Most Interesting People 2017: Lisa Wong

Why She’s Interesting: The Chinese-American embraces her dual heritage. She helped found the Cleveland Asian Festival, which draws a whooping 50,000 to AsiaTown each May. As president of OCA Greater Cleveland, she tirelessly mobilizes residents to
register to vote or helps them find out where to ring in the Lunar New Year. And some might recognize her from bit parts in local films such as Draft Day or Alex Cross.

Cultural Disconnect: Wong and her siblings were raised on the West Side by an American-born father and an immigrant mother from Hong Kong. But it was difficult. As just one of a few minorities at her school, she was picked on. Yet when her Chinese relatives visited, Wong struggled to relate. “I was never Chinese enough to my relatives, and I was never American enough for the community.”

Link Found: Yet Wong began to find ways to connect worlds. “I was a bridge between two cultures.” She explained Lunar New Year to her schoolmates. She even convinced her traditional mother, who grew watercress in her backyard, to serve spaghetti and meatballs on Fridays or mix corned beef with their rice dishes.

Festive Spirit: The Cleveland Asian Festival has helped bolster economic development in AsiaTown, where the new Asian Town Center and Asia Plaza offer grocery stores, beauty shops and more. The 6-year-old festival also provides a rare platform for Asian artists such as the young Hmong dancers, a refugee group settled in Akron. “These girls are going to grow up very proud of who they are.”

Good Fortune: If you’ve seen a Chinese dragon at events around town, chances are you’ve spotted Wong or her husband, Wayne, in the nine-person zodiac creature from China. Wong has banged the gong but likes the agility it takes to be in dragon. “Spiraling is all about timing. It’s about jumping.”

Nice Shot: Wong was tapped to join a FBI citizens' academy where she got behind-the-scenes lessons on hot-button issues such as human trafficking and homegrown terrorism. Her favorite outing? The shooting range. But her petite frame put her at a disadvantage when shooting the heavy rifle “My first six shots, I was hitting them all. By the end of it, I was like, Crap. I was missing them all.”

Foxy Lady: Wong and Wayne have alter egos as movie extras. She's been a judge, wedding guest and a doctor, and traveled with Wayne to Pennsylvania to be extras in Foxcatcher, a wrestling drama set in the ’80s. For an airport scene, Wong donned a hot pink dress, bushy eyebrows, heavy makeup and curled hair. “My other movie friends, they didn’t recognize me.” Those eyebrows might have blurred her vision. It took her a second to realize that she shared the scene with Channing Tatum.