Olive Young (actress)

Olive Young
actress Olive Young
Actress and singer Olive Young plays a hammered dulcimer, which the Associated Press called a "butterfly harp".
Born(1903-06-21)June 21, 1903[1]
St. Joseph, Missouri, U.S.[1]
DiedOctober 5, 1940(1940-10-05) (aged 37)[1]
Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S.[1]
Other namesName used in China
  • Oye Lup Young[1]

Married name

  • Olive Young Lum[1]

Stage names

  • 楊愛立 (Aili Yang)[1]
  • Pei Fen Young[1]
Occupation(s)Actress, Blues singer[1]
Years active1925–1932
SpouseAlfred C.S. Lum (married about 1933)[1]
Signature
Signature of actress Olive Young

Olive Young (June 21, 1903 – October 5, 1940), sinocized as Aili Yang (楊愛立) on the movie screen, was an American-born film actress in China.[2]

Of Chinese ancestry, she visited China, where she may have been the first female motion picture photographer and movie director in China.[3] Later in life she became an American actress and a touring Blues singer.[2] A cover-girl for Liangyou pictorial magazine, she was labeled a flapper, a career woman, part of the movement of modern independent women worldwide which also included China's "new-age woman" (新時代女性) or "modern miss" (摩登小姐), and the Japanese "modern girl".[2][4]

In 1926 she broke the taboo against kissing in Chinese movies, causing Chinese moviegoers to "gasp".[5]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Jay, Alex (January 3, 2014). "Olive Young". Chinese American Eyes. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "In Search of Yang Aili [Yang Aili aka Olive Young ... or vice-versa]". chinesemirror.com. Archived from the original on April 16, 2016. Retrieved July 12, 2018. Olive Young was her birth name. In Chinese film credits she was billed as "Yang Aili" 杨爱立, a Sinocized version of her actual name... We do not know for certain why her movie career ended at that point, but she probably ran up against the same lack of meaningful roles for Asians that drove Anna May Wong to Europe.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference cinezen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Lin, Ziren. "Review How is China's "Modern Girl" made? "Liangyou" pictorial published 90 years". Interface News. Retrieved July 12, 2018. Liangyou" is at a time when the modern girl's trend has taken root in China...
  5. ^ "Asia 1934". Chinese American Eyes chimericaneyes.blogspot.com. January 3, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2018. Asia [magazine] 1934... In 1926, however, Olive Young, an American-born Chinese cinema star, ventured a kiss that was shown only in silhouette through a semitransparent screen. Chinese audiences gasped when they saw it...