Peacock X Everlasting Land - Rewriting History Through the Lens: Anna May Wong AI Art Film Launches in London, Bridging Century-Old Dreams and the Present

On February 9, 2026, Everlasting Land, an AI-integrated live-action art film honouring Hollywood’s first Chinese American star Anna May Wong, officially commenced principal photography in London. The production held its opening ceremony beside the Thames at Peacock London, a celebrated Chinese restaurant housed in a historic Edwardian building at County Hall on the Queen’s Walk. With its signature fusion of exceptional cuisine, art, and sweeping views of Parliament, Peacock provided a fitting backdrop for a project dedicated to cultural dialogue across time.

Produced by Shanghai Jialiyi Pictures, the film assembles a world-class international team to re-examine the legacy of a woman who defied both era and borders. More than a biopic, Everlasting Land uses AI-driven visual language to “salvage” a history often folded away—restoring voice and dimension to a life lived in the cultural fissures between East and West.

From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend: Why Anna May Wong’s Story Demands to Be Retold

For producer Grace Sun, the journey began in 2022. “During the pandemic, I read Anna May Wong’s biography. A laundryman’s daughter who rose to Hollywood legend—and quietly gave everything to support China’s resistance. As a fellow Cantonese woman who left home in her twenties with just 3500 RMB to start over in Shanghai, I recognised her fire. She became the first Chinese American star to be honoured on the Walk of Fame. I knew then: her story must be told.”

That conviction shaped a film that refuses to treat history as closed. When Anna May Wong’s portrait appeared on the U.S. quarter in 2022, millions saw an honour. Director Shiyi Li saw something else: “I saw a folded history. The 1937 The Good Earth casting scandal was never just about one lost role. It laid bare how minority artists are stranded between cultures—labelled too ‘Oriental’ for the West, too modern for the East. Anna spent her life suspended between those tags. This film is a temporal salvage. We are unfolding the pleats of history, letting a century’s silenced defiance meet today’s audience.”

Cast and Creatives: An International Collaboration Across Disciplines

The film unites visionaries from film, literature, and theatre. Grace Sun (Goldsmiths, University of London; British Actors’ Equity member; former head planner of the Tiny Times franchise) stars as Anna May Wong, while also serving as producer and co-producer.

Hong Ying, the British Chinese writer whose memoir Daughter of the River has been translated into over 30 languages, joins as supervisor. Her literary excavation of memory and displacement finds a natural counterpart in cinema. Two-time Oscar-nominated production designer Andrew Rothschild brings his signature artistry to the visual world, while Max King, a mainstay of the UK’s National Theatre, brings stage-honed depth to the cast.

Director Shiyi Li (MA, University of York; Jackie Chan Action! Film Incubator alumnus; award winner at Russian international film festivals) leads the creative vision.

Why AI? Why London? A Dialogue Not Bound by Time

Everlasting Land is conceived as an AI-infused art short, destined for major international film festivals—with a feature-length version already in development. The use of AI is neither gimmick nor convenience. For director Li, it is an ethical and narrative tool:

“AI allows us to build dialogue across time. Not to replace or fabricate, but to imagine the conversations Anna never got to have. What would she say to the young Asian actor in London today? What would she ask of Hollywood? This technology lets us stage those encounters.”

London was chosen not merely as a production hub, but as a symbolic stage. A century ago, Anna May Wong crossed the Atlantic seeking roles that Hollywood denied her. She performed in London’s West End, found audiences who saw past caricature, and carried those experiences back to an industry that still refused to see her fully. To film here is to complete a circle.

“True Belonging Is Not Geography”

Producer Grace Sun returned to this idea during her address: “Anna May Wong never stopped searching for home. But home was never a place. It was the work. It was the image of herself she left behind for strangers a hundred years later to find.”

That image now circulates on currency, in textbooks, and—soon—on screens worldwide. Everlasting Land does not aim to rescue Anna May Wong from obscurity; she has already outlived her erasure. Instead, the film asks what her persistence means for those still navigating the currents between cultures.

To Young Artists: Stay True, Venture Far

Director Li offered this to emerging filmmakers: “Anna was told again and again that she wasn’t enough of one thing or the other. She went anyway. She worked anyway. She became anyway. I hope this film says to young artists today: the space between is not a void. It is a place to stand.”

Art Has No Borders, But It Remembers Where It Comes From

Everlasting Land joins a growing constellation of works by Chinese and diaspora creators reclaiming narrative authority over their own stories. It does not ask for permission. It does not perform apology.

It simply—radically—insists that Anna May Wong’s face, voice, and defiance belong not only to the past, but to our shared future.

Peacock London: Where Art Meets Cuisine, East Meets West

The opening ceremony’s setting was no coincidence. Peacock London—known for integrating classic Teochew gastronomy with Shanghai-style artistry within Edwardian grandeur—embodies the very synthesis the film pursues.

Just as Peacock transforms a meal into a multisensory cultural encounter, Everlasting Land transforms archival silence into sensory cinema. Both are acts of translation: not dilution, but dialogue. Not loss, but finding form.