What we learned through making the film “Sight” that may be beneficial to Chinese Americans who also want to share their stories
Dr. Ming Wang
Harvard & MIT (MD); UMD (PhD, laser physics)
Subject of the film “Sight” (FREE link: sight.drmingwang.com)
Director, Wang Vision Institute; CEO, Aier-USA
1801 West End Ave, Ste 1150, Nashville, TN, 37203, 615-321-8881
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.drmingwang.com, wechat: ballroom123
How a national “Telling Our Stories” movement, unprecedented in U.S. history, was created in 2023-2024 involving 50,000 Chinese Americans, 500 free Sight film shows (FREE link: sight.drmingwang.com) and across 40 states in North America, resulting in the FIRST first-generation Chinese American immigrant story film that gained wide North America release (in 2,118 theaters, with U.S. domestic box office of $7.2 million), and what have we learned in this historical movement about how we can inspire more Chinese Americans to stand up, speak out and tell our stories in the future?
WHY I made the film Sight – to inspire all Chinese Americans to tell our stories
I was born in Hangzhou, China in 1960, and suffered through the Cultural Revolution. However, I was eventually fortunate to be accepted into the University of Science and Technology of China in 1978 and in 1982, I came to America with only $50 to my name. I obtained a PhD in laser physics from the University of Maryland and an MD (magna cum laude) from a joint program through Harvard Medical School and MIT. The film “God’s Not Dead” featured my journey of becoming a Christian. In 1997, I was recruited as the director of Vanderbilt University Laser Sight Center and in 2002, I established Wang Vision Institute. The following year, Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration was created to help blind orphan children and other charity patients from around the world. I have published 10 textbooks on various laser eye surgeries, and I have performed over 55,000 procedures (including on over 4,000 doctors). The amniotic membrane contact lens, which I invented and later donated its patents to the world, has become a $5 billion per year technology that has transformed the world, with millions of patients being helped.
I had a dream that Chinese Americans will be able to improve our social statues and respect in America by being more willing to stand up, speak out and tell our stories, about the contribution that we have made to America. So, I have decided to tell my stories first, so I can encourage all other Chinese Americans to tell their stories, so we all tell our stories. Though there are many Chinese Americans who have done far better job than me, but we are all too quiet. In 2015 I wrote my autobiography “From Darkness to Sight” about my journey as a Chinese American immigrant, which was later made into the film “Sight” by Open River Studios, produced by David Fischer and Darren Moorman, and written and directed by Andrew Hyatt.
“Chinese American films must have “gongfu” and ancient dynasties; otherwise, no one will want to see them.”
After nearly 10 years it took to make the film (2014-2024), “Sight” was rejected by all of the top 10 Hollywood film distributors, both digital (such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon) and theatrical (such as Sony, etc.), with the explanation that “for a Chinese American film to be successful in America, it has to have gongfu and/or an ancient dynasty.”
So similar to other failed attempts in the past by first-generation Chinese Americans who told their stories without succumbing to the Hollywood stereotype of their culture, “Sight” may very well fail as well, and unfortunately be buried with them.
“Chinese Americans will not amount to anything, since in the history of American cinema, unlike African Americans and Latino Americans, Chinese Americans have never had the track record of proactively supporting their own films,” the Hollywood studios concluded.
“Will Chinese Americans support their own stories in films?”
We as Chinese Americans work hard in this country and have made significant contributions to America; however, we are too silent. Although we are good problem-solvers and stay in the trenches diligently working and contributing, in Western societies, if we don’t tell people what these contributions to America are, people won’t know. Hence, we need to not only do what we say, but we must also say what we do!
I have a dream that one day all races and ethnicities--particularly Asian Americans and Chinese Americans--will enjoy true respect and equal status as full-fledged Americans without prejudice and stereotype in social, political and media capacities. We are Americans, after all; we are Americans with Chinese heritage, so this is as much our country as anyone else’s!
Can my Chinese American dream ever come true? Will we as Chinese Americans, for the first time in the U.S., stand up and tell our stories and also proactively support films that tell our stories?
A “Sight” national tour: creating a national movement.
On 4/13/2023 I went to NY to receive an Outstanding Chinese American Award, and while there, I met an amazing woman, Dr. Jeannie Yi, who shared my Chinese American dream and invited me to come back to NY to show “Sight” to her friends and Chinese American social influencers on 5/18/23. The NY “Sight” world premier ignited the flame.
