{"id":872,"date":"2010-05-31T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2010-05-31T16:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ta100people.wpengine.com\/?p=872"},"modified":"2010-09-02T15:13:45","modified_gmt":"2010-09-02T22:13:45","slug":"welly-yang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/welly-yang\/","title":{"rendered":"Welly Yang &#8211; Creator and Entrepreneur"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles, CA<\/p>\n<div class=\"simplePullQuote right\"><p>I create things: from live musicals, to awards shows, to architectural  buildings.\u00a0 I conceive of a project and bring together the pieces  necessary to make it come to life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-999\" title=\"yang.welly1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/yang.welly1-222x300.jpg\" alt=\"yang.welly1\" width=\"222\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/yang.welly1-222x300.jpg 222w, https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/yang.welly1.jpg 284w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px\" \/>Who are you? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I am a new father, a husband, an artist, singer, writer, actor, creator, builder, investor, entrepreneur, businessman.<\/p>\n<p>I am known as the founder of Second Generation, a New York based theater company dedicated to bringing Asian American stories to the world&#8217;s stage. In the early 90&#8217;s, I starred in the original Broadway production of <em>Miss Saigon<\/em>, playing the lead role of Thuy, and then went on to tour Asia in the title role of Cole Porter&#8217;s <em>Aladdin<\/em>. I&#8217;ve been seen in television shows such as <em>Law &amp; Order: Special Victims Unit, As the World Turns, National Geographic Explorer<\/em> and <em>Ghostwriter<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In the recent decade, I founded the &#8220;Concert of Excellence&#8221; to celebrate the achievements of Asian Americans in entertainment, which evolved into the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HdyYa-NI7cc\">Asian Excellence Awards<\/a>, a nationally televised event.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you do?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>I create things: from live musicals, to awards shows, to architectural buildings.\u00a0 I conceive of a project and bring together the pieces necessary to make it come to life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why are you proud to be of Taiwanese heritage?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>My parents and grandparents are my heroes. I often look to them for inspiration. I grew up going to Taiwanese American camps, like TAC and TAF, and later ITASA. The friends I made there were always good people, who I admired and looked up to. Their parents were always hardworking, family loving, and supportive. When I go to Taiwan, I find the same traits and kinship with the people there. What they all have in common is that they are Taiwanese. These people are my heritage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What does the  future of Taiwanese America look like to you?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>A community that pulls together when needed.\u00a0 A community that is supportive of those inside and outside of the community.\u00a0 A community that is proud but also humble.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Any  additional  information you would like to share? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><span>[Added by the editor]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Welly Yang and Dina Morishita sing &#8220;Last Night of the World&#8221; from  <em>Miss Saigon<\/em>, with members of the Singapore Symphony, conducted by Jason  Robert Brown:<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=19AN6ScdkBw\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=19AN6ScdkBw<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>A clip from a popular Taiwanese variety show hosted by  Chong Fay in 2004 where Welly Yang sings a familiar Taiwanese tune: <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8MyqdEutKAE\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8MyqdEutKAE<\/a><\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1000\" title=\"yang.welly2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/yang.welly2-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"yang.welly2\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/yang.welly2-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/yang.welly2.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles, CA Who are you? I am a new father, a husband, an artist, singer, writer, actor, creator, builder, investor, entrepreneur, businessman. I am known as the founder of Second Generation, a New York based theater company dedicated to bringing Asian American stories to the world&#8217;s stage. In the early 90&#8217;s, I starred in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-100"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}