Hao Wu () is a Chinese film director, producer and writer living in the US. Wu was also a blogger known as ''Tian Yi''. He is otherwise best known for his feature-length documentary,
People's Republic of Desire
', winner of the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2018

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

, ''

All in My Family ''All in My Family'' is a 2019 American short film, short documentary film directed by Hao Wu (director), Hao Wu. The film follows a traditional heterosexual family where the son is a gay Chinese man who has chosen to have children via surrogates ...

'', a Netflix Original Documentary, and ''

76 Days ''76 Days'' is a 2020 Chinese-American documentary film directed by Hao Wu, Weixi Chen and an anonymous third. Set in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it captures the struggles and human resilience in the battle to survive the spread of ...

,'' about the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...

, China. In 2021, Wu won a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

and a

Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking The Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking is handed out annually at the Creative Arts Emmy Award The Creative Arts Emmys are a class of Emmy Awards presented in recognition of technical and other similar achieveme ...

for ''

.'' __TOC__

Education

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in Biology from the

University of Science and Technology of China A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

in 1992. *

M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in Molecular Biology from

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

in 1995. *

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the

Ross School of Business The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, in 2000.

Career

Wu worked as a molecular biologist before attending business school. After receiving his

degree, he worked in management positions at technology companies including

Excite@Home @Home Network was a high-speed cable Internet service provider from 1996 to 2002. It was founded by Milo Medin, cable companies Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), Comcast, and Cox Communications, and William Randolph Hearst III, who was their f ...

EarthLink EarthLink is an American Internet service provider. It went public on NASDAQ in January 1997. Much of the company's growth was via acquisition; by 2000, ''The New York Times'' described Earthlink as the "second largest Internet service provider ...

, Alibaba Group and TripAdvisor. In 2011, he left TripAdvisor to become a full-time filmmaker. In 2005, Wu's film career started with his first film, ''Beijing or Bust'', a documentary about the trials and tribulations of six American born Chinese who chose to return to Beijing and the cultural adaptation they faced. The film was shown in the 6th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival in 2005. Wu's second film,
The Road to Fame
'' follows students at China's top drama academy, as they prepare to stage a Chinese version of the musical Fame. A co-production with

BBC Storyville ''Storyville'' is a documentary strand presented by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the ...

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more soc ...

, DR an
CNEX
the film premiered at

Sheffield Doc/Fest Sheffield DocFest (formerly styled Sheffield Doc/Fest), short for Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF), is an international documentary festival and Marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England. The Festival includes film sc ...

in June 2013. His third film,
People's Republic of Desire
', about China's live streaming crazed, premiered at the 2018

and won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature. Wu then released ''

'', a Netflix Original Documentary short, in 2019. In 2020, Wu worked with two collaborators remotely on ''

,'' about the 76 days of lockdown of

at the start of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The film premiered at

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

in September 2020. Distributed by MTV Documentary Films and

Dogwoof Dogwoof is a film-distribution company based in the United Kingdom. History Dogwoof Pictures Dogwoof was founded in 2003 by Andy Whittaker, and originally concentrated on foreign films, including such titles as ''Don't Move'', '' Fateless'', ' ...

, it was named a Critic’s Pick by

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

. In 2021, the film was shortlisted for the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

, nominated for the

Gotham Awards The Gotham Awards () are American film awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, the city first nicknamed "Gotham" by native son Washington Irving, in an issue of ''Salmagundi'', published on ...

, and won a

and a

From 2014-2016, Wu was a fellow at New America, a D.C.-based think tank.

Detention

Wu was detained by the Chinese government on February 22, 2006, when he was making a documentary on "underground"

Chinese house church In China, house churches or family churches (), are Protestant assemblies in the People's Republic of China that operate independently from the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and China Christian Council (CCC). They represent ...

es. After almost five months, he was released on July 11, 2006.

Filmography

* 2005 ''Beijing or Bust'' - Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor. * 2013
The Road to Fame
' - Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor. *2014
Nowhere to Call Home: A Tibetan in Beijing
' - Producer. * 201
''People's Republic of Desire''
- Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor. * 2019 ''

All In My Family ''All in My Family'' is a 2019 American short film, short documentary film directed by Hao Wu (director), Hao Wu. The film follows a traditional heterosexual family where the son is a gay Chinese man who has chosen to have children via surrogates ...

'' - Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor. * 2020 ''

'' - Director, Producer, Editor. *2021 ''Convergence: Courage in a Crisis'' - Executive Producer, Co-producer.

References

External links

*
Beijing or Bust
- Hao's blog
Tian Yi profile
at Global Voices * 2006-03-31, Benedict's Chinese Flock, (pg. A.16) in

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

* 2006-07-11
Reporters Without Borders
- statement on Hao Wu's release 1972 births Living people University of Science and Technology of China alumni Brandeis University alumni Chinese dissidents Chinese male bloggers American documentary filmmakers Chinese documentary filmmakers People's Republic of China writers Ross School of Business alumni People from Chengdu {{China-writer-stub