Wayne Wang

His best known works include Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (1985), Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989), the Amy Tan literary adaptation The Joy Luck Club (1993), Chinese Box (1997), and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007). Other films include the Harvey Keitel and William Hurt–starring comedy Smoke (1995), the family film Because of Winn-Dixie (2005), the romantic comedies Maid in Manhattan (2002) and Last Holiday (2006), and the controversial erotic drama The Center of the World (2001). He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Bodil Award, a Silver Bear, two Golden Shells, with BAFTA Award, Sundance Grand Jury, Golden Lion, and César Award nominations.

• Name — Wayne Wang • Born — 12 January 1949 • Birthplace — British Hong Kong • Education — California College of the Arts • Occupation — * Director • producer • screenwriter • Years Active — 1975–present • Spouse — Cora Miao • Illustration — Wang in San Francisco, 1981 • Illustration — Preparing a scene from Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart • Illustration — San Francisco's Cannery Cinema screens Chan Is Missing in 1982. • Illustration — Wang with Wood Moy, Peter Wang and Marc Hayashi, 1981 Wayne Wang (born January 12, 1949) is a Hong Kong-American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Considered a pioneer of Asian-American cinema, he was one of the first Chinese-American filmmakers to gain a major foothold in Hollywood. His films, often independently produced, deal with issues of contemporary Asian-American culture and domestic life. His best known works include Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart (1985), Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989), the Amy Tan literary adaptation The Joy Luck Club (1993), Chinese Box (1997), and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007). Other films include the Harvey Keitel and William Hurt–starring comedy Smoke (1995), the family film Because of Winn-Dixie (2005), the romantic comedies Maid in Manhattan (2002) and Last Holiday (2006), and the controversial erotic drama The Center of the World (2001). He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Bodil Award, a Silver Bear, two Golden Shells, with BAFTA Award, Sundance Grand Jury, Golden Lion, and César Award nominations.

Wang was born and raised in Hong Kong, and named after his father's favorite movie star, John Wayne. In the wake of the ongoing riots in Hong Kong, when he was 17, his parents arranged for him to move to the United States to study and prepare for medical school by going to Los Altos in the Bay Area, where he went to Foothill College. Wang, however, soon put this plan aside when his "eyes were completely opened" by new experience. He turned to the arts, studying film and television at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. After graduating from film school, Wang returned to Hong Kong and briefly worked on a popular soap opera at RTHK before being fired and returning to the United States. While in San Francisco, he supported himself by teaching English to new immigrants in Chinatown. The unique group of people he met teaching would inspire many elements of his film Chan Is Missing.

Wang has also collaborated with the author Paul Auster on the films Smoke (1995) and Anywhere but Here (1999), which deviated from his typical subject matter of Asian American life. In 2001, Wang released his film The Center of the World without a MPAA rating because he refused to make cuts to the film's sexually explicit scenes. Wang has said the film's commercial and critical failure set his career back and led him to work on less personal films. Wang has also worked within the mainstream Hollywood studio system on the films The Joy Luck Club (1993) and Maid in Manhattan (2002). Despite these being his some of his most financially successful films, Wang has described the experience as largely negative, and after the production of Last Holiday (2006) resolved to work exclusively on independent productions. He won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September 2007 for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. In 2016, he won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.

He is married to actress Cora Miao, a former Miss Hong Kong. They live in San Francisco and New York City.

• Year — Title — Notes • 1975 — A Man, a Woman, and a Killer — Co-director with Rick Schmidt • 1982 — Chan Is Missing • 1985 — Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart • 1987 — Slam Dance • 1988 — Dim Sum Take Out — Outtakes from Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart • 1989 — Eat a Bowl of Tea • Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive • 1992 — Strangers — Segment "Small Sounds and Tilting Shadows" • 1993 — The Joy Luck Club • 1995 — Smoke • Blue in the Face — Co-director with Paul Auster • 1997 — Chinese Box • 1999 — Anywhere but Here • 2001 — The Center of the World • 2002 — Maid in Manhattan • 2005 — Because of Winn-Dixie • 2006 — Last Holiday • 2007 — The Princess of Nebraska • A Thousand Years of Good Prayers • 2009 — Chinatown Film Project — Film exhibition at Museum of Chinese in America Segment: "Tuesday" • 2011 — Snow Flower and the Secret Fan • 2014 — Soul of a Banquet — Documentary film • 2016 — While the Women Are Sleeping • 2019 — Coming Home Again • 2026 — Diary of a Mad Old Man — World premiere in Gala Presentations at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival