Soo Yong, (Chinese: 楊秀, originally Young Hee (楊喜);[1] October 31, 1903 – October 29, 1984) was a Chinese-American actress. She acted in 23 Hollywood films and numerous television shows, mostly in supporting roles. Among them were The Good Earth (1937), Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), and Sayonara (1957). In 1941 she married C.K. Huang.[2]

Soo Yong
Born(1903-10-31)October 31, 1903
DiedOctober 29, 1984(1984-10-29) (aged 80)
Honolulu, Hawaii
NationalityAmerican
Other namesYoung Hee, Ahee, Soo Yong-Huang
Alma materMid-Pacific Institute, University of Hawaiʻi, Teachers College, Columbia University
OccupationActress
Spouses
(m. 1929; div. 1933)
C.K. Huang
(m. 1941)

Youth and education

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Soo Yong was born into a family which had come from Zhongshan, Guangdong, where the Young clan was one of the largest family organizations. She was known as Young Hee, or Ahee as a child. Her father was a contract laborer in the Waikiki sugarcane plantations, then became a taxi driver important enough in the community to be a friend and frequent host to Sun Yat-sen. She attended Christian Sunday school even though the family worshiped Buddha at home. She lost both parents by the time she was 15, and moved to Honolulu, where her earnings from working for white families paid her school tuition. At some point she picked up Mandarin.[2]

After graduation from Mid-Pacific Institute and then the University of Hawaiʻi in 1925, her aim was to go into teaching. She made the trip to the mainland to enroll at Teachers College, Columbia University, making her one of only fifty women of Chinese descent enrolled in an American college. Her M.A. in Education was granted in June 1927, at which point she changed her name from "Ah Hee" to Soo Yong.[2]

Career

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Over the next few years, she had roles in several Broadway plays, the first one starring Katherine Cornell, whose "techniques, certain postures, and gestures" she said she emulated. In 1929, she married fellow actor Goo Chang (Peter Chong). The first major advancement of her career was the opportunity to use her fluency in Mandarin and native English as onstage translator for Mei Lanfang's Peking Opera, first in New York and then a tour of North America in 1930. She freely interpreted the stories and explained the action in terms which American audiences could understand. The New York Times praised her by name, saying "Miss Yong speaks English with a clarity of diction rarely encountered among native American speakers," apparently not realizing that she was in fact a native American speaker. After the finish of the tour, she and her husband performed on Broadway together. They went back on the road, where, however, the marriage ended in 1933.[1][2] After the divorce was complete in June 1933, she returned to Hawai'i, then later that year to Los Angeles.[2]

While in California on tour with Mai Lanfang in 1930, she had made valuable contacts in Los Angeles, and the local newspapers reported on her return. She enrolled in a PhD program in education at University of Southern California but auditioned for film roles. Her first screen appearance was as an amah[clarification needed] in The Painted Veil, starring Greta Garbo. In spite of never having been to China, she was frequently described in the press and studio publicity as being "Chinese." She responded by presenting herself as cultured and educated representative of her culture. "Like all Oriental art," she stated to an interviewer, "the Chinese artist does not present a complete picture of his art. Chinese pictures are like Chinese poetry. The poet leads you to the garden and gives you the rare essences of the beautiful flowers and you alone must inhale the essences and enjoy the rare beauty."[2]

In 1934, Hays Code of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America had modified their definition of miscegenation to include only black/white relations. But when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was casting for the major production of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, the Chinese American actress Anna May Wong was frustrated and angry that the lead role went to a Caucasian actress and refused to accept a lesser one. Soo Yong, on the other hand, was aware of racial discrimination and critical of the novel for portraying only one side of Chinese life, but nevertheless accepted the supporting and challenging role, that of the cruel aunt. Ironically, she was cast as the Chinese aunt who was married to the uncle played by Caucasian actor Walter Connolly. During these years, Soo Yong worked steadily, but always as a character actor.[2] The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported that "When asked about the possibility for local-born orientals to break into the talkies, she simply said, 'A Chinese has a Chinaman's Chance.'" [3] Yet she maintained her poise. A 1937 Los Angeles Times story described her as "alarmingly intellectual, sinfully humorous and highly personable."[2]

