Kristina Wong

Kristina Wong
Wong in Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Born San Francisco, California, U.S.
Medium D.I.Y., Internet art, monologue, performance art, stand-up comedy, street theatre, television, film
Nationality American
Years active 2000–present
Genres Asian American humor
Liberal/political humor
LGBT humor
Subject(s) Environmental movement, feminism, mental health, race, liberal issues
Notable works and roles BigBadChineseMama.com, Going Green the Wong Way, Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Website www.kristinawong.com

Kristina Wong (黄君儀) is an American comedian known primarily for her work as a solo theater performer, artist and actor. Wong is a third generation Chinese American born in San Francisco and living in Los Angeles.

Career

In 2006, Wong received support from the Creative Capital Foundation and the National Performance Network to create "Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." The show explores the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian American women.[1] It has toured nationally. Wong is also a guest contributor to Playgirl magazine.[2]

Wong graduated from UCLA with double degrees in English and World Arts and Cultures with a minor in Asian American Studies. On June 15, 2008, Wong was the commencement speaker at her alma mater, UCLA English Department.[3]

Wong has appeared on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell on FX to discuss an article she wrote for XoJane entitled "9 Wack Things White Guys Say to Deny Their Asian Fetish"[4] and her obsession with professional NBA player Jeremy Lin.[5] She also appeared in the premiere episode of Asian American cable network Myx TV's first original reality series I'm Asian American and....[6][7][8]

Wong has also written articles for XoJane including "9 Wack Things White Guys Say to Deny Their Asian Fetish,"[9] "10 More Wack Things People Say After You Write an Essay About Wack Things White Guys Say to Deny Their Asian Fetish,"[10] and "8 Reasons People of Color Must Rally for 'White History Month'".[11][12]

In November 2013, Tricia Tongco of the Huffington Post wrote an article about Wong's premiere of Wong Street Journal entitled "How Comedian Kristina Wong Went Viral, Then Took Her Art And Activism Offline: The time the Chinese-American performer became white in Africa." After summarizing the show, Tongco gives Wong's thought process behind the show: an existential crisis leading to what she called her Eat, Pray, Love moment. She decided to use this crisis for good and volunteer at an organization in Uganda. Upon her arrival, however, her perspective as a woman of color shifted to that of a white woman when a native referred to as "mzungu," or white person. "Suddenly, I was the face of oppression. It was really weird to go from constantly calling out white people to people having to literally walk around the power I bring to the room."[13]

In January 2014, the Los Angeles Times's Cindy Chang featured Wong's efforts to change racial stereotypes in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin in an article entitled "Kristina Wong’s stereotype-skewering humor: Stop and think about it." It features of her most controversial pieces, highlighting early projects like the website Big Bad Chinese Mama, her senior project at UCLA; and Fannie Wong, the badly behaved former second runner-up at Miss Chinatown character. It also describes in detail her more recent one-woman shows: Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a tour about the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian American women, and Cat Lady, the show resulting from the Cuckoo's Nest tour that made her cat so distraught that he peed all over her apartment.[14]

In October 2014, Wong was featured in the New York Times' "Off Color Comedy" series. The video focused on the ways in which her comedy, speeches, one-woman shows, and poetry take on racist stereotypes, the fetishization of Asian women, and the perception of women in media. She asserts that her attempt to change the way that people like her are viewed "is a long fight. And if I fight it constantly with anger, that's the man getting me twice, right, once when they've made fun of me and the second time by getting me to be angry."[15]

In July 2014, NBC News featured an interview with Wong regarding the premiere of Wong Street Journal in a segment called "Kristina Wong Tackles Money and Power in One-Woman Show." The video highlights important elements of the show, such as her entirely handmade set and the multiple raps she performs. Wong discusses her false perceptions prior to her journey to Africa ("I was convinced that everybody might be a version of a Save the Children's commercial"), and how her trip changed her understanding of herself and her views: "To have to overcome a lot of that ridiculous thinking and just learn to engage people made me think, 'God, what else is going on in our heads, and what else do we have to unlearn in order to be human with each other?'"[16]

