U. alum talks on filmmaking

University alum and movie director Peter Wang spoke yesterday at Alumni Hall about his experiences as a student at the University and as a movie director. Wang became one of the first American filmmakers allowed into China when he made his directorial debut in the 1979 documentary Peking. Wang has since produced, directed and acted in the award winning A Great Wall and most recently in Laserman. Wang gave a short autobiographical speech on his years at the University, and then told of his ongoing struggle as an independent movie producer. Wang, who was born in Taiwan, spoke of his decision to go into engineering, despite an interest in the arts. He attributed his first career choice to family pressures, noting that this preference for the math and engineering fields is common in the Asian community. While working for IBM during the years after he graduated, Wang said he grew to detest company politics, corporate waste, and the helplessness he felt as a researcher in an environment where the marketing managers ran the company. He added that as a naturally inquisitive person, he could not live in an atmosphere where he was always being told "not to ask why." It was this sense of helplessness, Wang said, that caused him to dive into the world of films, after a brief stint as a professor at George Mason University. Wang attributed his career change to naivete fostered by early success with Peking and The Great Wall, noting that as an independant film producer, he has many of the same complaints as those of his previous career. Wang repeatedly emphasized the "sleazy" nature of the business aspects of film production, relative to the gentleman-like world of academia. He said there was a constant fight to maintain artistic license in the face of favors and compromises constantly sought in return for financial backing. Despite the many pitfalls of the film making process, Wang said he highly values his ability to get a message to the people and cited this as the chief reason for his career change. In a brief question-and-answer session following the lecture, Wang talked about major progress in the breakdown of Chinese stereotyping in movies, citing his own films and The Last Emperor as movies which couldn't have made it 10 years ago. Audience members said they found the lecture interesting. "He was very articulate," said College senior Sukemasa Kabayama. Annenberg School graduate student Chan-Jen Chen said that as a successful example of Asians getting acclaim in the U.S., Wang was very inspirational. "He serves a model for Asians students to go after," Chen said.

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