I helped fact-check this podcast for The History Channel. Among other things I learned that the language that members of early-20th-century residents of U.S. and Canadian Chinatowns most often spoke was what they themselves referred to as Cantonese but what linguists would likely classify as Toishanese, a language that’s related to but not mutually intelligible with, present-day Standard Cantonese. In this context I think the right call was to go with what the speaking community being described preferred to call it (at least in English).
June 4, 1939. Anna May Wong steps off an ocean liner to greet her fans in Australia. In many ways, she is a classic Hollywood actor. Glamorous and famous. She’s made some sixty movies that have been seen around the world. But in other ways, Anna May Wong is singular. She’s the first–and at this time only–Chinese American movie star. But behind the scenes…she is reaching the end of her rope. How did a Chinese American girl from a poor family defy expectations to become an international star? And what is now fueling her Hollywood rebirth?