Inside the gold-dragon-adorned walls of Chef Chu’s restaurant in the heart of Silicon Valley, a group of prominent Asian venture capitalists and tech executives gathered over Peking duck and garlic noodles. They came at the behest of then-31-year-old Bing Chen, a former YouTube executive. Near him sat the guest of honor: director Jon Chu, who was just one month from releasing his 2018 film “Crazy Rich Asians.
” To Chen, the movie marked not just a turning point for Asians in Hollywood, but also a massive opportunity to shift the cultural narrative around Asians in general. He wanted to be a part of it. “Everybody go around the table and say how you’re going to commit to this,” Chu recalled Chen saying.
“He’s literally like your camp counselor,” Chu said, “with all these big people and he doesn’t talk to them like they’re big people.” By the end of the night, those people — including Opendoor co-founder Eric Wu, then-WeWork Chief Technology Officer Shiva Rajaraman and Andreessen Horowitz partner Maggie Hsu — had committed to buying out as many theaters as possible for the opening weekend of “Crazy Rich Asians,” a tactic inspired by the Black community’s support of Marvel blockbuster “Black Panther” earlier that year. They fanned out on social media, calling on celebrities and influencers to join their #GoldOpen campaign and asking the community to show up.
“The future won’t be begged for, borrowed, or stolen; it will be BOUGHT,” Che.