Bruce Lee, Anna May Wong heirs talk legacy, roles for Asians
CTV
Almost every working Asian actor in Hollywood can trace their path back to Bruce Lee and Anna May Wong. The Chinese American screen legends are typically talked about the way one talks about revered ancestors.
Almost every working Asian actor in Hollywood can trace their path back to Bruce Lee and Anna May Wong.
The Chinese American screen legends are typically talked about the way one talks about revered ancestors. One was a martial arts icon, the other an actor who stood out during the silent film era despite playing women who were either submissive or dragon ladies. Both are credited with demonstrating Asians could be more than just extras for movies about China or Chinatown.
Although Wong was born in 1905 in Los Angeles and Lee in 1940 in San Francisco, their families like to imagine they crossed paths.
"They may have. Well, they may have seen each other at like a party or something," said Anna Wong, the elder Wong's niece and namesake.
"My father was an actor when he was a child in Hong Kong. So, you know, he may have seen some of her films that came across," Shannon Lee chimed in. "He loved to see Hollywood films as well when he was young."
Lee and Wong had never met before doing a recent joint Zoom interview with The Associated Press. They discovered parallel experiences protecting the legacy of a family member who happens to be an icon of both Hollywood and Asian America.
They have seen their relatives' popularity ebb and flow over decades. They have grappled with bogus long-lost child claims, weird licensing requests and on-screen portrayals out of their control. But they've also seen how the fascination continues: There are museum exhibits, TV show projects and an American quarter tribute.
