(Cancelled) WeHo Reads Celebrates Asian-American History Month with Hollywood Chinese by Arthur Dong
WeHo Reads Celebrates Asian-American History Month with Hollywood Chinese by Arthur Dong
Growing up during the 1960s, Chinese-American filmmaker and author Arthur Dong saw plenty of Hollywood movies where portrayals of Asian people leaned heavily into stereotypes or, worse, were outright offensive and with many roles played by white actors, a practice commonly referred to as “yellowface.”
This curiosity would motivate Dong to make documentaries and films about the Chinese and LGBTQ communities. With his book, “Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Feature Films,” the Oscar-nominated filmmaker dives deep into the history of Chinese representation in U.S. cinema, from early depictions of San Francisco’s Tong Wars in the early 1900s to hit romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” in 2018.
He touches on the history of stereotypical characters like the villainous Fu Manchu, the game-changing presence of Hollywood’s first Chinese American movie star, Anna May Wong, and other notable, if lesser known, junctures in pop culture history — like how the 1962 film “Confessions of an Opium Eater” became the impetus for starting East West Players, the Los Angeles-based Asian American theater company, still in existence today.
Free admission. Light refreshments will be served after the presentation. RSVP requested. www.weho.org/wehoreads
For more information on the WeHo Reads literary series please visit www.weho.org/wehoreads or contact Mike Che, Arts Coordinator, at mche@weho.org, (323)848-6377.
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