Asian-American dance duo Dorothy Toy and Paul Wing, the ‘Chinese Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’, and how they captured audiences’ hearts

When Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, the first Asian-American dancers to perform at London’s Palladium Theatre were only a few months into their contract.

Paul Wing and Dorothy Toy were well known as a tap dance couple in their heyday, when they were regarded as the Chinese Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers – except that Toy was Japanese.

Although they had danced their way through the Great Depression, and battled discrimination to star in Hollywood films and perform on Broadway and in London, World War II took a toll on their careers. This month marks 75 years since the end of that war, the deadliest conflict in history which claimed as many as 75 million lives. It affected industries across the US, including entertainment, and Toy and Wing were not immune.

Part of their story was told in a 29-minute documentary released in 2017. Dancing Through Life: The Dorothy Toy Story opens with a scene from Toy’s 99th birthday celebrations with friends and family, before taking viewers on a tour of her career. Two years after the documentary’s release, on July 10, 2019, Toy died at the age of 102.

Behind the project was veteran California-based television sportscaster Rick Quan, who has made documentary shorts that focus on a number of prominent Asian-Americans, including the artist Frank Wong and author and activist Helen Zia. Quan first met Toy in 1999, when he took dance lessons from her while preparing for his wedding.

“Dorothy was such a lively character,” he says. “Always caring, very wonderful, just a nice person. She was a pioneer who really sort of went off on her own and did something that not just appealed to an Asian-American audience but appealed to everyone. She was kind of a rebel for her age at that time. She chased her dream.”