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Anna May Wong Not Your China Doll by Katie Gee Salisbury - book review by Anna Chen

Anna May Wong – Not Your China Doll book review

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A lively, well-written romp through Anna May Wong’s life and career, if light on the political landscape that shaped her. Impressive research and detail in the book tell a good yarn. Written through the lens of the Chinese American author, the identity politics often hit the mark.
Forgotten, however, the political manipulation of perception that has resulted in the very real tragedy of race hysteria that’s seen Asian women attacked and murdered.
Book review by Anna Chen

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Anna Chen Asia Times Shakespeare Wars of the Roses

Wars of the Roses: Shakespeare First Folio 400th anniversary

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Review of Shakespeare’s The Wars of the Roses — Henry VI parts 1 & 2 and Richard III. That’s us, that is.
On this month’s 400th anniversary of the First Folio’s publication, what looks like a simple squaring up of combative parties is more a dodecahedron of feuding interests.
Shakespeare’s history play cycle, a cynic’s take on human relations in favour of the strong leader who will restore equilibrium and God’s order, strips bare the mindset that kicked off Britain’s empire now wheezing into a comeback effort. First time as tragedy, second time top-and-tailing the empire years with added farce.

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A poem for the monarchy revisited on the Coronation of King Charles III: Eating Placenta — Lines on the Royal Birth

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A poem fit for a king. Eating Placenta — Lines on the Royal Birth Anna Chen reads Eating Placenta: Lines on the Royal Birth Call me a coronation chicken but I’m sorely tempted to duck out of the Big Event this Saturday. I’m only one of a vast swathe of increasingly disenfranchised, pauperised Brits who

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A Brief History of the Chinese Who Came to Britain: Anna Chen’s Introduction to Hannah Lowe’s new poetry collection, Old Friends

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Hannah Lowe’s new collection of poetry, Old Friends Published by Hercules Editions, May 2022 Introduction written by Anna Chen A Brief History of the Chinese Who Came to Britain How many Chinas are there? In 2022, two Grand Narratives jockey for position as the dominant conventional wisdom which will define China and its global diaspora:

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Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen poetry review: Ungrateful — A Paper Daughter

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Review of Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen’s poetry collection: glimpses of perpetual marginalisation A moving, fairly disturbing, collection of poetry from Hong-Kong-born writer and actor Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen, Ungrateful — A Paper Daughter, takes you deep inside the experience of perpetual marginalisation. All the small everyday unthinking acts of callousness that grind you down are laid bare

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