Race, Celebrity and Fashion: Anna May Wong in Spanish Magazines of the 1930s

DONOVAN, MARY KATE

doi:https://doi.org/10.3828/bhs.2020.53

DONOVAN, MARY KATE

Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (2020), 97, (9), 931–953.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/bhs.2020.53
Language: English
Pages: 23

Abstract

Anna May Wong was the most widely known Asian American film actress of her generation, achieving unprecedented success in the Hollywood and European industry. When she traveled to Spain in 1935 to perform at the Teatro Casablanca in Madrid, she was already an international star and her visit garnered extensive coverage from the Spanish press, particularly film magazines of the period. These magazines provided their largely female readership with access to Hollywood stars such as Wong, whose celebrity was the site of complex negotiations of race, ethnicity and citizenship in the United States and Europe during the 1930s. Publications such as Cinegramas and Popular Film represented Wong for Spanish readers who, although removed from the particularities of race politics in the United States, were nevertheless intrigued by her ‘exotic allure’, positioned as she was at the intersection of racial otherness and Hollywood glamour. By reading Wong in Spanish magazines from the 1930s, this article considers how Spanish readers might have used these representations as a tool for negotiating their own identities as cosmopolitan at a moment when Spain was often perceived as existing on the cultural margins of Western Europe.

Anna May Wong fue la actriz asiática americana mas conocida de su generación y llegó a tener una fama sin precedentes en las industrias cinematográficas de Hollywood y Europa. Cuando viajó a España en 1935 para presentarse en el Teatro Casablanca de Madrid, ya era una estrella internacional y su visita recibió bastante atención de los medios de comunicaciones españoles, en particular de las revistas de cine de la época. Estas revistas ofrecían a su público, que en su mayoría consistía de mujeres, acceso a las estrellas de Hollywood, como Wong, cuya celebridad fue el lugar de unas negociaciones complejas de raza, etnicidad, y ciudadanía en los Estados Unidos y Europea durante los años 30. Publicaciones como Cinegramas y Popular Film representaron a Wong para los lectores españoles, quienes, a pesar de estar alejados de las particularidades de las políticas de raza en los Estados Unidos, se veían intrigados por ‘la atracción exótica’ de Wong, un producto de su posicionamiento entre la otredad radicalizada y el glamour de Hollywood. Al leer las representaciones de Wong en revistas españolas de los años 30, este artículo considera cómo lectores españoles pueden haberlas usado como herramienta para negociar sus propias identidades como cosmopolitas en un momento cuando se solía percibir a España como un país que existía en el margen cultural de la Europa occidental.

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