The Brief

A mahjong set. A black dress with a deep V paneled with lace. A makeup box emblazoned with a Chinese name: Wong Liu Tsong.

Anna May Wong's mah jong set is one of the personal items on display to the public for the very first time at the exhibit.

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Some of Anna May Wong's personal belongings are on display for the first time ever at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, part of a new exhibition about the woman known as Hollywood's first Chinese American film star.

Unmasking Anna May Wong, which opens Thursday and runs until Jan. 26, 2025, gives a glimpse into the inner life of a screen legend whose magnetic presence and quest for better representation of Asian Americans in the arts and media resonates with audiences today.

"I feel that people are starting to wonder, 'Well, who was the first Asian American to be in this business?" said Katie Gee Salisbury, author of a new biography about Wong. "When you go back far enough, it's Anna May Wong."

Katie Gee Salisbury, who wrote a new biography about screen star Anna May Wong, co-curated the new exhibition at the Chinese American Museum.

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Salisbury co-curated the exhibition some 20 years after interning at the Chinese American Museum in college and stumbling upon the story of the L.A.-born Wong. Through talent and grit, she went from working at her father's laundry downtown to gracing the soundstages of Hollywood, where she starred in her first silent film at age 17.

Wong's acting chops caught the attention of superstar Douglas Fairbanks, who in 1924 cast her in The Thief of Bagdhad, catapulting her to international fame.

It came at a cost.

Wong's career-long battle against racist typecasting and sexism is chronicled in Salisbury's Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong.

Wong was fed up with playing dragon ladies and being treated as a second-class citizen when she was third-generation Chinese American. In 1931, she took a trip to China to learn the culture and language, an experience she documented on film. Salisbury said she came back changed.

Though she was a third-generation Chinese American, Anna May Wong had to file a special application to get traveling papers that proved she was a U.S. citizen and not an "alien" Chinese.

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Anna May Wong at her Santa Monica home which she designed with the help of renowned architect Rudolf Schindler.

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"She decided that she was no longer going to take on any unsympathetic roles," Salisbury said. "And she would only play roles that reflected well on her people."

Michael Truong, the executive director of the museum, said Wong's battles in Hollywood are some of the same waged today by Asian American creatives.

"We should look at her as a trailblazer and to continue on her steps to make sure that we are equally represented in media," Truong said.

The exhibition was inspired by a 12-foot-tall mural of Wong created in 2020 by the artist Rachel O'Donnell for a different show about red envelopes. Rather than paint over the mural when the exhibition ended, staff decided to build a new one dedicated to Wong that rides a surge in interest in her.

Michael Truong, executive director of the Chinese American Museum, said that the Anna May Wong exhibit has been several years in the making.

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Wong is the subject of a second recently-released biography Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History and an upcoming biopic to star Gemma Chan and to be penned by playwright David Henry Hwang.

She's been portrayed in the 2020 limited Netflix series Hollywood, and was the inspiration for a pivotal character in the film Babylon, which opened in 2022. That same year, Wong became the first Asian American to be featured on U.S. currency with the release of a commemorative quarter featuring her face framed by her signature bangs.

It's just one of multiple firsts that Wong achieved in a life cut short.

After leaving the U.S. to act in films and plays in Europe, Wong returned stateside to make the 1937 crime thriller Daughter of Shanghai, opposite the Korean American actor Philip Ahn. They were the heroes and the villain roles were filled by white actors.

The pair became the first Asian Americans to play a leading romantic couple in the sound era.

"It was kind of visionary that she helped create this script," Salisbury said. "Unlike many of her early films where she often had to die or was killed off, she actually gets a happy ending."

Two of Anna May Wong's dresses, gifted to the museum by author Lisa See, are on display.

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In real life, things were more complicated. Wong found work after her ingenue years were over — in 1951, she became the first Asian American to lead a television show with “The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong" — but roles became scarcer as she got older.

Wong struggled with alcoholism and developed cirrhosis of the liver. In 1961, she died of a heart attack at her home in Santa Monica, just a couple weeks before she had been scheduled to begin rehearsals for the Rodgers and Hammerstein hit musical Flower Drum Song.

"She was only 56," Salisbury said. "But if you consider all the things she did in her short life, it's worth several lifetimes."

For the last three years, the record store and music venue Healing Force of the Universe has been operating on a sleepy street corner not far from Pasadena City College. Nearby businesses include a shoe repair store, a nail salon and several auto shops.

“We're kind of in a dead corner,” owner Austin Manuel said. “No offense if anybody lives here, but not a very foot-trafficked area, kind of a hard place to have a store.”

