The Curse of Quon Gwon

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The Curse of Quon Gwon: When the Far East Mingles with the West (1916)

Director and Writer: Marion E. Wong

Length: 35 minutes (incomplete)

View the film on:

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/38504

Screenshot from The Curse of Quon Gwan

Synopsis

With 5 out of the original 7 reels and the intertitles lost, it is hard to provide a detailed and accurate summary of the film’s plot. However, it is widely believed among scholars that The Curse of Quon Gwon “deals with the curse of a Chinese god that follows his people because of the influence of western civilization…It tells the story of a Chinese-American couple who run into a culture clash with their far more traditional family. Violet Wong, sister-in-law of the director Marion Wong, plays the very American bride who must adopt the old ways to please her husband’s family. Marion Wong plays one of the husband’s family members and she sets about scheming against Violet. The film shows the trials and tribulations of Violet before Marion’s machinations are uncovered and she stabs herself, the actual bloodletting hidden by a tasteful fadeout.” (Movie Silently, 2016)

Significance

The Curse of Quon Gwon is the earliest Asian American produced feature film known to exist today, and it is also one of the few American silent feature films made by a woman. Marion Wong wrote and directed the film, and played the major villainess. She was also in charge of the costume design. Many of the actors in the movie are family members, including Wong’s sister-in-law, Violet Wong (the heroine), and Marion’s mother, Chin Shee (the elder matron). Other family members were involved in different aspects of the film’s production, including costuming and finance.

At the end of the twentieth century, The Curse of Quon Gwon was presumed lost. It was not until around 2005 that two reels of the 35mm original negative and a 16mm print were found by documentary filmmaker Arthur Dong in the basement of the Chinese American Historical Society in San Francisco. Dong then sent his discoveries to the Academy Film Archive for restoration. A year later, Dong succeeded in placing the recovered The Curse of Quon Gwon on the National Film Registry, an annual selection of 25 films that showcase the diversity of American film heritage to increase awareness for its preservation. In 2010, Dong commissioned noted silent film composer and performer, Judy Rosenberg, to create a new score for the film.

Aside from extending the trajectory of Asian American filmmaking into the earlier days of silent motion pictures, Wong’s film also highlights Chinese Americans’ transnational experiences and navigation between two cultures and value systems, a theme echoed frequently in contemporary Asian American classics, such as the films of Ang Lee. The first part of The Curse takes place in California; it shows the intrigues of the Chinese who are in this country on behalf of the Chinese monarchical government, and those who are working for the revolutionaries who favor a Chinese republic. Not only does it offer us a glimpse into the Chinese American life, especially Chinese American women’s reckoning at the time, it also provides a refreshing perspective on the transnational and global resonances of China’s 1911 Revolution and the cultural movements it inspired.

The filmmaker

Marion Evelyn Wong was born on January 2, 1895 in San Francisco and raised in Oakland, California. Before trying her hand in the film industry, Wong had established a reputable career in Oakland as a singer-entertainer. In 1916, at the age of 21, she established the Mandarin Film Company with financial support from her uncle, a wealthy merchant and landowner. In the company, Wong served as a writer, director, producer, designer, and actor for her works. In an interview with the local newspaper Oakland Tribune in 1916, Wong reveals that she is determined to introduce to the world Chinese motion pictures with “some of the customs and manners of China.” Wong was recognized by local media as “energy personified,” a Chinese girl with “imagination, executive ability, wit and beauty.”

Despite its historical significance, Wong’s first film, The Curse of Quon Gwon was considered a financial failure. It only had two public screenings after its completion and never received commercial distribution, partly because its characters defy the racist tropes and expectations widely held among American audiences at the time.

In 1917, Wong married Kim Seung Hong; he was the first electrical engineer of Chinese descent in the United States and the first Chinese graduate of the University of California – Berkeley. After getting married, Wong founded the Singapor Hut restaurant in Richmond, California in 1919, which became popular for its musical cabarets where Wong herself performed everything from traditional Chinese operas to popular music.

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