“I was a Chinese manufactured by Japanese hands."
Who was Li XiangLan? In her dramatic lifetime, she was known by many different names, among them Shirley or Yoshiko Yamaguchi. She was an opera singer, actress, Japan-Manchuria Goodwill Ambassadress, accused as a traitor in China, pop idol, wife of artist Noguchi Isamu, Hollywood actress, Broadway actress, Japan TV host covering Vietnam, elected member of Japan's Parliament (18 years) and vice president of the Asian Women's Fund to compensate comfort women.
A prominent movie star and singer from the late 1930's to 1958, she married a Japanese diplomat and retired from a successful but controversial career. Her most famous song “Ye Lai Xiang” (The Tuberose) is still hummed by Chinese people around the world. The hour-long documentary will be followed by a Q&A session with the award-winning movie director Mei-Juin Chen.
This program is FREE WITH MUSEUM ADMISSION. It is co-presented by the Society for Asian Art, Asian Art Museum, Center for Asian American Media and Japan Society of Northern California