News

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.

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.