You might not know the name Tyrus Wong, but you probably know many of the images he shaped, including scenes from the beloved Disney classic Bambi. Yet when he came to this country as a child, Tyrus was an illegal immigrant locked up in an offshore detention center. How did he go on to a long and prosperous career drawing animation cels, storyboards, and greeting cards that shaped the American imagination?
Background Artist is a kaleidescopic story about the immigrant origins of some of America’s best loved visual imagery. Sharing the inspiring story of Tyrus Wong’s remarkable 106-year life, this biography showcases the artist’s wide array of creative work, from the paintings and fine art prints he made working for Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration to the unique handmade kites he designed in his retirement to fly on the Santa Monica Beach. It tells how Tyrus came to the United States as a 10-year-old boy in 1920, at a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act barred him from legal citizenship. Yet it also shows how Tyrus found American communities that welcomed him and nurtured his artistic talent. Covering everything from his work as a studio sketch artist for Warner Bros. to the best-selling Christmas cards he designed for Hallmark and other greeting card companies, this book celebrates a multi-talented Asian-American artist and pioneer.
In Background Artist, Tyrus Wong finally receives the biography he deserves. Placing Wong's life within the broader narrative of Asian American history, Karen Fang illuminates the ways in which events ranging from Chinese Exclusion to Japanese American wartime incarceration to the creation of the Model Minority myth influenced Wong's work as an artist. Fang's engaging, highly readable style, makes this a must-read for academic and general audiences alike.
— William Gow, author of Performing Chinatown: Hollywood, Tourism, and the Making of a Chinese American Community
This is the inspiring journey of the long and extraordinary life of Tyrus Wong — an immigrant whose talent as a visionary artist transcended barriers, shaped unique cinematic landscapes, and left an indelible mark on our industry. Background Artist is a testament to the American dream!
— François Audouy, award-winning production designer
In this deeply researched and timely biography, Karen Fang rightly positions Tyrus Wong at the center of American visual culture of the mid-20th century. Background Artist brings Wong and the Chinese diaspora to the foreground, reorienting how we think about Hollywood, California history, and American commercial production, generally.
— Jennifer Greenhill, endowed professor of American art, University of Arkansas
In her compulsively readable, painstakingly researched biography of the multi-hyphenate Tyrus Wong—storyboard and sketch artist at Disney and Warner Bros., painter, illustrator, Hallmark card designer and kite maker, Chinese émigré and American trailblazer—Karen Fang skillfully blends political, cultural, and motion-picture history to tell the gripping story of one of classical Hollywood’s unsung heroes.
— Noah Isenberg, author of We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie
Karen Fang has done a thorough and meticulous job chronicling the life of the remarkable and inspiring Chinese American artist Tyrus Wong. Here was a man of many firsts, who surmounted many professional obstacles and personal struggles. Without having met Tyrus, Fang has captured his sense of humor and the wondrous way he looked at the world around him. As a book, Background Artist is as versatile as Tyrus was and will find a place on many different shelves: Chinese American history, Disney lore, art history, and artist biography.
— Lisa See, best-selling author of On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family
Karen Fang unveils the rich tapestry of Tyrus Wong’s remarkable life from his early struggles as an immigrant to his pioneering contributions in art, films, and beyond. Despite facing discrimination and adversity at every turn, he soared above every challenge with resilience and humor, reminding us of the Chinese saying “real gold does not fear the test of fire.” A must-read for anyone seeking to know the full story of a legend whose legacy extends far beyond his work on Bambi.
— Rona Liu, production designer at Pixar
Karen Fang portrays Tyrus Wong's illustrious career in a way that's just as bright and brilliant as the artist's most dazzling work, all while examining it against a very dark time in America. This is an important story that's been left out of our history books.
— Susan Blumberg-Kason, author of Bernardine's Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China
Karen Fang has written a deeply researched and intimate biography of the great modern Chinese American artist Tyrus Wong, whose elegant, poetic and dramatic brushstrokes have been enjoyed by millions. This is an inspiring and pertinent portrait of Wong, an immigrant child who lived to be 106 years old, and who struggled to overcome racism with his art.
— John Canemaker, Oscar-winning animator and professor emeritus as NYU Tisch School of the Arts
A classic Hollywood tale about an immigrant who overcame overwhelming odds to leave a lasting mark on American culture, Karen Fang has written the definitive biography of Tyrus Wong. Background Artist is a book that left me feeling uplifted and inspired. It makes an important contribution to our understanding of the Chinese American experience.
— Julia Flynn Siler, author of The White Devil's Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco's Chinatown
Background Artist is a beautifully written biography of Tyrus Wong, an artist whose life spanned over a century and whose work crossed boundaries of fine, commercial, and entertainment art. Karen Fang is a master storyteller and deft interpreter who brings to life this remarkable individual by contextualizing Wong’s significance in relation to Chinese American history and the history of art.
— Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, author of Doctor Mom Chung of the Fair-Haired Bastards: The Life of a Wartime Celebrity
Tyrus Wong is an American treasure whose triumphant immigrant story and contributions to art will now be better known thanks to Karen Fang’s illuminating biography, Background Artist. Fang brilliantly paints a portrait of a man whose bold brush strokes helped make Bambi an iconic film, created the background for many Hollywood movie sets, and graced numerous Hallmark greeting cards, among other accomplishments.
— Frances Dinkelspiel, author of Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California