In December 2014, she was named tenth on Salon and Alternet's list of the "10 Best Moments in Political Comedy" for her Youtube video "Asian Vaginas End Racism". In her collaboration with Tani Ikeda, she parodies and destroys the reasoning that white men dating Asian women means that they cannot be racist. She plays the part of the clitoris, dressed as a giant vagina being penetrated by a larger than life silk penis, shouting politically correct statements that all men should know, but few do. The video satirically claims that the Asian vagina can re-educate the penis through intercourse, calling all men to "sleep with an Asian woman, and never be accused of racism again!"[17]

In March 2015, the Guardian''s Anjali Enjeti wrote "Kristina Wong: pushing the envelope on race, rights, and America," an article about the premiere of her show The Wong Street Journal and its focus on "race, privilege, and America's paternalistic attitude toward African countries."[18]

In June 2015, Wong was a panelist on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, discussing Emma Stone’s casting as an Asian woman in Cameron Crowe's film Aloha. She appeared alongside comedian Jo Koy and podcast host Dan St. Germain, who debated with her and Wilmore the legitimacy of a white woman being cast as a woman of color. Wong condemned the casting choice, declaring that legitimately Asian actors "would've been happy to take a shit part, that's all we get anyway. The evolution of my acting career has been Japanese schoolgirls, harajuku girls, nail salon ladies, and if I'm lucky, newscasters. I would have been happy to play Emma Stone." When Wilmore asked about colorblind casting, she took the stance that all colorblindness means is that "everyone gets to be white. Everyone gets a shot at having a narrative. Everyone gets a shot at what it's like to be in love, or get married, or just do things that people do, which is usually just depicted by white people."[19]

Later that month, she wrote an editorial for Scenario USA entitled "How I Failed to Save All People of Color from Oppression in My Six Minutes on The Nightly Show," a self-assessment on what she could have said or done to better achieve her goal to "singlehandedly dismantle oppression and patriarchy with badass humor whereby I'd liberate all women, people of color and queers FOREVER." She establishes herself as the newbie to group sex in the orgy metaphor for the panel, unable to discern when to present new information and when to crack a joke. She kicks her Comedy Central self for sitting silently, for being "the well behaved, docile Asian woman that I never am in any other part in my life. I was not myself. And this was being broadcast."[20]

In March 2016, she was featured in the Ms. Foundation for Women's #31 Days of Feminism, a movement to celebrate the achievements of women of color and how they lead the way to equality. She focuses almost entirely on her journey towards becoming a feminist, and how her art has grown and shifted as a result of that journey. "As more comedians and writers have claimed the word and didn't suffer career suicide from it (rather, they found amazing allies to their work), I also found the courage to claim feminism and define it for myself."[21]

In January 2017, Wong was second on Black Enterprise's list of "10 Best Trump Twitter Trolls." This featured her tweet about the news of Stacey Dash's end of employment at Fox News: "In Trump’s America: Fox doesn't even need to pretend to have at least one black friend-- #StaceyDashGotFiredParty."[22]

In March 2017, she performed Wong Street Journal at Harvard University and Wellesley College. She was featured on the Harvard Arts Blog in an article titled "No finish line," in which her advice to student artists was "[Creating art is] not a sprint. It's a marathon... There's no finish line you cross. Maybe that's the narrative of public success: that you make it and everything is handed to you. It's a lie. You have to constantly keep making new things."[23]

Music

In November 2013, Ugandan producer Nerio dropped the album Mzungu Price. Written and performed by Wong, it features such artists as Festo Wine, MC Kash, LMG Silver, Sarah Sullivan, and Nerio himself. The song "Boss Lady" is featured in Wong Street Journal. Wong described the album as "an accidental international hip-hop collaboration. I was in the street with a flashlight on my third night in Gulu, Uganda looking for street food. These boys at a chappatti stand tried to overcharge me for 'rollex'. Next thing you know, I'm in their studio recording a rap album." Mzungu Price can be purchased for $5 USD on Bandcamp.[24]

Feud with James Franco

Following actor James Franco's negatively received co-hosting of the 83rd Academy Awards, Kristina published a personal blog account revealing that, when her alma mater UCLA invited her to give the commencement speech at the English Department graduation in April 2008, Franco, himself graduating with that class, said her speech was "okay" (unintentionally) in front of her and (intentionally) in front of the chair of the UCLA English Department following the commencement exercises. Her blog post was quickly picked up by multiple culture and celebrity sites, including being republished in its entirety on Jezebel.[25]