In spite of the location, Manuel said Healing Force has become a home away from home for musicians and music fans. One of them is Bobby Bradford, a jazz trumpet legend who lost his house and personal archive in the Eaton Fire. He performs regularly at the venue. (Healing Force has also partnered with LAist on fire recovery events.)

Its current location is set to close this month, but Manuel and his team are already raising funds to cover a move to another space: G-Son Studios in Atwater Village. The repurposed ballroom was the Beastie Boys' home base when they recorded their classic albums Check Your Head and Ill Communication. Run-DMC and Biz Markie stopped by at one point, and Beck also laid down tracks for his album Odelay there.

Inside Healing Force's space in Pasadena.

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The vibe

Healing Force sells records, of course, but these days it’s more of a nighttime performance space. Manuel said he wants people to feel comfortable striking up conversations after a show.

“I grew up in the church in the South, and I was like, ‘How do I design this so that it feels like a Southern church lady could come in here and feel welcome?’" Manuel said. “ I didn't want it to be too cool.  I wanted it to feel kind of suburban in a way.”

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Though the name might call to mind a cult slogan — and Manuel said they lean into that aesthetic on purpose — it’s actually a reference to the 1970 album Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe by saxophonist Albert Ayler.

At the venue, “people can kind of get … into a meditative zone,” Manuel said. “After the [January 2025] fires, it felt so good to come back together in this room and feel the healing of community.”

Healing Force's stage setup.

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The performances

The shows Healing Force puts on share a common thread: They’re meant to promote peace and relaxation, as well as deep, careful listening on the hi-fi sound system. But they’re an eclectic mix of genres. On one night, you might see L.A. spiritual jazz band Phi-Psonics, who turned a residency at the venue into a live album, Expanding to One.

On another night, you might catch a spaced-out electronic set, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter or a group of session musicians who’ve played with the likes of Paul Simon, Elton John and Lucinda Williams.

About the fundraiser

With the new space on Glendale Boulevard, Manuel said, Healing Force would triple its capacity for concerts, get a bar space and be closer to other venues in Northeast L.A.

“If 1,000 people gave $25, we would get there,” Manuel said – though he also said most people have been giving more.

You can read more about the fundraiser and donate at Healing Force’s GoFundMe.

See the Pasadena space before it closes

The venue is still open at 1200 E. Walnut Street and is holding events through this Halloween weekend. You can see their events calendar on their website.

The racist DNA of Jim Crow discrimination may be embedded in your housing documents.

The language in housing documents that restricts sale or use of a property only to a person of the white race is called a “restrictive covenant,” and in California the practice goes back to the 19th century and continued into the mid-20th century. While housing discrimination persists, the practice was found unconstitutional in 1948.

California counties are reporting mixed progress in meeting the demands of a 2021 law to excise the language from property records.

According to Sylvia Manzo, deputy recorder in the Orange County Clerk-Recorder’s office, the county finished the job in March of this year, removing racist language from more than 27,000 property documents with the help of computer software.

This 1924 property document from Bakersfield includes racist language limiting use of the property in question to people of "the white or Caucasian race."

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L.A. County is far from done. It says that with the help of an outside company hired in 2024, 50 million pages will be examined yearly, which would take about 10 years to finish the job.

Public agencies could use the public’s help.

Language examples

Here’s a 1924 example from a property in Bakersfield. The text reads, “That the lands herein conveyed shall never, at any time, be sold to or rented to or occupied by any person not of the white or Caucasian race.”

Or this language from a 1936 document relating to a Costa Mesa property: “That said premises shall not be sold, conveyed, rented, or leased to, or occupied by any person of African, Mexican, or Asiatic descent.”

How to get it taken out

The Restrictive Covenant Modification Form is at the heart of the effort to remove the racist language from housing documents. Each county has its own process. Some charge a fee; others don’t. Some require a notary certification for the signature; others don’t.

L.A. County:

Registrar-Recorder officials recommend these steps:

• Highlight or underline the unlawful provision on the recorded document
• Complete the Restrictive Covenant Modification Form
• Submit the form and the recorded document by email: RCM@rrcc.lacounty.gov or in person at the Norwalk headquarters at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk
• Mail instructions are here.

Orange County:

The Orange County spokesperson says there may be some properties not caught by its software and urges the public to report them. Here’s the form

Riverside County:

Here’s the Riverside County form

San Bernardino County:

Here’s the San Bernardino County form

San Diego County:

Here’s the San Diego County form

Santa Barbara County:

Here’s the Santa Barbara County form

Ignoring the racist language in property documents, some say, reinforces the legacy of segregation, while taking steps to remove restrictive covenant language is a way individuals and organizations can repudiate policies that sought to discriminate.