Anna Chang: Chinese Princess of Song

I recently discovered the little known history of Chinese American vaudeville performers thanks to Krystyn R. Moon's fascinating book Yellowface: Creating the Chinese in American Popular Music and Performance, 1850s-1920s and am currently in the thick of researching two of its pioneering stars, Lady Tsen Mei and Princess Jue Quon Tai. I'm planning on posting about the two of them in the coming weeks, but in the meantime here is a little something about a singer named Anna Chang, "a vivacious little Chinese prima donna who certainly knows how to get the blues out of American songs" (Syracuse Herald, April 8, 1928).

"A product of San Francisco", Miss Chang started singing when she was six years old, and "ere long she was well versed in American popular songs of the period" (San Antonio Light, July 28, 1929). As far as I can tell, she made her debut with Paul Ash and his Granada Orchestra at the Granada Theater in San Francisco, probably sometime in 1924, when she could also be heard on the Oakland Tribune's Radio KLX, singing popular tunes like "Dancin' Dan". In 1928, Chang toured the United States with the variety revue "Hula Blues", "a new kind of Hawaiian beauty show, which entrances its auditors with its soft, melting harmony, and twanging ukuleles" (Suburbanite Economist, June 15, 1928).



The following year, Chang starred with Hatsu Kuma in a Paramount musical short, Two Little Chinese Maids (1929). Three years later, she made another one-reeler for Paramount called Singapore Sue (1932), which featured Chinese American vaudevillian Joe Wong, Pickard's Chinese Syncopators, and a young Cary Grant in his first film appearance. Here is a clip of Chang singing "How Can a Girl Say No?" and saying "no" to Grant, a cocky sailor who tries to woo her but ends up with a squirt in the face!



I've been unable to find out what happened to Chang in the wake of her flash-in-the-pan Hollywood career. But in 1941 she was back in San Francisco, headlining at the Jade Palace and staking her place as the "Chinese Princess of Song" in the city's vibrant nightclub scene. Filmmaker Arthur Dong has made an amazing documentary called Forbidden City, USA, which tells the story of the performers at Charlie Low's Forbidden City nightclub during that time. Still, there is much research to be done to fully recover the rich history of Chinese American vaudeville. Thankfully, Singapore Sue has survived to give us a glimpse of one of its shining stars.

* Lead photo of Anna Chang from Vaudeville, Old and New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America