Subsequently, supported by many friends including Matt Zhang, Jing Forrest, Randi Shu, Xinghui Tang and Wen Wang, and many of my schoolmates from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), we started a formal “Sight” film national tour in NY, Chicago, NJ, PA, MD, VA, DC and FL In July 2023, Kate Wu, Sean Li, Walter Zhao, Jiansheng Huang, Liyan Zhang, Winnie Knapp, Yongmei Yang, Qun Li, Xiaoyan Zhang, Li Tong, Chaterine Liu, Pastor Kaibin Fu, Ed Wu, Rong Qi, Pastor Bingbin Mo, Pastor Ronlda Zhang, Eric Li, Sherry Li, Tianhong Shi, Max Li, Jenny Gu, Lisa Gray, Rachel Mitchell, Hoseph He, Linnhui Wang, Sunday Wu, Leanne Wang, Michael Lin, Hui Lu, Jiliang Gao, Xaioaofend Zhang, Yan Yang, Sarah Luo, Emily Wu, Xialzhe Yan, Wenbin Yuan, Angela Zeng, Hong Chen, Gang Lu, Min Chen, Ming-yu Wang, Liangjie Dong, Wei Wu, Hongbing Liu, Yaowu Tang, Saichang xu, Chin Shiau, Chao Li, Ed Wu, Dan Guo, Jenny Gu, Piere Wang, Joseph He, Xiaofeng Zhang, Pastor Mark Chen, Emily Wu, Xiaozhe Yan, Leo Leung and over a thousand coordinators and volunteers joined us, with Kate serving as our national “Sight” tour coordinator.
For an entire year, I would work Monday through Thursday at Wang Vision Institute in Nashville, TN, and then each Friday, my wife Anle and I would get up at 3am, she would drive me to the airport, I would land in a North American state where I would conduct 5 film and testimonial shows, and then fly back to Nashville the following Monday morning. It was a herculean, unimaginable, unthinkable and almost inhuman effort. Everywhere I went, I showed the film and then talked about its messages, i.e., we as Asian Americans, and Chinese Americans in particular, need to stand up and tell our stories. Even though many Asian Americans have done a far better job than what I have done, we are all too quiet. By telling my story, I want to inspire others to tell their stories, and eventually we will all tell our stories. Also, the story of my invention of the amniotic membrane contact lens that is featured in “Sight” shows that faith and science can indeed work together. So, the “Sight” national tour is helping us to tell our story, and tell Jesus’ story as well.
Why did I make such this nearly impossible effort? Well, I have learned that extraordinary goals and dreams require extraordinary efforts.
Jealousy: A gun shoots only the bird that dares to poke his/her head out
Although the majority of Chinese Americans support “Sight”, and some enthusiastically--such as our lead volunteer Linhui Wang of NY, with whom we conducted weekly “Sight” zoom meetings throughout 2024--a small number of Chinese Americans came out and maliciously attacked us. Initially I did not understand why, and I would ask myself this question: If the medical charity work that was done to help blind orphans and the subsequent tour of the film were conducted by non-Chinese Americans (as is typically the case, since charity work is mainly done by Americans), would these attackers still criticize those charity workers?
I concluded that the answer is no. I have come to realize that the main reason that these Chinese Americans attacked me when I did the same kind of charity work as Americans do, and then spoke out about it, is because I am a fellow Chinese American, i.e., they are simply jealous. There is a traditional Chinese saying: “A gun will only shoot a bird that dares to poke his/her head out.”
Such jealousy and sabotage of fellow Chinese Americans is a key challenge for all of us in attempting to succeed in America, socially and politically. Fortunately, with the help of our “Sight” volunteer team, as well as over a thousand Chinese American volunteers and pastors, I was able to ignore the vicious attacks of this small number of jealous Chinese Americans, and I continued my tour.
For 365 days from 5/19/2023 to 5/18/2024, the “Sight” national tour covered 40 states in North America, with 500 shows and a cumulative audience of 50,000 viewers. This is unprecedented in U.S. history, i.e., never before has this type of film been taken to the entire nation, and a free national film tour conducted, as such, by the subject of a film.
God answered our prayer: “Sight” has become the first first-generation Chinese American story in American mainstream media.
On 5/24/2024, “Sight” was released by Angel Studios (the 11th film distribution company that considered “Sight”) to 2,118 theaters in North America and was the longest-running film domestically in the summer of 2024 (92 days), with a domestic box office of $7.2 million, a tremendous success compared to all previous first-generation Chinese American immigrant films in U.S. history.
“Sight” has now taken on a life of its own, which we anticipate will continue for many years to come. It is currently touring internationally, is being shown on airplanes and in hotels, and is streaming on Angel.com and other platforms. The film can be seen FREE of CHARGE at sight.drmingwang.com.
The impact of “Sight” and lessons learned that may be of benefit to future Chinese Americans who desire to tell their stories.
