turned 20 years old and was held by a Chinese actress named Anna May Wong. This is undoubtedly the most noble honor in the history of a century of film.
Not only that, several years later, Anna May Wong, as the first Chinese artist, left a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame . However, this international Chinese superstar who debuted at the age of 9 and became famous in Hollywood at the age of 16. He engraved an eternal mark and created immortal glory in the history of Hollywood movies for a century. Later, he donated money and materials for the cause of the Anti-Japanese War. However, in , he was ruthlessly banned by by Soong Mei-ling and , and was criticized by the Chinese during the Republic of China period. Soong Mei-ling has always been known for her gentleness and tolerance. Why can't tolerate a female artist who doesn't cause disaster or cause trouble? What about Huang Liushuang, a Chinese actress who donated money and materials for the Anti-Japanese war? There are two reasons. For more information, this chapter will be broken down.
Huang Liushuang's English name is Anna May Wong. She was born in 1905. This year was the year when the Chinese film debut "Dingjun Mountain". Perhaps it was destined by God, or by chance. When Huang Liushuang, born in Huang Ji Laundry on Chinatown in Los Angeles, was born at the same time as China's first movie, she was destined to perform a bitter, sweet and sweet legend in the entertainment industry.
1. Talented and intelligent, entered the industry at the age of 9, became popular at the age of 16
Huang Liushuang's ancestral home is Taishan, Guangdong. Her grandfather was the first generation of gold hunters. Her father opened a laundry in Chinatown, barely maintaining the livelihood of a family of ten.
Due to life, Huang Liushuang helped her father's laundry at a very young age. Once, when she delivered clothes to customers, she was very polite and very popular, so she got a tip from the customers for a few cents. Huang Liushuang was ecstatic and rewarded herself beautifully, using these few cents to watch the first movie in her life. The movies at that time were called silent films, also called silent films. The actors had no lines, but only rely on body language and expressions to express emotions and promote the plot.
From then on, Huang Liushuang became obsessed with the movies. Whenever there was a shooting scene on the street, she would ask the crew questions. She was also sweet-mouthed and had unique eyesight. She often helped them do odd jobs. The crew liked her very much and called her a "curious Chinese baby." Over time, Huang Liushuang became more and more familiar with several crews. In the end, she persuaded the director to give her several extras. This was her first appearance, and she was only 9 years old that year.
"So it turns out that making movies is so fun and so simple!" Rather than saying that this is Huang Liushuang's childless words, it is better to say that she is very artistic, she can understand it at a glance, and learn it without a teacher. Since then, she gave herself the stage name Anna May Wong, used her small bed as a stage, played opposite the doll, directed and acted in front of the mirror, imitating various expressions and body language, and making movies became her greatest dream in life.By the time she was 14 years old, the opportunity came, and the familiar director invited her to play a small role in the movie "Red Lantern", thus opening the door to Hollywood for her.
Two years later, in 1921, 16-year-old Huang Liushuang finally got the opportunity to cooperate with the big-name male star LonChaney Srt, and became famous overnight in the movie "Life". Huang Liushuang has become famous since then, and her unique oriental look continues to appear in major movie magazines. Yet, despite this, can she really gain a foothold in Hollywood in the white world?
2. Hollywood dolls under racial discrimination
Huang Liushuang lived in the most serious period of racial discrimination in the United States. Since 1879, the US government has promulgated a series of racial discrimination laws and regulations such as the Anti-Interracial Intermarriage Act and the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibits Chinese immigration, prohibits Chinese from purchasing real estate, prohibits Chinese from participating in public project construction, prohibits Chinese from intermarriage with white people, etc. In the eyes of white people, Chinese are synonymous with "dirty, selfish, shameless, prostitutes, thieves, homeless people, drugs and drugs" and are discriminated against.
As early as Huang Liushuang's childhood, she became a monster in the eyes of white children. The white children didn't even know that Chinese were humans who were as conscious as them. They even tentatively stabbed her with needles and asked her "does it hurt?" In his youth, because the law stipulated that Chinese women could not intermarry with white people, Huang Liushuang had to break up with her deepest lover Mickey Niran.
In this social background, although Huang Liushuang became popular overnight in Hollywood, can she really bloom for a long time? Obviously it is impossible! In Hollywood films at that time, Chinese were described as robbers, drug dealers, murderers, setting fires, barbaric, cunning, cruel, greedy, shameless, and vulgar. They often made some films that mocked Orientals or ugliness Chinese to please white people and satisfy their dirty mentality of hunting, banter, and harming others. This was far beyond their sketch style and so-called moral standards of criticizing Zhao Benshan for "use the disabled for fun" more than ten or twenty years ago, while Americans at that time were genuine and "use the Chinese for fun."
Although the characters of prostitute, slander and manuva played by Huang Liushuang have first-class acting skills and amazing beauty, people's comments on her while hip-hop entertainment express "Yellow Peril! "China Invasion of Shadow Screen" and other complex perverted psychology that is both contempt and envious, jealous and hatred. Therefore, Huang Liushuang's flashy appearance in Hollywood in the early days had nothing to do with art, but was just a doll for white people to entertain.
