Bruce Lee, Anna May Wong heirs talk legacy, roles for Asians

Almost every working Asian actor in Hollywood can trace their path back to Bruce Lee and Anna May Wong.

The Chinese American screen legends are typically talked about the way one talks about revered ancestors. One was a martial arts icon, the other an actor who stood out during the silent film era despite playing women who were either submissive or dragon ladies. Both are credited with demonstrating Asians could be more than just extras for movies about China or Chinatown.

Although Wong was born in 1905 in Los Angeles and Lee in 1940 in San Francisco, their families like to imagine they crossed paths.

“They may have. Well, they may have seen each other at like a party or something,” said Anna Wong, the elder Wong’s niece and namesake.

“My father was an actor when he was a child in Hong Kong. So, you know, he may have seen some of her films that came across,” Shannon Lee chimed in. ”He loved to see Hollywood films as well when he was young.”

Lee and Wong had never met before doing a recent joint Zoom interview with The Associated Press. They discovered parallel experiences protecting the legacy of a family member who happens to be an icon of both Hollywood and Asian America.

They have seen their relatives’ popularity ebb and flow over decades. They have grappled with bogus long-lost child claims, weird licensing requests and on-screen portrayals out of their control. But they’ve also seen how the fascination continues: There are museum exhibits, TV show projects and an American quarter tribute.

With “Everything Everywhere All at Once” poised to snag trophies at the Oscars on Sunday — particularly for Asian cast members Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan — both women reflected on how things have changed since the blatantly racist practices that permeated Wong and Lee’s heydays.

Lee has a “soft spot” for Yeoh because she came from kung fu cinema like her father. She’s thrilled for Yeoh’s recognition, especially because for so long Hollywood used Bruce Lee to justify casting Asians only as characters there just to karate chop.

“Of course she’s doing action in the film but being recognized for her artistry and her acting and for all of that is really heartwarming for me to see,” she said. “And Ke as well who … as a young kid was very sort of stereotyped and he was put in a box because of it.”

It’s especially phenomenal when compared with Anna May Wong’s era, according to her niece.

“Back in those days, no one had an Asian man and an…