References

  1. ↑ "Wong Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest – Kristina Wong One-Woman Show". flyingwong.com. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  2. ↑ Wong, Kristina (2008). "Playgirl Magazine". Playgirl Magazine.
  3. ↑ cl_admin (2014-07-10). "For Asian-American Men, A New Definition of Sexy". Colorlines. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  4. ↑ Kristina Wong, XOJane, WACK THINGS WHITE GUYS SAY TO DENY THEIR ASIAN FETISH, http://www.xojane.com/issues/asian-fetish
  5. ↑ KRISTINA WONG TALKS ABOUT ASIAN FETISH GUYS ON TOTALLY BIASED, http://blog.angryasianman.com/2013/09/kristina-wong-talks-about-asian-fetish.html
  6. ↑ "I jumped into reality TV to raise the profile of Asian Americans". CNN. 2014-05-21. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  7. ↑ "Kristina Wong Takes on Asian Fetishes in I'm Asian American and..." ColorLines. 2014-04-24. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  8. ↑ "This Weeks Hottest Pics April 20–27". Hollywood Life. 2014-04-21. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  9. ↑ Kristina Wong, XOJane, WACK THINGS WHITE GUYS SAY TO DENY THEIR ASIAN FETISH, http://www.xojane.com/issues/asian-fetish
  10. ↑ Kristina Wong, 10 MORE WACK THINGS PEOPLE SAY AFTER YOU WRITE AN ESSAY ABOUT WACK THINGS WHITE GUYS SAY TO DENY THEIR ASIAN FETISH, XOJane, http://www.xojane.com/issues/10-more-wack-things-people-say-after-you-write-an-essay-about-wack-things-white-guys-say-to-deny-their-asian-fetish
  11. ↑ Kristina Wong, 8 REASONS PEOPLE OF COLOR MUST RALLY FOR A LONG OVERDUE “WHITE HISTORY MONTH”, http://www.xojane.com/issues/8-reasons-people-of-color-must-rally-for-white-history-month
  12. ↑ Kristina Wong's article, XOJane, http://www.xojane.com/author/kristina
  13. ↑ Tongco, Tricia (2015-11-13). "How Comedian Kristina Wong Went Viral, Then Took Her Art And Activism Offline". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  14. ↑ Chang, Cindy (2014-01-25). "Kristina Wong's stereotype-skewering humor: Stop and think about it". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  15. ↑ Vega, Channon Hodge, Tanzina; Jensen, Taige (2014-10-28). "Off Color Comedy: Kristina Wong". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  16. ↑ "Kristina Wong Tackles Money and Power in One-Woman Show". NBC News. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  17. ↑ Holloway, Kali. "The 10 best moments in political comedy this year". Salon. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  18. ↑ Enjeti, Anjali (2015-03-26). "Kristina Wong: pushing the envelope on race, rights and America". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  19. ↑ Panel - Emma Stone's Asian Role-The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore - Video Clip | Comedy Central, retrieved 2017-03-15
  20. ↑ "How I Failed to Save All People of Color from Oppression in My Six Minutes on The Nightly Show - Scenarios USAScenarios USA". scenariosusa.org. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  21. ↑ "#31Days of Feminism: Kristina Wong". NBC News. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  22. ↑ "The 10 Best Trump Twitter Trolls". www.blackenterprise.com. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  23. ↑ "No finish line". ofa.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  24. ↑ "Mzungu Price, by Kristina Wong ft Nerio, Mc Kash, LMG Silver and Festo Wine". Kristina Wong. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  25. ↑ "Dear James Franco: You Were A Jerk To Me". Jezebel. Mar 10, 2011.

Further reading

  • de la Vina, Mark (December 14, 2006). "WONG'S BRAND OF HUMOR". San Jose Mercury News, California. p. 33. Retrieved 2008-06-21.
  • 舞台剧展示亚裔女性心理健康问题 引强烈共鸣 王飞跃疯人院 破禁忌. China Press Article (in Chinese). 2008-03-06. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
  • "Catch Dry Humping, Catholic School Skirts Tonight". Miami New Times. January 16, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-22.
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