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In honor of Asian American Pacific Islander month, a look at pioneering Chinese American silent film actor Charlie Fang. Born in 1882, he appeared in such silent films as DREAM STREET and HALDANE OF THE SECRET SERVICE, composed music for a silent film, and later appeared on Broadway.
https://ladailymirror.com/2022/05/24/ma ... can-actor/

missdupont wrote: ↑

Tue May 24, 2022 8:11 am

In honor of Asian American Pacific Islander month, a look at pioneering Chinese American silent film actor Charlie Fang. Born in 1882, he appeared in such silent films as DREAM STREET and HALDANE OF THE SECRET SERVICE, composed music for a silent film, and later appeared on Broadway.
https://ladailymirror.com/2022/05/24/ma ... can-actor/

Thanks so much for pointing out this lovely article. I recently watched the TCM re-airing of YELLOWFACE: ASIAN WHITEWASHING AND RACISM IN HOLLYWOOD (https://www.wichitafilms.com/en/films/y ... hollywood/) and remember well the PBS documentaries: THE CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperi ... usion-act/) and THE ASIAN AMERICANS (https://www.pbs.org/show/asian-americans/). I find it almost impossible any longer to ignore racist portrayals in Hollywood silents and sound pictures--even movies I'm otherwise fond of. As much as I have huge admiration for Lon Chaney as an actor, for example, I can't watch his "yellow face" portrayals without the film watching experience being painful. Even more so with lesser actors. Such awfulness pervades so much of early cinema with Asians, Native Americans and Black Americans portrayed cruelly and inaccurately in "yellow face," "blackface" and "red face." Such barbarism went on for so long--e.g., Burt Lancaster in APACHE in 1954, John Wayne as--gack!!--Genghis Khan in THE CONQUERER (1956), and Mickey Rooney's sickening turn in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961). There are too may film examples with Black Americans to name. I've found it much preferable to watch films from Japan and China, movies from directors like Oscar Micheaux and the rare restored silents with Native Americans (e.g., IN THE LAND OF THE HEADHUNTERS from 1914 and DAUGHTER OF DAWN from 1920 both from Milestone/Kino Lorber, SMOKE SIGNALS IN 1998, WOMAN OF THE WHITE BUFFALO in 2022 and THE SILENT ENEMY from 1930 coming out in July from Flicker Alley. There is some hope, I guess, for more authentic and positive portrayals being seen by more fans of movies new and old.. Thanks, again, missdupont. David