Introduction:
This exhibition proposal aims to explore how historical celebrities’ exhibitions can be actively appreciated out of the museum walls by physically exploring their hidden stories in which visitors can be given opportunities to mentally empathize historical celebrities.
By exploring Anna May Wong (1905-1961), the first Chinese-American Movie Star’s film career and the frustrations she faced in film industry due to her racial origin, the exhibition will give visitors an opportunity to have an empathy experience and deeper reflection on the transformation of the attitude towards racial minorities during the last century.
Message:
Anna May Wong’s life story reveals the stereotype she faced as an Asian American actress in the early 20 century’s US.
Location:
ArcLight Hollywood Movie Theater, a multi-screen modern movie theater complex at Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Design Thinking:
As an international student studying aboard in the United States, experiencing the crossing cultures and diversities in this country inspired me to develop an exhibition design proposal and thesis paper on an immigration issue, specifically that of Chinese Americans. Because of my previous educational background of history, building a creative historical exhibition by breaking the traditional image of historical displays and designing from an innovative perspective became the intention of this proposal.
After in depth exploration of the history context of Chinese Americans and discussion with classmates and mentors, how to humanize a long history into a specific but feasible topic became the first challenge of the thesis. Eventually, the face of Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American Movie Star, was cleared and finalized as the topic of the thesis. The movie industry she was in is still bonding with people closely today. The story of her life can be considered a microfilm of the struggling but fast-growing era of Chinese immigrates in America. Her dramatic life completed the jump from a laundry store to Hollywood, and the international reputation she gained when the Chinese Exclusion Act still influenced the whole society is the most powerful setting in which to profile the story of the Chinese American community a century ago.
Two-Layer Layout:
The central design strategy of this exhibition is the two-layered layout consisted of a small movie theater with translucent screens as the inner area and four galleries as the outer area.
Because the most public and notable version of Anna May Wong is a Hollywood star, the exhibition should deliver this fact by showing her movies at the very first place. This can help visitors have a natural and logical mind-setting for the following “surprising” explorations.
The material of the screens will be translucent. The galleries hidden behind the translucent screens will trigger visitor’s curiosities when they catch a glimpse of the gallery settings on the other side. By deliberately hiding the galleries, visitors will be given opportunities to physically explore the hidden histories of Anna May Wong.
In addition, the movies on the screens can be appreciated from both sides. In this way, visitors can experience the galleries always with a film backdrop and the films can be watched again with the informational environments.
Circle-Back Experience:
After visiting the “behind-the-scene” galleries, the audience will circle back to the small movie theater. It is the moment that visitors will be provided opportunities to re-watch the movies and re-think the experience in large.
The exploration of the hidden stories will add new layers of understanding on those movies. By retrospecting the histories, the whole experience will be completed and upgraded. Visitors may realize her poor “Butterfly Lady” faces and evil “Dragon Lady” faces in the movies they watched earlier are all not her real faces. There are so many stories hidden behind the screens and buried under the historical dust.
Entrance Treatment:
Visitors can navigate to the entrance very quickly with the identifiable lighting treatment. Let’s see what’s behind this translucent crop.
Theater and Screen:
Visitors will set up their minds by watching Anna May Wong’s movies. They might find that on the left two screens her faces look poor and depressed and on the right two screens her faces look evil and dramatic. They will curious about why.
When they are getting closer, they will find the material of the screens is translucent. The galleries hidden behind the translucent screens will trigger their curiosities when they catch a glimpse of the gallery settings on the other side.
Gallery 1: I am a laundry girl.
The scene of a Chinese laundry store will be created in the first section. The environment will be immersively dim, noisy, and damp. Two actual-scaled figure props will be installed to illustrate Anna May Wong’s parents and the statement “Cameras will steal your soul!” will be hung above the figures. This installation will try to bring visitors the family pressure that Anna May Wong burdened when they are standing in front of it. Showing the statement directly and straightforwardly can evoke visitors’ empathy with her and reflections on the history.
Gallery 2: I am too Asian.