- As my friend the late Iris Chang pointed out in her seminal book “The Chinese in America”, although we have been in this country for 175 years, despite all the contributions we have made to America, we are often still ignored, stereotyped and discriminated against. All Chinese Americans recognize that, and while most choose to be complacent and not that interested in taking action, a remarkably small group of leading Chinese Americans are doing something about it, and that is WHY they reached out and enthusiastically jumped in to support “Sight”. Therefore, to change the fate of Chinese Americans in America in order to truly improve our social status so that we will finally be properly and fairly recognized and appreciated for the contributions we have made to this country, focusing on this small group of Chinese American leaders is vital!
- Passion alone will not cause us to succeed; organization is also needed. I had the dream of using “Sight” to inspire fellow Chinese Americans to stand up, speak out and tell our stories of the contributions we have made to this country, but without our meticulous organization, building a team, and working together, i.e., if I had passion without organization, it would not have been successful.
- As Iris Chang pointed out to me personally, the key to our success in making Asian Americans no longer an “invisible minority” lies within ourselves. Unfortunately, genetically and culturally, there are always going to be some Chinese Americans who are just not happy to see the success of fellow Chinese Americans. While they may not necessarily attack, for example, Caucasian Americans who have achieved the same degree of success and have done similar worthwhile work (such as the medical charity work shown in the film “Sight”), if the work is done by fellow Chinese Americans, they will attack. There will always be some Chinese Americans who are just simply not happy for fellow Chinese Americans who achieve success. This is almost a genetic flaw, a fact of life.
- The “Sight” national tour, and the movement that has followed, is not only “telling our story” to inspire all Chinese Americans to stand up, speak out and tell their stories to let the West know the contributions we have made to society, but for me personally, it is also a tour of “telling Jesus’ story”. Through the story of my invention of the amniotic membrane contact lens and donating my patent to the world, I want to send a message to the world, particularly to the vast amount of young people who are studying the rapidly developing science and technology that is being taught in universities, and at the same time who are leaving Christianity behind, that God wants faith and science to work together. Faith and science do have common ground. My life’s experiences as told in my autobiography “From Darkness to Sight” and the film “Sight” have taught me that science is necessary, but it is just a tool; the sufficient condition to have an uplifting life is faith in Christ, which gives us purpose, about what we should use our hard-earned scientific knowledge for. In my case, God’s calling to me has been beyond what I normally do as an eye surgeon but has also been to do my best to help those who need the most help, i.e., blind orphan children. In today’s unprecedentedly divided nation, we are increasingly fixated on our differences rather than appreciating what we all have in common. We are increasingly unable to work across political isles, racial divides and ethnic divisions, and as a nation we are paralyzed and unable to address our nation’s key issues (gun violence, opioid crisis, environmental disasters, poverty, racial tension, education, economy, jobs, education and healthcare). The root cause of our nation’s division is human nature (greed for power, control and money). We need to heed a higher calling, a calling from Jesus Christ. To work together despite of our differences for the sake of our country, to overcome our human nature tendency for polarization and instead find common ground, is not only a mandate from Christ to all Christians, but Christ has also shown us HOW to find common ground (and we have established the common ground-seeking STEPS through our non-profit, Common Ground Network).
This is not just one man’s dream, my dream, it is also your dream, our dream, the dream of all Chinese Americans and is in fact the dream of all human beings, i.e., to be respected and to be rewarded for hard work.
FREE “Sight” link: sight.drmingwang.com.
If you are interested in the events that Dr. Wang hosts, you can reach Dr. Wang at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.drmingwang.com, wechat: ballroom123.
- A weekly Tues 6:45pm CT vision zoom, in which all state-of-the-art laser vision procedures are discussed, including SMILE (18+, small-incision LASIK), Implantable Contact Lens (21+), Forever Young Lens (45+, to get rid of both distance and reading classes) and LASER cataract surgery (60+). RSVP drmingwang.com;
- A monthly every 3rd Wed 7:30pm CT “Shi Ban Gong Bei” pearl zoom (how to accomplish double in half of the time): 563 211 2348 (0524 2024). If you are interested in receiving a copy of the SBGB book, please email Dr. Wang your name and mailing address.
- If you are interested in inviting Dr. Wang for a “Film + Testimonial” event, please email Dr. Wang;
If you are interested in donating to the 501c(3) non-profit Wang foundation for Sight Restoration, so we could help more blind orphan children, you can donate online at www.wangfoundation.com, or may a check (payable to “Wang Foundation”) to: Attn: Leona Walthorn, Wang Foundation, 1801 West End Ave, Ste 1150, Nashville, TN, 37203, 615-321-8881.
