Katie Salisbury

New York

author of✨NOT YOUR CHINA DOLL✨a new biography of #AnnaMayWong, out now from @DuttonBooks & @FaberBooks. also writing at Substack as Half-Caste Woman.

Articles

Review: ‘Amerikin’ Asks Questions About Identity, Family And Race

1 month ago | observer.com | Katie Salisbury

Daniel Abeles in Amerikin. Justin Swader“White Supremacist Hopeful Becomes Target of His Own Hate.” So reads the headline that undergirds Chisa Hutchinson’s play Amerikin, a tragricomedy that registers closer to reality than fiction. Produced by Primary Stages for its Off-Broadway debut, the show tells the story of Jeffrey Browning, a young father with a new baby and a wife coping with postpartum depression in Sharpsburg, Maryland. Sharpsburg looms large in American history.
Review: ‘A Knock on the Roof’ Lays Bare the Absurdities of Life During Wartime

2 months ago | observer.com | Katie Salisbury

Khawla Ibraheem in A Knock on the Roof. Joan MarcusWhat would you do if you were told to remain calm and wait for death to arrive at your doorstep? This is the unspoken premise of A Knock on the Roof, the New York Theatre Workshop’s latest production written and performed by Khawla Ibraheem. Mariam, Ibraheem’s character at the heart of this one-woman show, is the archetypal frazzled mother, wary of the dishes piling up in the sink and worn out by the endless questions of her son, Nour.
I’ve Got Beef with Yunte Huang. This Is My Diss Track.

Oct 20, 2024 | halfcastewoman.substack.com | Katie Salisbury

Summer 2024 was the summer of the diss track. Now, summer may be over, but I’ve got a diss track of my own to drop. I’ve been biting my tongue for more than a year and keeping my thoughts to myself about another biographer’s treatment of Anna May Wong. It’s time I finally speak my truth. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with a good old fashioned literary feud. (I’ll let you decide who’s Kendrick and who’s BBL Drizzy.) Stick with me, ‘cause this is going to be a looong one.
Law & Order: Off Broadway Unit

Aug 7, 2024 | observer.com | Katie Salisbury

Law & Order: Off Broadway Unit A new play mines the rise and fall of personal injury attorneys Cellino & Barnes for its comedic potential. Eric William Morris and Noah Weisberg in Cellino V. Barnes. Marc J. FranklinIf you’ve lived in New York State for any amount of time since the late ‘90s, the Cellino & Barnes jingle (“Injury attorneys, 800-888-888”) is probably burned into your brain.
The Chinatown-Hollywood Connection

Jun 23, 2024 | halfcastewoman.substack.com | Katie Salisbury

William Gow is a fellow traveler in the world of Asian American Hollywood history who I was lucky enough to cross paths with while I was in the midst of writing Not Your China Doll. Will is a Sacramento-based community historian, educator, and documentary filmmaker, as well as a fourth-generation Chinese American.
Anna May Wong - Not Your China Doll book review

Jun 14, 2024 | madammiaow.blogspot.com | Katie Salisbury

Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong (Faber) – by Katie Gee Salisbury Book review by Anna Chen - First published 11 April 2024A lively, well-written journey through Anna May Wong’s life and career, if light on the political landscape that shaped her. Every generation needs its fix of America’s first Chinese screen legend. When my producer and I first proposed a programme about Anna May Wong to the BBC in 2005, it was turned down because “no-one’s heard of her”.
What Was the China Doll?

May 13, 2024 | halfcastewoman.substack.com | Katie Salisbury

When I set out to write a book about Anna May Wong, I had a specific intention in mind. I wanted to reframe the narrative around AMW’s life and career. Rather than characterize her as a tragic victim of racism and sexism—as many articles on the internet tend to do—my aim was to acknowledge her resilience and resourcefulness, and the agency she held over her own destiny in spite of the challenges she faced.
Bernardine in Old Shanghai

May 11, 2024 | baos.pub | Aimee Liu |Katie Salisbury |Susan Blumberg-Kason

By Aimee Liu An interview with biographer Susan Blumberg-Kason about 'Bernardine's Shanghai Salon'Susan Blumberg-Kason and her books, Photo collage by author When I read Katie Gee Salisbury's recent interview with Susan Blumberg-Kason over at Half-Caste Woman, their conversation rang a lost bell for me. Susan's recent biography, Bernardine's Shanghai Salon, tells the story of Bernardine Fritz, who was like a cross between Gertrude...
Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong

May 3, 2024 | bookreporter.com | Katie Salisbury

I got lucky with Anna May Wong. Like most of the “boomer” generation, I’ve never knowingly seen her in a movie. But my mother, and her mother, probably did. Yet I know her name, thanks to having edited a fascinating academic textbook about Chinese diaspora filmmaking. Through this experience, I became acutely aware of the convoluted levels of racism around the world that prevented many talented Asian actors from ever reaching their deserved potential.
Endnotes Are My Kink

Apr 16, 2024 | alexiscoe.substack.com | Katie Salisbury |Alexis Coe

UPCOMINGChilling at home on Thursday? Register here to attend my virtualevent at the Gerald Ford Presidential Library—the final four in my series for New America! RECENT HISTORYI was thrilled to kick off the OSU’s America at 250 at the Mershon Center for International Security with the great Christopher McKnight Nichols. Check out one of his books, a much-lauded collection he co-edited with David Milne, which I’ve only just started.