A scene illustrating the dressing room of the movie Mr. Wu (1927) will be created in this section. In this scene, three actual-scaled figure props will be installed in the dressing room. They are the director, makeup staff, and white actress. By looking through a semi-opened door, visitors can see the director is yelling the makeup staff. The words “Paint her face more yellow!” will be painted on a penal and hung above the director’s head. “Paint her face more yellow!”
The core story of this section is the historical fact that Hollywood unreasonably rejected Anna May Wong to play the leading roles and painted white actresses’ face yellow to play Asians instead. It can be considered as a microfilm of the unjust treatment that Anna May Wong, and all the racial minorities faced in the film industry in this biased time.
The core story of this section is the historical fact that Hollywood unreasonably rejected Anna May Wong to play the leading roles and painted white actresses’ face yellow to play Asians instead. It can be considered as a microfilm of the unjust treatment that Anna May Wong, and all the racial minorities faced in the film industry in this biased time.
Gallery 3: I can not kiss him.
A giant graphic treatment of a romantic scene from Anna May Wong’s movie Piccadilly (1929) will be installed in this section. The statement “You can’t kiss white actors!” will be hung next to the graphic. The installation will consistently be provocative and straightforward. The large scale of the graphic can bring an immersive experience to the visitors.
“You can’t kiss white actors!”
The core story of this section is caused by the American Anti-Miscegenation LawsExcept for the prohibitions on interracial marriage and interracial sex, the intimate movie scenes between people from different racial origins were also prevented. This obsolete restriction that sheerly opposite with today’s value of equity and diversity should be spotlighted in the narrative.
Gallery 4: I feel unaccepted at “home”.
The installation in this section will illustrate the offensive situation Anna May Wong faced when she was traveling in China. Actual-scaled figure props will be installed to illustrate crowded photojournalists. The words “The stooge that disgraces China!” will be hung above the figures. Visitors will be gathering around by the photojournalists and rude words in this scene.
“The stooge that disgraces China!”
The most unfortunate fact is she was resisted by some of the Chinese press and public because of those stereotypical sexual, evil, and poor roles she played. It is heartbroken but provocative to wrap up the visiting by confronting the rumors from the “homeland”. Visitors are expected to form their own complicated but thoughtful insights of Anna May Wong’s and the Asian American community’s historical pathways.
Movie Selection:
In order to emphasize the topic of the exhibition, four movies that the Anna May Wong cast was selected as the representatives to be screened in the small movie theater at the beginning of the exhibition. They are The Toll of the Sea (1922), Mr. Wu (1927), Piccadilly (1929), Daughter of Shanghai (1937).
Each movie can represent her different situation in the career and different attitude towards typecasting. Her roles in the first two movies are self-sacrificed “Butterfly Lady” which is one of her stereotypical roles in the film career. In the last movies, because of the stereotype of Asian people, she was invited to play evil and dishonest “Dragon Lady” and the relationships with the actors will not have good results in the end. The movies themselves are good appreciating and researching materials as well.
Looking through her bibliography, based on the selection of the screening movies, her life story was segmented to four time periods and was placed in four “behind-the-scene” galleries on the back side.
Circle back at the end:
Visitors will walk back into the small movie theater. They may not want to leave that fast because the exploration added new layers of understanding to these movies. It is the moment to re-watch and re-think the experience.
After visiting the exhibition, the whole walking flow can be re-structured in their mind.
Promotional Banners:
Because the proposed exhibition will be organized in an untraditional environment, a modern movie theater, the existence of this exhibition need to be promoted through a variety of relevant marketing strategies.
Sufficient marketing materials placed outside the movie theater are significant. Since the Arclight Hollywood is just three blocks away from the tourist-attracting spots, like Dolby Theatre and Hollywood Walk of Fame, how to navigate visitors from those place to the exhibition is a vital step which needs to be considered. Therefore, marketing billboards including the information that the destination is just a few blocks away need to be placed at popular spots.
Sharing!
By promoting the exhibition on social media platforms, the visitor experience can be connected and furthered both online and offline. User-generated content is considered as one of the effective and the economic marketing tools. Therefore, photography will be welcomed in the exhibition and all the photos will be encouraged to post on social media platforms.
My thesis presentation:
