By Hoai-Tran Bui/Sept. 11, 2017 3:30 pm EST
It’s unknown whether Wong will be directing the entire series, or whether he will have more input in the writing and creative processes.
The project is exciting not just because of Wong’s achievements as an auteur, but because of the subject matter: a gritty crime story centered around Chinese immigrant families. There have been so few Asian-centric television series on American television, though the numbers of Asian protagonists have been growing on streaming platforms, such as the now-canceled Marco Polo and Sense8 on Netflix. Aside from ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat, Asian-American stories have been all but absent on primetime TV since Margaret Cho’s All-American Girl went off the air in 1995.
And there was the recent resurfacing of the existence of classic film star Anna May Wong’s lost TV series, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, which briefly premiered in 1951 before being pulled and is now lost to history.
The Tong Wars is currently in development and doesn’t yet have a release date.
