Inside China’s Livestream World: Director Hao Wu on Fame, Fans, and Big Money: S5E3

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In this podcast episode we chat with China-United States Binational Documentarian Hao Wu about how his movement between these two countries has affected what he has done online, both in personal and professional capacities. Hao grew up in China and has had healthy movement from China to the U.S. and back in his adult life. Although he is currently based in New York City, he admits that he is most interested in stories about China.

​One of these China focused projects, People’s Republic of Desire, is about the Chinese live streaming platform YY and specifically about two popular Hosts on the platform. This documentary was screened in Shanghai, where I am currently living, earlier this year. Shannon Martin of Podbean and our local Host of the Podcast Brunch Club was there as well. In fact, during the screening and for days after the event, Shannon and I exchanged ideas, questions and ponderings about the documentary. We are very grateful that Hao was kind enough to agree to an interview so we could ask him about when the Internet became an integral part of his daily life, how creating a documentary about the trials and tribulations of live streaming for years affected his own online activities and the how his online tasks change, even now, when he flies from the U.S. to China and vice versa.   

Note: Hao’s latest project, All In My Family, about his alternative family journey from within a traditional Chinese family structure, is on Netflix May 3rd, 2019.

Original publication date: April 20, 2019

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