Marlene Dietrich went on anti-Asian rant while working with Anna May Wong, Chinese American star’...

Dietrich and Wong costarred in the 1932 drama “Shanghai Express.” Marlene Dietrich went on antiAsian rant while working with Anna May Wong, Chinese American star’s biographer recalls Dietrich and Wong costarred in the 1932 drama “Shanghai Express.” By Ryan Coleman :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RyanColemanauthorphoto0081ce8f0254478080f35972c433877b.jpg) Ryan Coleman Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books. EW's editorial guidelines September 8, 2026 8:13 p.m.

Dietrich and Wong costarred in the 1932 drama “Shanghai Express.”

Marlene Dietrich went on anti-Asian rant while working with Anna May Wong, Chinese American star’s biographer recalls

Dietrich and Wong costarred in the 1932 drama “Shanghai Express.”

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

EW's editorial guidelines

September 8, 2026 8:13 p.m. ET

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Anna May Wong and Marlene Dietrich in ‘Shanghai Express’ (1932). Credit:

Courtesy Everett

- Marlene Dietrich launched into a shocking anti-Asian tirade while working with her *Shanghai Express *costar Anna May Wong, Dietrich’s daughter claims.

- A new biography of Wong by Shirley Jennifer Lim details Dietrich and Wong’s “fleeting friendship” on the 1932 film set.

- Dietrich’s daughter, Maria Riva, first detailed the alleged rant in her 1992 biography of her mother, claiming that Dietrich said, “If I see one more yellow face, I am going to throw up.”

Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong’s memories in the public consciousness will forever be entwined because of *Shanghai Express*, the boundary-pushing thriller they headlined in 1932. But a new biography of Wong sheds light on why that bond may not have endured as a friendship.

Wong and Dietrich were at very different places professionally when *Shanghai Express *launched into theaters in the middle of the Great Depression. Born in Germany, Dietrich had moved to Hollywood only two years prior, hoping to capitalize on the promise of the first three films she made with the director who transformed her into a star: Josef Von Sternberg. Wong, meanwhile, born in Los Angeles’ Chinatown to Taishanese parents from China, had been steadily acting for years, but was held back from Dietrich’s level of success largely because of her race.

Dietrich was paid “$78,166 for *Shanghai Express *to Wong’s $8,100,” Wong biographer Shirley Jennifer Lim notes in her new book, *Anna May Wong: An Intimate Portrait* (published Tuesday via Abrams Books). Dietrich was the film’s star, but Wong routinely earned “less money than her white female counterparts.”

‘Shanghai Express’ stars Anna May Wong as Hui Fei and Marlene Dietrich as Shanghai Lily.

Bettmann Archive

That kind of bias worked against Wong throughout her career on an institutional level. And unfortunately, it worked against her personally during production on *Shanghai Express*.

According to Lim, “a fleeting friendship blossoms on the set of *Shanghai Express*” between Dietrich and Wong, who play sex workers aboard a train traveling from Peiping (Beijing) to Shanghai during the Chinese Civil War. The two had become acquainted off screen, posing together for a notorious picture in Berlin with future Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl in 1930.

But according to Dietrich’s daughter Maria Riva, whose 1992 biography of her mother Lim liberally quotes from, Dietrich privately did not hold Wong in the highest esteem.

“Anna May Wong and my mother became chummy. Between takes, they talked, not rehearsing their scenes, just soft conversation, smoked, sipped cool coffee through their straws,” Riva wrote. Dietrich even “fussed over Miss Wong’s square bangs and had [Paramount head designer Travis Banton] redesign one of her kimonos so it would be more flattering.”

During one dinner, Riva wrote, Dietrich responded with scorn when asked if she’d read *The Good Earth*, a hot new work of historical fiction by Pearl S. Buck, which tracks the rise of a poor farmer to the heights Chinese society.

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“‘Is that the one about China?’ When my father answered that it was, she gave an exasperated snort,” Riva recalled.

“‘China here! China there!’” Dietrich allegedly rambled. “‘What is this obsession with China? The whole lot is swarming with slant-eyed people! If I see one more yellow face, I am going to throw up!’”

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Riva writes that her mother then “left to get my father more cabbage rolls,” leaving Von Sternberg looking “rather crestfallen after this attack, but my father gave him a broad, knowing wink, which made our little man smile, and by the time my mother returned they were having a lovely discussion about light diffusion and someone who got a Nobel Prize for it.”

Anna May Wong in 1935.

Silver Screen Collection/Getty

Dietrich’s rant disturbed at least Von Sternberg and Riva, but as she noted in *Marlene Dietrich*, Von Sternberg trafficked in his own fair share of racism. The Austrian American director once gifted Dietrich a “‘Chinese coolie doll’ to keep her black ‘Savage’ (doll) company. She took them with her throughout her professional life.”

*Shanghai Express *was a hit upon its release, earning three Academy Award nominations (Lee Garmes won for his cinematography, but Von Sternberg lost Best Director to Frank Borzage for *Bad Girl*, and Best Picture went to Irving Thalberg’s *Grand Hotel*).

Dietrich’s star only rose from there, leading to her starring in hits like *The Scarlett Empress*, *Angel*, and *Destry Rides Again*. Wong, meanwhile, should have had more offers for parts than ever. As Lim notes, “studios [greenlit] motion pictures starring Chinese characters” following the success of *Shanghai Express*. But the Chinese roles in films like *The Hatchet Man*, *The Mask of Fu Manchu*, and *The Son-Daughter* all went to white actresses. When *The Good Earth *was ultimately made into a film, Luise Rainer was cast in the lead role, winning her an Oscar.

*Anna May Wong: An Intimate Portrait*, is currently available online and in bookstores.

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Published: September 9, 2026 at 05:39PM on Source: MORNING MAG

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