I've always been interested in the history of Chinese immigrants in North America. We've all heard stories about how early Chinese immigrants came to North America to work on the railways, but rarely do we hear about their contribution to the American entertainment industry. I didn't realize that Chinese Americans performed in all Chinese vaudeville clubs as early as the 40s until I watched a PBS documentary about twenty years ago. That documentary stayed on my mind ever since.
Just today, my friend David Wells at softfilm.blogspot.com just posted a very interesting article about the Chinese American vaudeville duo Ming and Ling from the 1940s.
So here is my dream for the day: one day I'd love to see a film on the story of these early Chinese American entertainers. There's got to be many wonderful stories that haven't been told. Amy Tan, Wayne Wang, anybody interested?
Yes, I'm waiting for this film too! Arthur Dong's documentary on San Francisco's Forbidden City nightclub is wonderful, but as I'm discovering, there was so much more going on.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Chinese American Lee Tung Foo started performing on the vaudeville stage in 1905!