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. Of Chinese ancestry, she visited China, where she may have been the first female motion picture photographer and movie director in China. Later in life she became an American actress and a touring Blues singer. A cover-girl for Liangyou pictorial magazine, she was labeled a

flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptab ...

, 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 (also shortened to ) were Japanese women who followed Westernized fashions and lifestyles in the period after World War I. were Japan's equivalent of America's flappers, Germany's , France's , or China's (). By viewing through a Japanese ve ...

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

Childhood

Olive Young was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, to a Chinese-American family. Her father Dr. M. F. Young (Mon Fung Young) was born in California and worked as a doctor, running ads in the newspapers advertising his use of Chinese herbal medicines as cures for female diseases, chronic diseases, sexual weakness, kidney and stomach problems, nervous headaches, and rheumatism. Her mother, Chun She Young, a native of China was a housewife. Mrs. Young was listed as Georgia Young, in the 1910 U.S. Census in Kansas City (Ward 6), born in Missouri; however Olive listed her mother as born in China on the 1930 U.S. Census. When Olive was a girl, her parents took her to live in China for "a number of years", staying in Hong Kong. Afterward she attended school for a year in San Francisco and two more in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, before entering Christian College in Excelsior Springs. She came to public attention in October 1920 when she was "sixteen" and tried to elope. The newspaper said she was 16, but if she was born in July 1903, she would have been 17. She had to be carried back to her father, who tried to have the

White-Slave Traffic Act The White-Slave Traffic Act, also called the Mann Act, is a United States federal law, passed June 25, 1910 (ch. 395, ; ''codified as amended at'' ). It is named after Congressman James Robert Mann of Illinois. In its original form the act mad ...

used against the man she wanted to marry, who was 20. She was sent afterward to a boarding school in Salt Lake City.

Acting

Although she had a college education and pressure from her father to study medicine, she rejected that. She told a reporter from the ''Oregonian,'' "The subject didn't interest me. I wanted adventure." She traveled to China in 1922 and while there she got into acting, getting her first opportunity with the

China Sun Motion Picture Company Minxin Film Company (), also known as China Sun Motion Picture Company Ltd. (1923–1930) was one of the earliest movie studios in the history of Chinese cinema and Hong Kong cinema. History Established in 1922 in Hong Kong by director and acto ...

. She was to perform in ''Rouge'' with them, but ended up with the British American Tobacco Company, where she acted in her first three films. She stayed for several years, beginning a career in silent-picture movies. Finding success, she decided to pursue acting in Hollywood. She returned to the United States in 1929. Where she had starred in movies in China, a young attractive urban woman, in Hollywood she was only able to get typed roles. She was signed to play the leading role of a movie, ''Fools Luck'' with

Hoot Gibson Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson (August 6, 1892 – August 23, 1962) was an American rodeo champion, film actor, film director, and producer. While acting and stunt work began as a sideline to Gibson's focus on rodeo, he successfully transitione ...

, announced November 17, 1929, but there is no information that the movie was made or released. In her final two films she didn't have named roles. She played the maid in '' The Man Who Came Back'' and a singer who sang "a Cantonese ditty in Fu Manchu's underground speakeasy" in ''

The Mask of Fu Manchu ''The Mask of Fu Manchu'' (1932) is an American pre-Code adventure film directed by Charles Brabin. Written by Irene Kuhn, Edgar Allan Woolf and John Willard, it was based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Sax Rohmer (the sixth in the serie ...

''. Following her film career, she moved on to music, traveling and performing a mix of blues and Chinese music.

Movies

It was thought that none of Young's Chinese movies are known to have survived. However, there is now a partial clip of one of her movies, ''Daxia Gan Fengchi'' (大侠甘风池 Dà xiá gānfēngchí) that has been recovered and is online. In this clip there is only a glimpse of Olive Young, near the end, playing a young woman. The only other film footage of her is in her American movies, ''Trailin' Trouble'', ''The Man Who Came Back'', and ''The Mask of Fu Manchu''.

British American Tobacco Company, Shanghai

*1925 ''One Dollar'' (一块钱 Yīkuài qián A Dollar) *1925 ''The Magical Monk'' (神僧 Shén sēng God) *1926 ''Filial Piety'' or ''Closing a Rift '' (情天終補 Qíng tiān zhōng bǔ Love)

Fei Fei Film Company, Shanghai

*1926 ''The Singed Moth'' or ''Langdie'' (狂蜂浪蝶 Kuáng fēng làng dié The Mad Butterfly). Olive played one of the two female roles with Tang Xueqing, counterpart to the lead actor Xue Juexian.

Great Wall Film Company, Shanghai

*1926 ''The Ways of Youth'' or ''Kule Yuanyang'' (苦樂鴛鴦 Kǔ lè yuānyāng Bitter Music), (starring role) *1927 ''A Flapper's Downfall'' (浪女穷途 Làng nǚ qióngtú A Woman's Poor Way) The Arrow of Hate 1927 movie clip

*1927 ''Single Arrow Revenge'' or ''Yigian Chou'' (一箭仇 Yī jiàn chóu A Revenge) Olive Young as Princess Iron Fan

*1927 ''Nar Jah''(哪吒出世 Nǎ zhā chūshì Nezha is born) :Movie takes from Chinese mythology.

Nezha Nezha ( 哪吒) is a protection deity in Chinese folk religion. His official Taoist name is "Marshal of the Central Altar" (). He was then given the title "Third Lotus Prince" () after he became a deity. Origins According to Meir Shahar, Nezh ...

(played by Zhang Zede) is the child of Li Jing (played by Lei Xiadian) and his wife (played by Liu Hanzhen). In the legend, he runs afoul of

Shiji Niangniang Shiji Niangniang () is a goddess in Chinese religion and Taoism. Before becoming goddess, she was a 10,000-year-old demoness. It was originally a stone and was born outside the heavens and the earth, during the Chaos era and the Xuanhuang era. S ...

, a sort of stone spirit, played in the movie by Olive Young. *1927 ''The Mystic Fan'' or ''Huoyanshan'' (火焰山 huǒyàn shān Flame Mountain) *1928 ''Kan the Great Knight Errant'' or ''Daxia Gan Fengchi'' (大侠甘风池 Dà xiá gānfēngchí) :Kan Feng-chi is the movie's hero, whose self-imposed function was to fight the unkind rich and to help the oppressed poor. Not enough of the movie has survived to make Olive's role clear. *1928 ''The Two Reformers'' or ''Yaoguang Xiaying'' (妖光俠影 Yāoguāng xiá yǐng The Devil's Shadow)

China Sun Film Company, Shanghai

*1928 ''The Hot Blooded Man'' or ''Rexue Nan'er '' (熱血男兒 Rèxuè nán'ér Bloody Man)

New Century Film Company, Shanghai

*1928 ''Romance in a Poor Village'' (窮鄉艷遇 Qióng xiāng yànyù Poor town encounter)

Nansing Film Company, Indonesia

*1929 ''

Resia Boroboedoer ''Resia Boroboedoer'' (''Secret of Borobudur'') is a 1929 adventure film produced by Nancing Film Corp. Starring Chinese actress Olive Young, it followed a young woman on her quest to find Gautama Buddha's ashes in the temple of Borobudur. The pr ...

Hollywood, California

*1930 ''

Trailing Trouble ''Trailing Trouble'' is a 1930 American Western film directed by Arthur Rosson, written by Harold Tarshis, and starring Hoot Gibson. It was released on March 23, 1930, by Universal Pictures. The title was also seen as ''Trailin' Trouble''. Ca ...

'', Hoot Gibson Productions/Universal Pictures, Hollywood *1930 ''Ridin' Law'', Biltmore Productions/Big 4 Film Corp. *1931 '' The Man Who Came Back'', Fox Film Corp. (not a named role, plays a maid) *1932 ''

'', Metro-Goldwyn Mayer (non-credited role as a singer)

References

External links

*
Photo of Olive Young and her aunt in Shanghai with movie camera.Portrait of Olive by Adelbert Bartlett in the collections of UCLA.Portrait Olive Young with Rosemary Chew at UCLA collections.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Olive 1903 births 1940 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Los Angeles American actresses of Chinese descent American silent film actresses Chinese silent film actresses Chinese-American culture American blues singers History of racism in the cinema of the United States Hammered dulcimer players Actors from St. Joseph, Missouri 20th-century American singers American emigrants to China