ESTHER ENG
I recently read a mind-blowing profile (which you can check out here if you happen to be fluent in Chinese) on Esther Eng 伍锦霞, an early LGBTQ+ icon, and Hollywood’s first Chinese-American female filmmaker who challenged the boundaries of race, language, culture and gender. Born in San Francisco in 1919, Esther directed her first feature at the age of 22. Throughout the years, she directed five films in Hong Kong and four films in the U.S., including IT’S A WOMEN’S WORLD in 1939, an ambitious project that follows 36 female characters, "all of whom occupy different social positions to highlight the harsh reality of living as a woman in modern society.” In 1941, Esther released GOLDEN STATE GIRLS, an immigrant saga following a fraught father-daughter relationship through the years. (Fun fact: Bruce Lee had his screen debut playing an infant girl in this title!) After WWII, Esther established her own Chinese-language filmmaking company, Silver Light, and produced two major motion pictures, including BACK STREET (1948), an adaptation of Fannie Hurst’s 1931 title but reset in a Chinese-American community, and MAD LOVE MAD FIRE (1949), which explored an interracial relationship. As an openly lesbian director/writer/producer, Esther was noted by press as having a striking gender presentation—she dressed in men’s attire and was open about her relationships with women. A trailblazer in all ways, Esther left the film industry in the ‘50s and ended up owning five Chinese restaurants in New York, which were a roaring success for 20 years.
With the exception of two films, most of Esther’s film reels have been lost to history—and the lack of mainstream exposure has largely left her legacy obscured. In the words of veteran film critic Law Kar, “If Eng had worked in the film industry today, she could have easily been seen as a champion of transnational filmmaking, feminist filmmaking, or antiwar filmmaking.” I’m disappointed I had never heard about Esther before, but I’m happy to be able to share her legacy with you now. I’ll just leave you with one, iconic quote from Esther: When asked about why she ventured into an industry she knew almost nothing about, she answered: "It just came to me, I don’t know why. I just went ahead and I wasn’t afraid of anything.”
—Mimi Li, Development Assistant
