The Brightest Star: A Historical Novel Based on the True Story of Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong was the first Chinese American actress to become an international star, making movies in Hollywood, Berlin, Paris and London. Her first adult role was at age sixteen, and she made the jump smoothly from silents to talkies. Hampered by the Hays Code miscegenation clause, Anna May was repeatedly denied important roles. Hollywood preferred ‘yellowface’. Unable to kiss a Caucasian actor onscreen, her characters had to be secondary. Nevertheless, she was a huge success and confident she would be accepted for the leading role in The Good Earth in 1937. She was the obvious choice, not only the same nationality as the lead character, but a multi-talented, beautiful actress with years of experience. Being snubbed may have spelled the downhill slide in her career and health.
Undoubtedly Anna May was a fighter, but she lived in an era where her Chinese heritage put her at an immediate disadvantage. A third-generation American, she fought her whole life to prove she was as Western as anyone else, and her Chinese history held great importance for her. This is a detailed look at her film career, family, friends, travels, her mindset, her triumphs and her disappointments.
In this scrupulously researched novel, Anna May tells her backstory during a train journey to New York in 1960. It is lovingly written with meticulous detail, and the author’s devotion to her subject shines through. The emphasis on certain aspects feels very intense at times, as though the author had to include every minute detail to tell her story correctly. Hence, I noticed repetition, particularly around Anna May’s relationship with her father, her early childhood, anti-Chinese sentiment, and film costumes. Tsukiyama’s novel illuminates an important milestone in history for which Anna May was perhaps born twenty years too soon. This is a good addition to any readers’ library of early Hollywood fiction.
