News

Brett Mathews passed away suddenly on August 24, 2021. He’s pictured above on the far right, with Brian Bennett in the middle, at the Sundance Film Festival premiere of Family Fundamentals. The documentary profiled conservative Christian families with LGBTQ kids and profiled both in the film. Read more about Brett in the Salt Lake Tribune feature story that chronicled his struggle for family acceptance and his stance against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Sound specialist Joe Milner of Puget Sound re-mixed Arthur Dong’s landmark film Forbidden City, USA during a virtual session under the filmmaker’s supervision. In lieu of re-newing costly music licenses, cues were extracted via digital audio isolation while retaining the dialogue, and new music was laid. The film was digitally restored in 2015 by UCLA Film and Television Archive from original negatives. Read more about Dong’s entire film and video collection at UCLA FTVA here.

Arthur Dong’s Oscar@-nominated film Sewing Woman is undergoing a 4K digital restoration by UCLA Film and Television Archive. Pictured is colorist and digital lab manager Randy Yantek at the archive’s Santa Clarita facilities. Read more about Dong’s entire film and video collection at UCLA FTVA here.

July 22-August 5: Tune-in to Academy Museum of Motion Pictures‘s virtual screenings of Anna May Wong’s Piccadilly, followed by personal reflections from Anna May Wong’s niece, and a conversation between Hollywood Chinese filmmaker/author Arthur Dong and Jacqueline Stewart, the museum’s Chief Artistic and Programming Officer.

KTLA TV Morning News featured Arthur Dong discussing his book Hollywood Chinese, Anna May Wong and his Hollywood Chinese exhibit at the Formosa Cafe. Watch the three mini-segments streaming online here.

IMDb’s watchlist to salute Asian and Asian Pacific filmmakers places The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor at #5 and Hollywood Chinese at #6. See the complete list of 60 films here: https://tinyurl.com/3794mue9

The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, an affiliate of the American Library Association, has selected the winners of the 2020-2021 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature (APAAL). Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Feature Films won the Honors Title Award in the adult nonfiction category. Click here to watch the awards ceremony. Click here to watch the post-awards chat with each author.

American Book Award-winning author and Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Arthur Dong has begun work on his newest book Grandview Films: Cinematic Crossings with Joseph Sunn Jue (working title). This lushly illustrated publication will be Dong’s third in a trilogy of coffee table books that showcase the visual history and little-known stories of Chinese Americans in the arts.

Photo: On the set of The Twelve Wives (1937, Grandview Film Company). From left, actress Nancy Chan Wan-Seung, producer Joseph Sunn Jue, and actress Lam Mui-Mui.

Family Pictures, USA celebrated LGBTQ History Month with a virtual photo-share, featuring host Thomas Allen Harris, photographer Lola Flash, performer Justin Clapp, author and filmmaker Arthur Dong, filmmaker Jennie Livingston (Paris is Burning), and theater artist Christina Quintana. Originally broadcast on October 26, 2020, the event is streaming online here.

Dancer Jade Ling passed away peacefully of natural causes in her native Boston on September 28, 2020, surrounded by family and friends. The 96-year-old entertainer started her career at her father’s cabaret, the Lido, in Massachusetts as a teen, and continued at the Latin Quarter before signing a contract with San Francisco’s legendary Forbidden City nightclub. Ling performed there, at the Kubla Khan, and other local Chinatown niteries. For a time, she teamed up with Jack Mei Ling as The Mei Lings. She later operated her own beauty salon after retiring from the stage in the 1960s. Ms Ling is profiled in the book Forbidden City, USA: Chinatown Nightclubs, 1936-1970.