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 As part of the Thames Festival, Chinatown Arts Space will present Piccadilly Revisited, an outdoor film and music performance on Saturday 12th September 2009. The screening will be on the side of the Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre.
8:15 – 10pm FREE
Piccadilly Revisited is a film and music performance inspired by the life and loves of Hollywood's first Chinese film star, Anna May Wong, and the classic British silent film Piccadilly (1929) in which she played a starring role.
Following on from the successful performance of a new contemporary score to accompany the classic Chinese film Song of the Fisherman, Chinatown Arts Space will once again push the creative boundaries and present a cross-artform production in the interpretation to the film Piccadilly and the life of Anna May Wong. As David Tse Ka-Shing (creative director of Chinatown Arts Space) recalls, it was during his research that he first stumbled across the Asian-American actress and realized what an important pioneer she was and what a great role model she represents for East Asian performers.
While most of us would believe that actresses such as Joan Chen or Lucy Liu were the first Asian-Americans to break onto the Hollywood screens, little did we know that over 85 years ago, Anna May Wong had achieved international stardom by the tender age of 19. Born as Wong Liu Tsong in 1905 near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wong often visited the Hollywood film sets and soon acquired the nickname of “CCC” (curious Chinese child) which the producers called her. Wong’s first starring role was in the film The Toll of the Sea (1922) which Variety magazine described her performance as “extraordinary fine acting”. Two years later, she played the role of a Mongol slave in Douglas Fairbank’s The Thief of Bagdad (1924) in which her brief appearance caught the attention of both the audience and critics alike and that role helped introduce Wong to the wider public. However these early successes only led to frustration as Hollywood continued to cast her in stereotypical supporting roles such as the villainous ‘Dragon Lady’ or demure China dolls whilst constantly losing out on the lead roles due to ‘yellowface’ casting.
It was then, in the late 1920’s that Wong left for Europe where she starred in several notable plays and films among them Piccadilly (1929) which Martin Scorsese describes as "bold, beautifully crafted...one of the truly great films of the silent era". The film caused a sensation in the UK. Gilda Gray was the top-billed actress, but Variety commented that Wong "outshines the star," and that "from the moment Miss Wong dances in the kitchen's rear, she steals 'Piccadilly' from Miss Gray." Throughout her career, Wong had worked with Dietrich and Olivier, made more than 50 films, had a song ‘These Foolish Things’ written for her and was also recognized as a style icon having graced the pages of Vogue, Tatler and Vanity Fair. Wong’s achievements are celebrated in history by being the only Asian-American actress with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
Sadly, in the decades after her death in 1961, Wong was remembered mostly for her stereotypical roles as the ‘Dragon Lady’ or Oriental dancers. It was only around the centennial of her birth in 2005 that Wong’s life and her work were re-evaluated. Fuelled mostly by the Asian-American film community and in the groundswell of support and rediscovery, three books were published on her, a retrospective of her films were shown as well as the Anna May Wong Award of Excellence which is given out yearly at the Asian-American Arts Awards. Moreover it is Wong’s image and career that has left a lasting legacy. Through her body of work, she has helped to ‘humanize’ Asian-Americans to white audiences during a period of overt racism and discrimination.
In keeping with the renaissance of Anna May Wong and in celebrating her achievements, composers Suki Mok and Ruth Chan will perform their new contemporary score to the British Film Institute restored print of Piccadilly. Based on a concept developed by co-writers Alice Lee and David Tse Ka-Shing, this work-in-progress performance will eventually combine dance, video and drama alongside the original silent film. As Tse explains, the completed cross-artform production will explore the contradictions of Anna May Wong's life, the impact of the stereotyped ‘orientalist’ roles she was forced into, and release Anna May Wong's spirit through the intervention of a team of British East Asian artists. Through contemporary sensibilities, Tse and his team of collaborators will bring a fresh, vibrant interpretation to the film and her life. And just like a Chinese ‘hungry ghost’ coming back to right a wrong, these modern mediums will exorcise her demons and satisfy all artistic appetites.
Piccadilly Revisited will be held on 12th September 2009 at the side of the Royal Festival Hall.
The completed production will be performed at the Royal Opera House in March 2010.
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