Daniel Wu: I am a citizen of the World!

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n24/tri...49422602857.jpg
Daniel Wu with current girlfriend Lisa S.

Ah... those ABC men...

In the Entertainment business, there is this special group of people, their origin is from the United States, but they have Chinese blood flowing from within. They are the so-called ABC (American Born Chinese) people, who, based on their appearances and cultural backgrounds, on their place of origin and the place they grew up in,would determine what they really are to people. But these qualities make them confused, suspicious, agitated, and even has given birth to the "status anxiety."

Daniel Wu:

He was born in San Francisco in the US, but from a Shanghainese family. His father is an engineer, and his mother is a University psychology professor, and he has two sisters. He holds a bachelor's degree, in Architecture from Ohio University, and he speaks English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Shanghai dialect, well.

The last time we chatted with Daniel Wu, was in last year's Venice Film Festival - he,Chang Chen, and Shu Qi attended the "Blood Brothers," premiere. "I grew up in the United States." Talking to a lot of topics, Daniel Wu used this sentence to begin with.

Daniel Wu , who's 34 years old, we can clearly find him, like any ABC men as different. He has the aesthetic standards of the Americans, that they think someone like him is not handsome. He said sometimes he couldnt tell to which country does he really belong to; he goes out with girlfriends who are also of mixed race since they are the only ones who understands him well; he could scold gossip magazines like in his blog, all for the sake of his own privacy,


Handsome guy? Americans dont think so.

"Shanghai is my hometown." Daniel Wu has told reporters.

Daniel Wu's parents are from Shanghai, both went to the United States, and met in New York, they started their family in San Francisco, his father was already 45 years old before he was born. Daniel Wu went to Shanghai for the first time 30 years ago! In 1978, he was only 4years old, along with his parents, he was brought back to Shanghai in the hope of settling in there, but they learned that the old family house has been occupied long by others.

Back to the United States, Daniel Wu attended school in the United States and speaks English,but goes home listening to his parents speak in Shanghai dialect. From a young age, he understood Chinese, but he cant read chinese. His parents hope for him to become a professional, they sent their son to learn about construction and architecture, but in 1997 he graduated from the university, placed the work of being an architect behind, instead went backpacking to the East to explore his roots. In Hong Kong, he didnt have that much money, so a friend asked him to become a model in pictures to make money, so there was when he started his career in the entertainment business.

Daniel Wu's first movie was "Love of the Beautiful Youth", he dazzles with those pair of glasses as Feng Delun. 10 years later, he is also following the path of that beautiful youth, Feng Delun. But in recent 2 years, he grew his beard, sometimes look sloppy in dressing up, but Daniel Wu also said that “I was already weary always playing the handsome guy”.

In fact, even in the United States, he does not cnsiders himself to be handsome, "in the United States, handsome is not what I look like! Handsome in the US is having blonde hair and blue eyes."


Identity? I am "global"

His Parents from an early age, always reminds Daniel Wu, "Remember, you are Chinese."

At 5years old, he would attend kung fu school, followed his master until he became a martial arts champion.He is also a favorite of the University Basketball team coaches. But when he came to Hong Kong, he often can not feel being "Chinese" , he felt perplexed about other people's anxiety. "When I'm in the United States, they do not think of me as an American; in Hong Kong, Hong Kong people feel that I am not chinese; so I would always tell myself, I am a citizen of the world!"

He knows Chinese Kung Fu, an ABC who speaks fluent English, so we all feel that he should go to Hollywood to make a career. He shook his head: "I may play good on those fields, but there are obstacles in Hollywood, it is actually an obstacle to have no distinct chinese accent. Hollywood likes Jackie Chan, Jet Li, because one of the reasons is that they speak English accent that Americans find very interesting." His mother tongue is authentic American English, in the film" Around the World in 80 days, " the director asked me not to talk in a "good American-English"accent. There, it is necessary to speak English with a distinct chinese accent ... ..."

As a result, Zhang Ziyi has also break into Hollywood, while alot of ABCs return to their Chinese origin to find a dream.

When Daniel Wu arrived in Hong Kong, he only knew 2 Cantonese words, hello, and a violent foul language. Hong Kong people regard him as a foreigner,when he dines out, they would immediately give him a knife and a fork, but when he would ask them and they would see him use chopsticks skillfully, people would sneer at him and be alarmed: “you are quite difficult! ”

He also had difficulty putting up with others, “when I started, I wasnt able to understand Hong Kong person's joke, likewise they didnt understand me. ” it took him several years to tap his good language talent , that was when he already shoot a Cantonese comedy,and he even delivers well in Feng Xiaogang's movie.

Actually, this new discovery of him is not new. He cooperated with the new film "Like A Dream" with Yuan Quan, and she revealed that when Daniel Wu encounters into lines which he cannot understand, he lets his assistant write it on Pinyin, then he tries to find out the meaning again and memorize it by heart.



