Tell your dog I said hi.

I studied filmmaking and worked on documentaries for a dozen years. Then doing research on a film about AIDS got me into political activism. I joined the direct-action group ACT UP and worked as an organizer at Healthcare-NOW! and at the New York State Hunger Action Network. Later, I was the Executive Director of Physicians for a National Health Program-NY Metro and a legislative policy analyst at the New York City Council, focusing on police accountability and campaign finance reform.

Activism led me back to my hometown, Hong Kong, where I got involved in its democracy movement. A few years later, feeling the limits of direct action in the context of authoritarianism, I wanted to tell stories again. I began writing a nonfiction book about the collective, transformative experience of being in the Hong Kong movement. I wanted to share what it was like to actually live through the movement beyond the bullets and the tear gas. It was a movement powered by joy and love as much as by fear and anger. The movement’s also inspired me to write a musical.

I have a BA from Harvard, majoring in Visual and Environmental Studies (since renamed Art, Film, and Visual Studies).

Photo by Paul Park