Asian Cultural Project
Icons In Media - Wong Fu Productions
Written by Hillary Quach
Asian icons can be seen in movies, tv shows, and books. Yet, Wong Fu Productions showed a different pathway to fame through video making. The video sharing website known as YouTube, was the starting point for these boys.
Wong Fu Productions was founded by Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Philip Wang, where they initially used their own website to post videos, before transitioning to YouTube. They actually met at the University of California, San Diego with no plans of pursuing filmmaking.
Short films are featured on their YouTube channel, with mostly Asian American casts. As seen in mainstream media, there is a lack of Asian representation, so Wong Fu decided to fill that gap. They do this with the purpose of demonstrating that people can relate to their content without being of Asian descent.
Their Youtube channel also became a home for Asian American artists, like Far East Movement, which became the first Asian-American group to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2011, Wong Fu Productions reached 1 million subscribers and they currently have over 3 million subscribers on their YouTube channel. YouTube has become such a large platform and Wong Fu Productions is aware of this, "The culture has changed and we weren't part of that, but I'm glad because we stayed focused to use it as a platform to tell our stories."
Wong Fu Productions is one of the most original icons in the filmmaking industry and continues to inspire others. They broke the standard for Asian representation in mainstream media, leading the way for many others to follow.
For the 2020-21 season, REACH will be releasing a new blog post written by our officers during the first and third Wednesdays of each month about different aspects of Asian culture, such as pop culture, conflicts faced, representation in media, history, celebration and holidays, and stereotypes. We hope you enjoy reading them!