Oriental Hollywood stars

The starting point of this article is the hypothesis that American popular culture has created in the late 19th and early 20th century the image of the Far East based on stereotypical conception of the other races and nations as entirely different culturally and behind the West in terms of development. Starting with Edward W. Said notion of orientalism, the author focuses on Hollywood productions from the first half of the 20th century, in particular those which included actors from Asia: Sessue Hayakawa, Tsuru Aoki, Anna May Wong and Philip Ahn. In the films of this period the Orient is portrayed as a potential threat to the Western order - a symbol of carnal temptations - but at the same time a source of captivating images and exotic setting for adventure stories