3. Europe has been gilded for 3 years, returning to Hollywood is highly sought after
1928, Huang Liushuang could no longer tolerate Hollywood's "camel-like" discriminatory treatment of Chinese actresses, and resolutely left the United States and went to Europe to develop. In the next three years, she whirlwind from Germany to the UK, then to Netherlands , Spain, Italy, Hungary, Romanian , and collaborated with famous European directors to film "Chinatown Fun Dream" and "Picadilly". She won unanimous pursuit of European countries with her stunning oriental charm and her perfect artistic accomplishments. She won countless flowers and applause along the way. The giant posters were overwhelmed by them, and countless movie fans were attracted by them. Huang Liushuang was at its peak, received courtesy, and was even invited by the British royal family.
After winning the recognition of European movie fans, Huang Liushuang returned to Hollywood in 1932. With the honor and reputation earned by her three years of European journey, Huang Liushuang was not only admired by all walks of life in the United States, but " New York Times " even changed her previous tone and called her "incredible innocent jade girl", which also gave her the opportunity to star in "Daughter of Dragon". From then on, Huang Liushuang gained a foothold in Hollywood and gradually moved towards artistic glory.
4. Donate money and materials to the Anti-Japanese War, but was ruthlessly banned by Soong Mei-ling
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Huang Liushuang delivered speeches many times, calling on the American people to actively support China's anti-Japanese war, and sell the jewelry he collected for charity, and remit the obtained charity money to China to support the Anti-Japanese War. However, such a patriotic Chinese female artist was coldly treated by Soong Mei-ling, the first lady of the Republic of China.
1942, Soong Mei-ling visited the United States and gave a speech in Hollywood to promote the anti-Japanese war, which won the Americans' sympathy and understanding of the suffering Chinese under the invasion of Japanese imperialism. During the speech, many famous Hollywood movie stars surrounded the first lady of the Republic of China like moonlight, but around Soong Mei-ling, there was no figure of Huang Liushuang, who was not only the only Chinese female star in Hollywood and a fellow who donated money and materials to the War of Resistance Against Japan. Why was Huang Liushuang so coldly accepted by Soong Mei-ling?
In fact, more than ten years ago, China had already criticized Huang Liushuang on the screen. When "Daughter of Dragon" was released, a movie magazine made the following reviews: "Paramon used Huang Liushuang's image as a prostitute to humiliate us Chinese again!"
In 1932, the Hollywood film "The Hotel" set in Shanghai was released in Shanghai. The name and stills of Huang Liushuang, who played the second female lead as a Chinese, inexplicably disappeared from the poster.
In 1936, Huang Liushuang came to Shanghai. While being warmly received by well-known domestic performing artists including Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang and popular movie star Hu Die , she was also unreasonable accusations and meanness from all directions. Their reason was that Huang Liushuang played roles that belittled Chinese people and were willing to be slaves of foreigners. She was no different from traitors and was a national scum. Huang Liushuang made an objective response, saying that the actor could not decide the role. Even if he did not play, he would naturally be played by a white man. In that way, he would not have the chance to maintain the minimum image and dignity of the Chinese. He had already tried his best. However, despite Huang Liushuang's defense, she still could not appease the public's voices, and the media's reports were quite negative. Under this circumstance, Soong Mei-ling decided to ban Huang Liushuang from her movies and ban her movies from .
The reason why Soong Mei-ling did this is, firstly due to public pressure, and secondly, as the first lady of the Republic of China, she was long and short, like an international fashionable woman full of ink, which was in line with the example of Chinese women. The female ladies, tobacco owners, gangsters, prostitutes and female slaves played by Huang Liushuang are completely ugly old Chinese women. How can such a person be able to catch the eyes of the first lady? It would be strange if you don’t ban it, and you are even less qualified to speak on the same stage with her.
【 Conclusion 】
Although Huang Liushuang was not understood and sympathized by the Chinese people, she was somewhat sad and lost after being banned in China, but she did not change her original intention of serving the country with anti-Japanese movies "Myanmar Bomb" and "Mrs. Chongqing", she donated all the pay for the two movies to the China United Relief Association, and then withdrew from the film industry and began a seclusion life of pure hearts and few desires.
On February 2, 1961, Huang Liushuang died of a sudden heart attack and was buried beside her mother's tomb after her death. What is puzzling is that her own name is not engraved on the tombstone.
Decades have passed. With the changes in the three views and the gradual deepening of the understanding of art, future generations have forgotten Huang Liushuang more.
However, no matter how time flies and years pass by, Whenever people walk at the end of Hollywood Walk of Fame, they can always see the shining statue of the Chinese superstar, together with Dorothy Derio, Dorothy Dandridge, May West and Marilyn Monroe , standing forever on the "Silver Cast Four Ladies Viewing Platform".
(Text/Woman Talking about History·Zhang Wen)
Reference materials: "The Image of Chinese Women in Hollywood Films", "The First Chinese Hollywood Female Star Huang Liushuang", "Remembering the Legend of Chinese actress Huang Liushuang for a Century Years of Hollywood", "The First Generation of Chinese Hollywood actress exposed and was banned by Soong Mei-ling", etc.
