Makeup storage box used by Anna May Wong
date: label: date made
content: before 1930
name: label: user
content: Wong, Anna May
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Makeup storage box used by Anna May Wong. The wooden box has two drawers, a pull-out mirror, and a removable mirrored front panel. The stained wood box has exposed tongue and groove joinery. The box has two metal handles attached to decorative metal plates on its top. Wong used this box to hold her stage and personal makeup throughout her career as an actress.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Anna May Wong (1905-1961) was a groundbreaking Chinese American film star, model, and style icon who fought racist prejudice against Asian Americans that limited her opportunities and obscured her legacy. Born Wong Liu Tsong, she grew up in Los Angeles's Chinatown obsessed with movies, and took her stage name at the age of 11 while trying to break in to the burgeoning film industry there. She first appeared as an extra in the 1919 film The Red Lantern and received her first screen credit in the 1921 film Bits of Life; that year she dropped out of high school to pursue her career as an actress. Despite gaining critical acclaim for her acting in notable films such as The Toll of the Sea (1922), The Thief of Bagdad (1924), Daughter of the Dragon (1931), and Shanghai Express (1932), Wong found her opportunities limited to a range of roles as “Dragon Lady”, doomed lover of a white man, or sensual concubine, embodying harmful stereotypes about Asian women. Meanwhile, she became a major style icon, helping to popularize the flapper look as well as Asian-inspired fashion in her simultaneous career as a model. She lobbied for the role of the sympathetic Chinese lead O-Lan in the major MGM feature The Good Earth (1935), but producers instead hired white Louise Rainer for the role, a major disappointment for Wong. She found greater freedom and success in Europe, where she appeared in classic films like Piccadilly (1929), and embarked on a highly publicized tour of China. In later life, she used her fame to support the allied war effort in WWII and continued to work in B movies, radio, and television, becoming the first Asian American actor to headline a television series with Dumont's The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong (1951). She was attempting a film career comeback with a role the major musical Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view (batch of filler newspaper)
topic: label: Subject
content: Chinese Americans
label: Subject
content: Asian Americans
label: Subject
content: Actors
label: Subject
content: Cosmetics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Popular Entertainment
label: Exhibition
content: Entertainment Nation
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Anna Wong
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0275.01
label: accession number
content: 2022.0275
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0275.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: box
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (handles material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (mirrors material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 in x 6 in x 6 in; 20.32 cm x 15.24 cm x 15.24 cm