All this Asian American history is overwhelming my brain. Today I find out that one of America's greatest entertainers in the early 20th century was Asian.

I'm thinking 'How the hell did I not know about this?'

I watched a documentary called "The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam" this afternoon. Long Tack Sam was an acrobat/magician vaudeville performer who sold out shows the world over. The greats of his age like George Burns thought he was the best.

You've got to watch the film to see just how prolific a career Long Tack Sam built for himself, and how complex a life he lived. It's amazing.

After the movie, I was thinking, you know, it's easy to believe that Asian Americans don't have a rich history of entertainment like the Jews or Blacks, with their well-known comedy acts in the Catskill resorts, or Black-run minstrel shows after the Civil War. But it's like Prof. Hamamoto was saying in last night's q+a. We have a culture as significant as any other, in music, movies, and magical acts. The history of Asian American entertainment runs deep, deeper than we're ever led to believe growing up.

To that end, the next film I saw today was "Piccadilly" at the Castro Theatre. This was a 1929 film featuring Anna May Wong as Shosho, a Chinese nightclub dancer who wows the crowds with her sultry moves. It was a British film (Anna May had to flee racist Hollywood for Europe to make films) and a silent film.

Without dialogue, the facial expressions told the story. Anna May's eyes commanded everyone's attention, including mine.

Tonight's showing featured a live accompaniment composed and performed by Jon Jang. For almost two hours, Jon played the piano without missing a beat. He set the mood and matched the movie's pacing flawlessly. I stood up with the others at the end and applauded.

After the show, I talked with my friends Simon, Louie and Clarence about the movie. We thought it pretty remarkable that an Asian American actress could land a leading role like that in 1929. Her character was manipulative, using her sensuality to cozy up to the White boss while she left her Asian guy hanging (Hey, my ex-girlfriend could've played this role). Most of all, her character was real, good traits and bad, and therefore timeless.

I wonder if Anna May Wong could have imagined that in 2004, we're still looking for three-dimensional roles like that.

Replies: 1 Comment

on Monday, March 8th, Amy Lam said

Yeah, what's up with us peeps not knowing our APA history? Maybe because we're too quick to write off Anna May Wong's characters as the exotico-dragon-lady.

Good to see NAATA bringing films like these and last year's "Flower Drum Song" to the forefront.