ANNA MAY (KING) WONG

With the absence of a monkey, ape or giant gorilla in Piccadilly (1929), I found myself turning to an analogy of the experience of silent cinema, with the image of the 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' monkeys in mind, to compensate for this gaping hole. I especially found myself hovering over the 'speak no evil' monkey – for it seemed topical for a silent film, whose characters are mute of spoken word.

It is my up most intention to avoid any racist analogies in this post, at the same time as acknowledging the attitudes (not limited too, but) expressed by those such as Ernest Fenollosa in The Chinese Written Character as a Medium For Poetry. In 1918 He wrote: "The Chinese problem alone is so vast that no nation can afford to ignore it…master it or it will master us" [1]. With Fenollosa's comments in mind, I began thinking that although there is no King Kong to fear in Piccadilly, there is certainly an anxiety surrounding the 'other' in the form of a potential 'beast'.

No King Kong, but an Anna May Wong.

Besides the novelty of the rhyme, upon contemplation I discovered that Wong's analogous relationship to the King Kong (1933) gorilla, is quite interesting.

Wong, as both a Chinese actress and female Chinese lead (Shosho) in Piccadilly, literally and symbolically stomps – not over the exteriors of the city, like King Kong does in King Kong – but, all over the interior spaces and lives of the characters who inhabit Piccadilly, England 1929. It could even be said that she treads all over the film maker E. A. Dupont himself. Both Wong and Shosho become both a manifestation of the anxieties expressed by Fenollosa, as well as potentially triumphant over a particular form of hegemonic film making.

When saying that Wong as Shosho stomps all over the interiors of Piccadilly, dances in a distinctly Chinese, and hypnotic and sensual manner putting Mabel out of work and seducing Valentine, subsequently wreaking havoc with both these character's personal lives. I'm referring to her function as a character, and the series of literal and symbolic actions she carries out. Shosho calls the shots when it comes to her costumes, contract and love interests. The jealously and rivalry which she causes amongst the men and women who surround her, make her rise from the scullery both tragic and triumphant in relation to Piccadilly's interior digesis. Unlike King Kong, Shosho is small, dainty and obviously human – however her racial 'otherness', the fear of this otherness and the conquering nature of her very self, makes her the biggest beast in this film. Questions of scale aren't raised per see in Piccadilly, but scale in relation to the supposed potential of race, such as the Chinese at the time, are certainly present and are hauntingly echoed in the "master it or it will master us", mentioned previously.

In class Melissa drew attention to Anna May Wong's signage of her own Chinese name in the film, when Shosho signs the contract with the club. The presence of this calligraphic moment to me marks Wong's (not Shosho's) final destruction or conquest, over any potential hegemonic readings or implications that E. A. Dupont may have intended himself or that film critics might hail. Anny May Wong's lingering smirk is not necessarily Shosho's knowingness, but her own.

A few years later than Piccadilly, came Charles Chauvel's "Jungle Film" (if it may be called such) Uncivilised (1936). A film set close to home, where a lone white man 'Mara the White Chief' has lived his entire life with a tribe of Aborigines, but has managed to retain his 'civil white ways' (including wearing jeans). Beatrice Lynn, a white author (through a series of kidnapping and dramatic events) comes across him, and the adventures begin.

The reason I bring this film up in relation to Piccadilly, is that it is a sound film, not a silent film. When it comes to films of this period – at the threshold of silent and sound – a basic comparison of these two, made me return to my three wise monkeys. When watching Piccadilly, I really felt that the potential for agency, screen presence and subversive power was much stronger in silence than in sound for a Chinese actress such as Wong, during this time.

In Uncivilised the Aboriginal people are literally the monkeys – at one point they can be heard saying "ogga booga" (yes, ogga booga). Wong herself and as Shosho, which I've likened to having a King Kong like presence, is anything but a monkey. In fact in her final scrawl she makes her definitive, human and Chinese mark on the film. Wong's je ne sais quoi, would be lost in a spoken script dictated by white 1930s hegemonic discourse.

The choice of Dupont to film Piccadilly as a silent film, I believe works in favour of its sustainability within the body of work on cities of the time. Piccadilly could of potentially been seen – with a little more speaking and subsequently hearing – as Evil.

But, it becomes nothing of the kind.

References:

[1] Ernest Fenollosa, The Chinese Written Character as a Medium of Poetry, San Fransisco, City Light Books, 1936, pp. 3-4.