My China Film (1936)

Anna May Wong created “My China Film” as her response to not being cast in Metro Goldwyn Meyer’s award-winning film about Chinese peasants, The Good Earth (1937). Immediately after that casting rejection, Wong travelled to China for the first and only time in 1936 to see the real China, the “native land” of her parents where she arranged to have her experiences there filmed by Newsreel Wong. In contrast to The Good Earth, “My China Film” is the result of a Hollywood film studio actress seizing the means of production. Her film reveals her craftsmanship as an American actress learning to play a Chinese by equipping herself to perform the role of a transnational Chinese. In addition, rather than being a straightforward documentary travelogue, “My China Film” reflects differing agendas and multiple Chinas.