A well-researched deep dive into early Chinese cinema that spends too little time on the interior life of its subject.
Galvan chronicles the career and tragic downfall of Chinese silent-film star Ruan Lingyu, who appeared in 30 motion pictures in her short life.
Born in 1910 in Shanghai, Ruan was raised by a single mother who was a live-in maid for the wealthy Zhang family. One of the sons, Zhang Damin, became enamored with Ruan in her teens. The couple entered a common-law marriage, and, at 16, Ruan dropped out of school to work. She landed her first acting role in Husband and Wife in Name, released in 1927 to “enthusiastic” reviews. By the early 1930s, Ruan was regarded as “the most talented Chinese performer—male or female—of the age.” However, her personal life was rocky. Zhang refused to work and gambled away both his inheritance and Ruan’s earnings. Though she secured a job for him as a manager of a Shanghai movie theater, he was fired for stealing ticket proceeds. Tang Jishan, a tea company manager, began wooing Ruan. In 1933, after a legal separation from Zhang, Ruan and Tang became lovers. Zhang sued the couple the following year over a property dispute, and Tang filed a defamation countersuit against Zhang. The dueling trials generated sensational media coverage that cast Ruan as an adulterer. When Ruan pleaded with Tang to let her resolve the issue, he struck her. Ruan stayed with him despite subsequent violent incidents and betrayals to avoid further controversy. On March 8, 1935, she spiked her congee with sleeping pills, slipped into a coma, and later died in the hospital. She was 24 years old and left behind an adopted daughter.
Galvan provides a well-documented account of Ruan Lingyu’s life and her trailblazing work in the silent era of Chinese film. He cites a variety of sources, including the suicide notes Ruan left to the men in her life, one of which laments, “But actually I’m guilty of what? I’m only regretting that I should not become the trophy between the two of you.” The book offers valuable insights into the forces that shaped the actor’s career within Shanghai’s broader political and social landscape, including the effects of censorship during the rule of the Kuomintang and the use of film to promote leftist ideology. However, the bulk of the book consists of extensive film plot summaries that may fail to resonate with noncinephiles who have not seen the films (and will never be able to access them because they are “believed lost”). Certain sections focus so intensely on film industry timelines that they detract from what could have been a more intimate narrative about Ruan’s struggles. Ruan’s personal drama will likely be the most appealing and relatable aspect of the book for general audiences; unfortunately, there is little analysis of why someone savvy enough to navigate a male-dominated movie industry continually paid off Zhang’s debts, kept him out of jail, and put her reputation on the line to arrange more jobs for him after she became financially solvent. The book’s structure is also a bit awkward—Galvan inserts notes and sources at the end of each chapter rather than in an appendix, requiring the reader to flip through multiple pages of footnotes between chapters and interrupting the narrative flow.
A well-researched deep dive into early Chinese cinema that spends too little time on the interior life of its subject.Pub Date: June 2, 2022
ISBN: 9798832237268
Page Count: 229
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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