News Archive - 2020

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.

We’re saddened to announce the passing of Coby Yee, who died peacefully August 14, 2020 at the age of 93. Under the moniker “China’s Most Daring Dancing Doll”, Coby’s dancing career began in the 1940s and she became a star at the Chinatown nightclubs of San Francisco and on stages around the world. In 1962, she and family members took over the legendary Forbidden City nightclub until it closed in 1970. Inset photo: Coby is cheered by audience members in 2015 at a screening of Forbidden City, USA in San Francisco’s Great Star Theatre.

Artie Bressan (1943-1987), pioneer gay filmmaker

Arthur Dong was invited by The Bressan Project to write a remembrance for pioneer gay filmmaker, Artie Bressan, in commemoration of his death on July 29, 1987. Bressan worked in the 1970s and ’80s, and is best known for his drama, Buddies (1985), the first feature film about AIDS, and Gay USA (1977), one of the earliest documentaries by and about LGBT people. For more information visit The Bressan Project. To read Arthur’s essay, visit The Bressan Project website or click here.

Janet Yang moderated a “Hollywood Chinese” virtual book talk with writer Arthur Dong.

Book talks for Hollywood Chinese resumed after a series of postponed engagements due to Covid-19 restrictions. On July 5, 2020, the Los Angeles-based Chinese American Museum and moderator Janet Yang hosted writer Arthur Dong for his inaugural virtual presentation. Some 350 guests from around the world tuned in, which resulted in over 100 online book sales.

The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor (dir. Arthur Dong, 2015) is featured in IMDB’s tribute to cinematic history and Asian Pacific American filmmakers and their visionary work.

Pacific Arts Movement has compiled a playlist of films that prove “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been dunking on American history for over a century.” Forbidden City, USA (dir. Arthur Dong, 1989) is named a “heartthrob” story in their “Up to the 1950s” line-up. Complete playlist HERE.

Filmmaker and author Arthur Dong kicked off UCLA’s “Yellow Peril’s Revenge: Asian American Independent Cinema” lecture/screening series on April 8, 2020. With Covid-19 Safer-at-Home directives in place, the session was conducted via Zoom, as illustrated below by Angel Trazo, one of some 60 students who logged in.

Filmmaker Arthur Dong’s pioneering work over the past forty years was featured in the Spring issue of Film Quarterly in their special dossier on Asian American film. Download Dong’s interview by Oliver Wang here.

Due to Covid-19 pre-cautions and regulations, our Spring 2020 Hollywood Chinese book events scheduled for March, April, and May have been cancelled. We hope to re-book these events in the future.