Female Film Pioneers: Marion E. Wong
In July 1917, the magazine the Moving Picture World ran a brief story on the Mandarin Film Company accompanied by a photo of its president, the Chinese-American filmmaker Marion E. Wong (right). Based in Oakland, Calif. — a source of independent cinema even then — the company, the item read, had recently completed its first film, “The Curse of Quon Gwon” and was expected “to continue the production of films dealing with Chinese subjects.” It was “the only Chinese producing concern in this country.
“The Curse of Quon Gwon: When the Far East Mingles With the West,” as it is fully titled, proved to be Wong’s only film. The earliest known movie by a Chinese-American filmmaker, it was long thought lost until the director Arthur Dong happened upon some surviving material while making his 2007 documentary “Hollywood Chinese.”
From “You Know These 20 Movies. Now Meet the Women Behind Them” by Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott for the New York Times; Photo via The Violet Wong Collection
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