In the late 1930s, Soo Yong developed a series of well-received solo theater pieces which introduced the American public to Chinese culture.[2] She toured briefly with the Red Gate Shadow Puppets, a group which included Rosalind Russell, a major film star. The group was founded by Pauline Benton, who had learned Chinese shadow-puppet theater during a residence in Peking and had probably seen Soo Yong when she interpreted for Mei Lanfang on Broadway.[4]

In 1941, Soo Yong married C.K. Huang (Huang Chun Ku; Chinese: 黃春谷),[1] a businessman from Tianjin, in Winter Park, Florida. He had been raised in a family which supported Chinese music and performance and shared Soo Yong's artistic enthusiasms. After two decades in which they spent winters in Florida and summers in Maine, they returned to Hawaii in 1961. C.K. organized the Honolulu Peking Opera Group, and Soo Yong continued to write and perform her Chinese culture presentations. C.K. died in 1980, and Soo Yong died on October 29, 1984, in Honolulu.[5] Their estate was used to establish the Chun Ku and Soo Yong Huang Foundation, whose direction was transferred in September 1991 to the University of Hawai'i Foundation to be used for grants and graduate scholarships in Chinese culture, theater and drama.[6] The Foundation supported a variety of Chinese theatrical and cultural activities at the University of Hawai'i [7]

Legacy

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A recent historian concluded that in Soo Yong's career onstage and in film she set out to combine Chinese and western values without becoming the type of westernized "Modern Girl" represented by Anna May Wong. Her roles present a softer Orientalism that allowed ethnic dignity and did not offend her Chinese-American audiences or her Nationalist friends in China. In contrast to Anna May Wong, who was two years younger and appeared more militant, Soo Yong, but she had spent almost no time in China, was able to balance several worlds and to sustain a position as an off-screen, cultural translator.[2]

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1934 The Painted Veil Amah
1935 China Seas Yu-Lan
1936 Klondike Annie Fah Wong, Rose's Maid
1936 Mad Holiday Li Tai
1937 The Good Earth Aunt
1937 Think Fast, Mr. Moto Telephone Operator uncredited
1938 The Adventures of Marco Polo Chen Tsu's Wife uncredited
1941 Secret of the Wastelands Moy Soong
1943 China Tai Shen
1943 Night Plane from Chungking Madame Wu
1951 Peking Express Li Elu
1952 Big Jim McLain Mrs. Namaka
1953 Target Hong Kong Lao Shan
1955 Soldier of Fortune Dak Lai
1955 Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing Nora Hung
1955 The Left Hand of God Midwife of Pao Chu uncredited
1956 Flight to Hong Kong Mama Lin
1957 Sayonara Teruko
1961 Flower Drum Song Madame Ten Fong
1965 In Harm's Way Tearful Woman
1970 The Hawaiians Mrs. Ching uncredited
1971-1978 Hawaii Five-O Chaperone / Servant / Mme. Sung / Lily Ahn TV series, 4 episodes
1981 Magnum, P.I. Old Woman TV series, 1 episode

References

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  1. ^ a b c Gao, Yunxiang (6 July 2020). "Soo Yong (杨秀 ca.1903-1984): A Chinese American Actress and Cultural Interpreter". From the Rollins Archives. Archived from the original on 6 June 2022. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Yunxiang Gao, "Soo Yong (1903-1984): Hollywood Celebrity and Cultural Interpreter," Journal of American-East Asian Relations 17.4 (2010): doi 10.1163/187656111X564315
  3. ^ quoted in Soo Yong: Another Chinese Woman We Should Know More About — Part I
  4. ^ Hayter-Menzies, Grant (October 2013). Shadow Woman: The Extraordinary Career of Pauline Benton. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. ISBN 9780773542013. p. 49.
  5. ^ "29 Nov 1984, 34 - The Honolulu Advertiser at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2021-08-25.
  6. ^ "Chinese Actress Soo Yong Takes Final Bow,' Diane Yukihiro Chang, Honolulu Star-Bulletin (1 December 1997) [1]
  7. ^ The University of Hawai‘i Foundation Chun Ku and Soo Yong Huang Endowment for Chinese Theatre

Further reading

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"Soo Yong," in Chung, May Lee, Dorothy Jim Luke and Associated Chinese University Women (Honolulu Hawaii) (2002). Chinese Women Pioneers in Hawaii : A Collection of Stories. Honolulu: Associated Chinese University Women.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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