‘In all those movies about childhood, I never saw someone who looked like me’: Sean Wang on his debut, Dìdi

The director explains how a desire to transcend race and immigrant identity led to his semi-autobiographical tale of an angst-ridden Taiwanese American teenage skater and an Oscar-nominated short about his grandmothers

Sean Wang is jet-lagged. He has been up since 4am after arriving in London late the night before. When he couldn’t get back to sleep, the film-maker headed to the Southbank Centre. Surrounded by the deserted streets of the city, it was just him and his skateboard as he tried out tricks. He has been obsessed with skateboarding since his early teens. “Everything that I love now, whether it’s the music I listen to or the way I dress, it all traces back to skating.”

Wang, 30, has channelled this passion into his debut feature film, Dìdi (弟弟), which means “little brother” in Chinese. The semi-autobiographical tale of Chris (Izaac Wang), an awkward and angst-ridden 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy who starts shooting skating videos one summer, is a tender and astute coming-of-age movie packed with moments of cringe-inducing humour. Chris is growing apart from his childhood friends while dealing with a new crush and trying to impress a group of older, cooler skater kids. Then there is the family drama at home; things are tense between his mother (Joan Chen) and grandmother (Wang’s own grandmother, Chang Li Hua), he is bickering non-stop with his older sister (Shirley Chen) and his dad is away working in Taiwan.