It was mainly her queer fans, including e.g., Andy Warhol, who kept her in the public memory: Anna May Wong was the first Chinese-American actress to become a Hollywood star, despite the discrimination she faced. Arsenal is dedicating a retrospective to this pioneer whose charisma and acting chops broke with the Asian clichés of many of her roles. Screening tonight is the Sternberg masterpiece Shanghai Express, in which she plays a sex worker alongside Marlene Dietrich. Not least because of this role and of rumors of an affair with Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl, she was rejected – in particular by Chinese audiences – as “improper“.