Bruce Lee, Anna May Wong paved the way for Asians in Hollywood – their heirs talk about their legacy, a ‘soft spot’ for Michelle Yeoh and the pain of ‘horrible tropes’
- Bruce Lee’s daughter Shannon Lee and actress Anna May Wong’s niece discuss how the two overcame prejudice to win fame – and marvel at how things have changed
- From being passed over even for Asian roles to Everything Everywhere All at Once sweeping the 2023 film awards, ‘it’s crazy how far we’ve come,’ says Anna Wong
Almost every working Asian actor in Hollywood can trace their path back to Bruce Lee and Anna May Wong.
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,” says Anna Wong, the older 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 chimes in. “He loved to see Hollywood films as well when he was young.”
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 have also seen how the fascination continues: there are museum exhibits, television show projects and an American quarter tribute.
“Of course she’s doing action in the film, but being recognised for her artistry and her acting and for all of that is really heartwarming for me to see,” she says. “And Ke as well who … as a young kid was very sort of stereotyped and he was put in a box because of it.”
While Lee was four when her father died, Wong never met her aunt. She knew her as “the pretty lady” in the pictures her father – Anna May Wong’s brother – kept around the house.
“When he started telling me about the pretty lady, I was wanting to realise who she was,” Wong said. “And then I became obsessed with her films and seeing all kinds of things.”
Both grew up hearing stories of how Anna May Wong and Bruce Lee fought hard against stereotypes, yet were sometimes stuck in unwinnable situations.
The younger Wong brings this up on the lecture circuit. Millennial audiences “find it completely irrational to say, ‘OK, so let’s take a Caucasian person and make them up to look like an Asian person and … no one will notice’”, Wong says.
“It’s actually a good thing that today’s generation thinks that that’s crazy,” Lee adds.
“When you look at the pay stubs and then they say what everyone’s getting paid, he’s like way down on the bottom,” Lee says. “Hopefully, there’s changes happening there.”
“After that series came out, people said, ‘Do you have her Oscar?’” Wong says. “I’m thinking, ‘You know that that series was fictionalised, right?’”
“With this one film now everybody’s like, ‘Oh, that’s what Bruce Lee was really like’,” says Lee. “No, that was not what he was like at all.”
Anna May Wong died in 1961 at 56 and Bruce Lee died in 1973 at 32. All these years later, the interest in them has not abated.
“Ang is a very earnest, gracious man. I think he wants to make a really great film,” says Lee, who has been working on her movie for several years. “I would say in this moment I am cautiously optimistic.”
Wong almost walked away from her project when several self-proclaimed “Anna May Wong experts” reached out to producers – but they reassured her they are “not going to take these people on when we can have an actual relative of Anna May Wong”.
They both also receive – and often deny – steady merchandising proposals like Anna May Wong teacups and Bruce Lee football helmets, snack bowls and tin guitars.
“I guess I have to say it does speak to the love that people have. So I’m grateful for that,” Lee says.
Both women hope people take away lessons in perseverance when looking at Bruce Lee’s and Anna May Wong’s lives. They were “symbols of what’s possible”, Lee says.
“For them to have got the opportunity to get on the screen, in the first place meant that they had extremely big energy, amazing work ethic and then they were able to accomplish the impossible in some way,” she added.
