An article published in the Asian film magazine Cinemaya, Issue No. 21

Wayne Wang is a Chinese American film director, best known for his 1993 adaptation of the novel The Joy Luck Club. Born in Hong Kong in 1949, he was named after his father’s favorite movie star, John Wayne. Wang’s parents sent him to the U.S. to prepare for medical school, but he fell in love with the arts instead and studied film and television at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Wang’s early films often portrayed the experiences of the Chinese diaspora in America. In his debut film, Chan is Missing (1982), Wang explored the daily ins and outs of Chinatown, a depiction that contrasted Hollywood’s stereotypical use of the neighborhood as a racially-coded signifier of mystery and danger. His family comedy Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (1985), about a Chinese American mother-daughter relationship, solidified his reputation as a filmmaker before he created his most well-known film, The Joy Luck Club (1993). Wang would go on to release several successful Hollywood feature films throughout his career. With the release of Crazy Rich Asians last year, the first film since The Joy Luck Club to have a majority Asian cast, the trailblazing legacy of Wang remains more relevant than ever.