Frank Wong

In 2016, the first screening of the nearly-completed documentary was shown at CAAMFest, a celebration of Asian American film, music and food, in San Francisco. The completed documentary aired on PBS in the USA and is available to stream worldwide on Kanopy.

In 2004, Wong donated seven miniatures of scenes of Chinatown, titled “The Chinatown Miniatures Collection,” to CHSA. The dioramas include “The Moon Festival,” “Shoeshine Stand,” “Chinese New Year,” “Chinese Laundry,” “Christmas Scene,” “Single Room,” and “Herb Store,” and are on permanent display in CHSA's Main Gallery.

In the late 1980s, Wong became homesick for San Francisco and he moved back to the city. However, the city of Wong's youth had changed and his family had moved on.

Wong said Flower Drum Song, the musical set in San Francisco's Chinatown by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee, “was my life…That was me as a teenage kid.”

Wong met Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth on the San Francisco set of the 1948 film noir production, The Lady from Shanghai.

Frank Wong was born in Los Angeles, California on September 22, 1934. His family moved to Chinatown in San Francisco shortly after his birth. After high school, Wong enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Following a 4-year stint, he settled in Honolulu, Hawaii and found work making props for a costume store and magicians. Eventually, he became a prop master for film and television productions including Magnum, P.I..

Frank Wong (born September 22, 1932) is a San Francisco, California artist who creates miniature dioramas that depict the San Francisco Chinatown of Wong's youth during the 1930s and 1940s. His works include his grandmother's kitchen, the family's living room at Christmas, an herb shop, Chinese laundry, shoeshine stand, and life in a single room occupancy hotel common in Chinatown.