2.2 Author Interview with Katie Gee Salisbury

In today's interview, I speak with Katie Gee Salisbury, a writer and photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Believer, and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. She also writes the newsletter Half-Caste Woman. She has spoken about her work at the Museum of Chinese in America, Barnard College, New York University, and gave a TED Talk entitled “As American as Chop Suey.” She joins me today to talk about her first book, Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong. 

Listen to hear how Anna May Wong reinvented herself and took control of her career when Hollywood wouldn't cast her in leading roles and how she changed her approach to portraying Asian characters after visiting China.
 
Books mentioned in this episode include:

• Ghosts Of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad by Gordon H. Chang
• River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West by Rebecca Solnit
• Swanson on Swanson by Gloria Swanson
• Anna May Wong: From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend by Russell Gao Hodges
• Anna May Wong: Performing the Modern by Shirley J. Lim
• Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks
• How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
• Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park

Films mentioned in this episode include:

• The Good Earth directed by Sidney Franklin
• King of Chinatown directed by Nick Grinde
• Crazy Rich Asians directed by Jon M. Chu
• The Empire Strikes Back directed by Irvin Kershner
• Swingers directed by Doug Liman
• Vertigo directed by Alfred Hitchcock
• Raiders of the Lost Ark directed by Steven Spielberg
• The Little Mermaid directed by John Musker and Ron Clements