"A person's identity may be in another country,
But her heart belongs to the motherland. ”
Author: Sui Kun
Recently, the first Asian avatar appeared on the new version of the US currency. A Hollywood Chinese actress has once again appeared in the public eye, she is Huang Liushuang.
• A newly issued 25-cent coin from the United States with Huang Willow Frost's signature bangs and large eyes.
Huang Liushuang is the first Chinese to stay on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and she is also the most watched Hollywood actress in that era. The classic image of Qi bangs, doll head, and big eyes allows her to create a classic image of oriental beauty in front of the world, and also makes her fall into the stereotype of Chinese in the western world.
In her decades-long screen career, she has battled racism and stereotypes, but has failed again and again. After coming to China, she deepened her identity as a son and daughter of China and began to spare no effort to help China's anti-Japanese cause.
discrimination
The world in the spotlight is always disturbed, and where there is praise, there is controversy.
Huang Liushuang accompanied these two voices for a lifetime. Some people say that being born in those days, she seemed to have little choice.
Yellow willow cream
In 1882, the United States enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act. This is the first immigration law passed by the United States for specific ethnic groups, aiming to block the naturalization of Chinese workers in the United States.
The passage of this bill has thoroughly stimulated Americans' curiosity about Chinese.
After entering the 20th century, the most deeply rooted Chinese character in American society was called Fu Manchu. He has slender, upturned eyes, two small mustaches, hints of trickery, wears Qing Dynasty costume and even has braids, and spends his days studying how to plague Westerners.
At that time, the Chinese characters in Western films were probably like this. Huang Liushuang's screen career began in that era.
In 1905, Huang Liushuang was born in Flower Street in Los Angeles' Chinatown, where her grandfather was one of the first Chinese workers to go to the United States to pan for gold. She attended public school and then Presbyterian school, and no matter where she was, she was always surrounded by racial discrimination. The classmates sitting in the back seat often prick her with needles, wanting to see if the "Chinese" felt "painful".
At that time, Chinatown was the location of many movies, and Huang Liushuang often watched the excitement on the set after school, and some staff noticed this exquisite eastern face. In 1919, the movie "Red Lantern" needed a trick, and 14-year-old Huang Liushuang appeared on the movie screen for the first time. Since then, she has appeared in many Hollywood movies as a "Chinese doll".
Two years later, she won her first "Serious Child" role in Hollywood - playing the wife of popular actor Lang Chaney in the movie "Life".
Stills from the movie "Life".
Soon, the shape of Huang Liushuang's Chinese doll on the screen helped her become the darling of various media, but it also attracted the abuse of racists. An American film critic wrote an article about Huang Liushuang, entitled "Yellow Peril! China invades the screen", the article caustically carried out a "group attack" on Huang Liushuang and the Chinese community, and the language was crude and unbearable.
Since then, although Huang Liushuang has continued to make appointments, her roles are basically the same - attached to white people, or Asian women with a tragic fate.
In 1922, she starred in the role of the lotus in the movie "The Death of the Sea". At the end of the movie, Lotus faces a white husband who abandons his wife and abandons his son, and chooses to commit suicide by throwing himself into the river; In 1924, she played a Mongolian slave girl in the movie "The Thief of Baghdad": naked back, snake-wrapped thighs, fiery red lips and colorful eyes... Americans turned this picture into movie posters and spread it to every corner of the United States.
Stills from the movie "Thief of Baghdad".
"The Thief of Baghdad" was a huge success, and Huang Liushuang became a household star. However, the roles she has received in Hollywood since then have almost all been sexy, weak, and humiliated prostitutes and vases.
Even the salary has become a carrier of racial discrimination - in the movie "Shanghai Express", white actress Marlene Dietrich's salary is 18 times higher than the long-famous Huang Liushuang.
Huang Liushuang in Western movies has just changed from a delicate oriental doll to a delicate oriental doll.
revolt
After becoming famous, Huang Liushuang is a special celebrity. She must carry her identity document with her at all times when she goes out to deal with the US police's interrogation anytime, anywhere.
In 1933, Huang Liushuang was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times and denounced the Chinese stereotype in Hollywood movies: "Why is the image of Chinese on the screen always like a clown?" And also a clown with a cruel personality, murder, betrayal, insidiousness! We're not like that! The history of our civilization is many times longer than that of the West, how can we be like that? ”
In order to escape the racist restrictions of Hollywood, Huang Liushuang traveled to Europe in the late 20s.