On Women? Mixed-race Beauty for a better communication

Uses Chinese in the movie to talk about love diligently, but Daniel Wu may not privately like discussing his feelings in Chinese . All of his girlfriends are of, or almost of mix-races beautiful women. From MaggieQ to Lisa S, they are tall, long-legged, a match for him, including Kelly Lin whom he was recently rumored with, also has an ABC background. Daniel Wu said: “Only them would think that my jokes are very funny. ”

Daniel Wu's current girlfriend Lisa S has been known for many years, came after his former girlfriend MaggieQ, who was also known publicly. Lisa S's background couldnt be underestimated. She is the only daughter of a Las Vegas casino owner. A half year ago, Lisa came to Shanghai to attend the "Dance Forest Congress", the entire journey she only used English to reply. This girl is his number one fan,she even keeps his souvenirs privately and always acknowledges that her boyfriend is very good.

Lisa S travels crazily. Last year , the two went together to Africa and built a new house. “used cement blocks to serve as the walls,used the bushes as our roof,very similar to tribesmen's house......” Daniel Wu describes his girlfriend this way, they had this understanding to choose the hut as their place to stay during their trip to South Africa . Daniel was responsible for the fence to surround the hut, and they stock food responsibly, even decorated the inner wall of the hut and renovated the toilet.


“That room has hot water, but didntt have electricity. We generally go to sleep at 7:00 pm , get up early in the morning, go to the mountain for climbing, ride horses, took a walk ......” Daniel Wu happily recalls in which he added , “that was very unlike in the life in Hong Kong, with only me and my girlfriend, just the two of us."

Privacy? He will definitely stand up and fight for

Daniel Wu has been in Hong Kong for more than 10 years, has adapted to the traffic, to living in a small room, but also well-adapted to to the fast-paced way of living. But still he claims to have alot more of adapting to do, such as dealing with paparazzis. Two years ago, he was shot with his girlfriend's "home" , as opposed to silence, he let go of his fury in his Blog ,calling the gossip magazines to be rubbish.

For a while, he wanted to move back and live in Shanghai, a friend advised, you can not put this to an end, you shuldnt make yourself like some caged animal" In fact, when he was in Shanghai, the Mainland has become increasingly popular for videotaping celebrities on their private time. Last week, pictures of him was taken in some bars,and a newspaper press stated " Daniel Wu With Foreign Babes In Shanghai." he was dumbfounded and didnt know whether to laugh or to cry.

"After I was photographed surreptitiously by these people, I only knew then that Hong Kong does not have the privacy protection law. ” He urges Hong Kong Government to positively safeguard the privacy law. Little did we know that Daniel Wu actually even likes expressing his political view in his Blog, and encourages everyone to vote on the upcoming US presidential elections. “ When I was young, I didnt think politics was important, but when I grew up, I had understood that our life is closely-linked to politics . ” After all, he is an American.

"Sometimes, i thought what if i returned to the United States. In the United States, so many people there do not know me, you can find plenty of time to study , and I wouldnt have friends to ask me what movie am I going to make."

At 34 years old, Daniel Wu has been known to have plenty of moviefans who highly admires and praise him, but he has wanted to break out of the pure“attractive” image, and developed some dark-orientd roles. “I am very selfish, many of the things that I do are just to satisfy myself. I dont do this to ask for money or, for mostly, not to satisfy the fans."


Reporter's Notes

"Like a Dream": Daniel Wu turned to be a "sloppy ABC guy"


Recently, he made a movie in Shanghai, directed by Hong Kong's Luo Zhuoyao, and his partner is Yuan Quan

That day, when we saw Daniel Wu,he looks abit scary,his hair was dissheveled, he grew a beard, his extremities looked thin, wearing round eyeglasses, has put on a large T-shirt, carrying his laptop. Some female press complained on the scene that “why did you end up into a sloppy guy? ”

He cannot understand, a reporter explained: “why be a man who looks boring , does not like dressing up, and who always could not find a girlfriend? ”

“this image is the character I play in the movie. a chinese boy who grew up in the US , who makes a living as an IT. In fact, many American Chinese people has such character. ”

In the movie "Like A Dream",Daniel plays a character who's from New York, comes to Shanghai as an ABC. “This role , is a bit like my experiences in real life.I am also an ABC,but I am not that fussy in the movie, I dont take a bath."


Like Dream" actors are shooting in Shanghai basically at night around 11 pm until morning , then they stop working for the whole day, but sometimes they extends until 2 pm in the afternoon . Reporters were present on that day to visit the set , and do some photographs. The scece was also surrounded by alot of guests. After Shanghai shoting wraps up, the dramatic team will starts to do their shoot in New York.