Wong Fu Productions Hits Grafton
November 5, 2009 • By Amber Logsdon,
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Standing outside Grafton-Stovall Theatre on Tuesday night was like standing outside a concert venue. A line of anxious, excited students waited, some even armed with freshly baked cupcakes. With such involvement from the fans, one would expect that the Backstreet Boys or Dane Cook to be throwing a secret show. In reality, YouTube sensation, Wong Fu Productions — Phil Wang, Wesley Chan and Ted Fu — had stopped by JMU on their recent fall college tour as a part of Asian Culture Week, put on by the Asian Student Union.
Phoebe Liu, a senior health science major and a Wong Fu fan, baked the cupcakes with the trio’s faces in icing. “I’ve been following Wong Fu since my freshman year, and I’ve always been interested in Asian-Americans in the media,” Liu said. She liked how their Internet shorts “gave both sides to the Asian and American culture.”
Michael Urgel, a sophomore nursing major and president of the Asian Student Union, worked to bring Wong Fu here for Asian Culture Week. “I think they are the epitome of young Asians in the media,” Urgel said. “They’re growing filmmakers and a lot of the students here really love what [Wong Fu] is doing.”
The group met in a video arts class while attending the University of California, San Diego. “I remember working with [Chan and Fu] on a project once, and noticed they had some real talent,” Wang said. “Then I remember thinking, ‘I should really be friends with these guys.’ It just sort of took off from there.”
After forming in 2004, the team has created more than 130 short films, music videos and one feature length film, “A Moment with You.” Some of their shorts have been featured in major film festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival and the San Diego Asian Film Festival.
“At that point some producers had approached us about making a second feature length film, which we were going to call ‘Sleep Shift,’ ” Chan said. “There were some issues, though, since our male lead was an Asian male. The producers thought it wouldn’t be profitable, so the project was shelved.”
The letdown didn’t disenchant Wong Fu, however. “That whole experience allowed us to see first hand what the film industry was like,” Chan added, “There are all of these stereotypes in the media about Asians and how we all speak with an accent and do Kung Fu. We wanted to show that not all Asian- Americans were like that.”
Though most of their popularity lies with the Asian-American audience, their creations have attracted more than just their fans’ attention. Recently, CNN ran a short segment about Wong Fu and how they were working to advance Asian-Americans in the media. “We actually didn’t set out to be the ‘heroes’ of Asian-Americans,” Fu said. “It just happened by accident. But now that we’re given this huge responsibility, almost, I feel like it’s our duty to take it seriously.”
Wong Fu’s channel now has more than 81,400 subscribers. They’ve also expanded to include a merchandise line. “We don’t really get a lot of money off of the shorts themselves,” Chan said, “So the shirts and everything help pay for the basics: food, rent and yeah, food.”
Recently, though, Wong Fu began to show a little heart. Since August, they have taken some of their proceeds from merchandise sales and donated to various charities. For example, October’s charity was the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Fund.
Tuesday night saw the premiere of new projects Wong Fu have worked on over the past few months. They announced they would be working with Kevin Wu (known as KevJumba on YouTube) on an upcoming Web series. As a surprise, they premiered a very rough draft of the first episode. In addition, the group screened a short film from their series “The One Days HK” — a group of films filmed in one day. Though the film was in Cantonese, there were subtitles for those who haven’t brushed up on their Asian languages.
What’s in store for Wong Fu’s future includes more than just viral videos. Last year, they began their International Secret Agents concert series, which highlights up-and-coming Asian-American artists. The opening show featured the musical group Far*East Movement and winners of “America’s Best Dance Crew,” Quest Crew.
“We hope to one day move ISA from Los Angeles and San Francisco over to the East Coast; maybe New York City and D.C.,” Wong said.
As far as their films go, they’re hoping to produce another feature length film, while avoiding the fiasco that was their last attempt.
“We’re really keeping our fingers crossed that this new movie pulls through,” Chan said. “Who knows, maybe we’ll stop by JMU again when we go on our next screening tour.”
Contact Amber Logsdon at logsdoan@jmu.edu
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Thanks for the great story and coverage of the event!