In Europe, she showed an amazing talent for languages. In just a few months, her accent switched from American English to British English. After another 4 months, she became proficient in German, which is notoriously difficult to learn.
Crossing the language barrier opened the door to European cinema for Huang Liushuang. In Germany, she played the heroine in films such as "Love is Sharper than a Knife", and picky European film critics also praised her without hesitation; In the UK, she collaborated on "Chalk Circle" with movie star Lawrence Oliver; British composer Constante Lambert was fascinated by the actress's work and subsequently composed a piece specifically for her.
In 1929, she starred in her last silent film, "Chinatown Bustling Dream". In the film, the popular Gilda Gray is the highest-paid actress, but the British "Variety" magazine commented that "Huang's light overshadowed the big star": "When Huang danced in the back of the kitchen, she stole Miss Grey's "Bustling Dream of Chinatown". ”
· Poster of the movie "Chinatown Bustling Dream".
Soon, film magazines throughout Europe rushed to publish Huang Liushuang's story. Interestingly, European film critics often refer to her as Chinese, and she increasingly identifies with Chinese title.
During his stay in Europe, Huang Liushuang wrote an article about "Chinese misunderstood". In fact, Chinese nature is kind and loves life, and our textiles, ceramics, clothing and feasts all reflect these characteristics. The Chinese value friendship and family above all else.
At that time, Huang Liushuang had not been to China, but she believed that China was what she dreamed of. She once told reporters: "I really wish I was born in China." She called Chinese her "compatriots, the oldest civilized people." In Europe, she prides herself on being a Chinese.
A few years later, Huang Liushuang returned to Hollywood with an honor. She thought that with her years of hard work, she could break the deep-rooted racial discrimination in the United States, but she was disappointed by the results.
In 1936, in the casting of a Hollywood movie showing Chinese peasants working hard to get rich, Huang Liushuang lost to Rena who was white. Even more absurd was her reason for rejection: U.S. law at the time prohibited actors of different races from having intimate contact on screen.
This corner selection plunged Huang Liushuang into intense pain, and also made her have a decision - to go to China that she had never been to see.
controversy
At that time, Huang Liushuang was a controversial figure in China.
When Huang Liushuang first became famous, Chinese was proud of it. At that time, the Chinese media dubbed her "mainland star in the United States", and domestic media such as "Liangyou" pictorial and "Life" weekly tracked and reported on her, and she gradually became known in China.
· "Liangyou" pictorial report on Huang Liushuang.
The country is weak, and the Chinese people hope that Huang Liushuang can reshape the image of the Chinese internationally, but as the report deepens, the disappointment of the Chinese people increases. They found that Huang Liushuang's image on the screen always embarrassed the Chinese, and her evaluation soon became "the situation of insulting China is heinous" and "a traitor who uses foreigners' noses to ask for oxygen".
When Huang Liushuang arrived in Shanghai, China, in 1936, the scene was grand and crowded.
But there are many of her opponents among them. A Shanghai reporter asked her bluntly: "Why play so many humiliating oriental women." Huang Liushuang's face turned red all of a sudden. She replied, "That's not my choice." Even if I don't act, there will be other actors to act, and I will lose the only opportunity Chinese to act Chinese. ”
In the same year, Huang Liushuang wrote a long article "My Statement" in the "Liangyou" pictorial, stating his unwillingness to be at the mercy of others in Hollywood: "The Chinese people are a little critical of the role I play, which makes me very uneasy, because I did not intend to plant this mistake. In the early days of entering the film industry, I could only be completely under the direction of the director, not to mention that I didn't even know what the role was, and even the plot in the film may not be explained. This is a fact, the director does not attach importance to idle actors, except for a few important characters who have the right to review whether the content of the script has conflicts with their own claims, the rest are ignored. ”
She spent a total of 9 months in China that year, during which time she was welcomed by many people.
Mei Lanfang and actress Hu Die were both surprised by Huang Liushuang's visit to China, Mei Lanfang gave her her Peking Opera record, and Hu Die accompanied her to visit the star film company. There, Huang Liushuang exchanged creative experience with domestic counterparts and brought valuable cutting-edge information to the domestic film industry.
It was this time in China that Huang Liushuang got rid of the long-standing confusion of identity. When expressing her thoughts on returning to China, she said: "A person's identity may be in another country, but her heart belongs to the motherland. If I hadn't come to China this time, my feelings about the motherland would have always been vague. Now that I have come, I have met the land of the motherland and the lovely people, discovered the 'love of a loving mother', and from now on, I have confirmed that I am a Chinese woman, and before that, I was just an oriental daughter who grew up in Los Angeles. ”
When she returned to Hollywood, she refused to play the role of ugly Chinese, and publicly said: "I am Chinese, and the characters created in the past have created incorrect views of China for the audience, which is not the actual China." ”
Aid China
As early as the early 30s of the last century, Huang Liushuang publicly condemned Japan's invasion and occupation of northeast China. Later, because she "didn't want a Japanese-style garden opposite her home," she moved a second time.
After the trip to China, Huang Liushuang began to donate materials to China through the "China Aid Federation". This is a non-governmental organization used by the American people to aid China.
In 1937, she gave all the salary of her new Christmas film to Margaret Chung, a Chinese doctor of the China Aid Association.
In order to collect medicine for China, she auctioned off all the dresses. At the auction, she also brought an extra item - 5 rolls taken in China. She hopes that the West will have a deeper understanding of China, and hopes that more people will join this fundraising and contribute to China's anti-Japanese resistance.
At the end of the 30s of last century, when Huang Liushuang's popularity gradually declined, she focused more energy on the cause of aiding China during this period, and later worked full-time for the American Federation of Aid to China.
In order to support the anti-Japanese resistance, she starred in a propaganda film "Bombing Burma", aiming to expose the evil deeds of the Japanese invaders; She also wrote the foreword to Xinhua Recipes, which allowed Chinese restaurants to remain in traffic during the war. In 1942, she portrayed the anti-Japanese heroine Guan Mei in the movie "The Woman from Chongqing". In the movie, before Guan Mei was executed, she said categorically: "Chinese people will inevitably defeat the invaders!" ”
However, her contribution to aiding China and resisting Japan has not changed the views of some Chinese people.
In 1943, at the most difficult moment of China's Anti-Japanese War, Soong Meiling came to the United States to seek aid. At the Hollywood event, Song Meiling and a group of Asian stars pushed cups and changed glasses, and only Huang Liushuang was missing from the crowd.
Wagner, Huang Liushuang's best friend, was indignant: "There is no one who works harder for the cause of helping China more faithfully than Huang Liushuang." But at this movie reception, was she invited to say hello to Song Meiling? No! ”
Later, it was learned that Song Meiling and some opponents believed that she represented an old Chinese image consisting only of laundries, restaurant owners, gangsters and coolies. Huang Liushuang was very disappointed about this.
Later, when she recalled this period, although she regretted it, she still felt extremely proud: "I have made the greatest efforts to support and assist China in resisting Japanese aggression for a long time, and I have no regrets for life." ”
After the war, Huang Liushuang's acting career was also nearing the end, and she chose to return to a quiet life. In 1960, she became the first Chinese to star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Huang Liushuang's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
A year later, at the age of 56, she died of a heart attack, ending a life of ups and downs.
More than half a century later, the name appeared on U.S. currency, and the head of the U.S. Mint, Wentrice M. Smith, appeared on U.S. Mint. C. Gibson said: "This coin was designed to reflect the breadth and depth of what Huang Liushuang has achieved, and she is a courageous advocate. ”
Regarding this move by the United States, Qian Feng, director and researcher of the Research Department of the National Institute for Strategic Studies of Tsinghua University, analyzed the "Global People" reporter: "The Democratic Party of the United States has always flaunted its respect for ethnic minorities, and this move is one of its many measures to win over ethnic minorities." Especially since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, American society has become increasingly torn apart, and discrimination against Asians has become more serious, so the Democratic Party also hopes that this minting plan can save the image of the United States. ”
In 2019, on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, another Chinese name appeared next to Huang Liushuang's star, Liu Yuling.
When she debuted, Lucy Liu suffered from Asian stereotypes similar to Huang Liushuang, but she persevered. In her Walk of Fame speech, Lucy Lau said, "If my work has helped bridge the gap between the stereotypical persona originally given to Huang Liushuang and the mainstream success [that Asians have] today, I'm excited to be a part of that process," Liu said. ”
Some sources: Yangtze Evening News, Xinmin Weekly, Beijing Daily, Southern People Weekly
Director system: Lu Hong
Executive Producer: Zhang Jiankui
Chief Editor: Xu Chenjing
Editor: Su Rui Lingyun