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Ryan Lee Wong

@ryanlwong

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Author of the novel Which Side Are You On | Buddhist practitioner

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What if we understood spiritual change as necessary to social change? What if we saw Asian America as a project of liberation? This new limited podcast brings together dynamic Asian American Buddhist leaders to explore these questions through the frame of my personal journey. Trailer is live today, link in bio! by @ryanlwong

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9 days ago

Two nice book experiences: getting to sign these copies for the @bookpassage first editions club and seeing myself in print in the LA Times, my hometown paper. Signing those books was the first time it hit me that more than ~40 people would read this novel. About a week till publication and I’m feeling gratitude for all of the communities watching and supporting. by @ryanlwong

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4 years ago

Rye Guy. This is a closing of one chapter but you know you’ll always have us loving you and never too far anytime you need us. You’re our forever sweet person, starter child, little brother, best friend, ally and cherished collaborator. I loved taking pictures of you and Herb in your various states—thinking, talking, installing, drinking. I have so many more. Thank you for being in our lives. We’re so lucky to love you. Until December. by @ryanlwong

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a month ago

We are proud to honor the late Kent Wong, a visionary leader in the Los Angeles labor movement and lifelong champion for workers and immigrant rights, as the recipient of the Mike Garcia Award at MCF’s 2026 Cinco de Mayo Awards.

A close ally of Miguel Contreras and a founding supporter of the Miguel Contreras Foundation, Kent dedicated his life to building power, opportunity, and justice for working people.

His legacy continues to inspire generations of organizers, students, and community leaders across Los Angeles and beyond.

Join us for the Cinco De Mayo Awards on May 5th where we’ll honor Kent Wong and other leaders! Ticket link in the bio. by @ryanlwong

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7 months ago

The YTBF Team is beyond honored to have Ryan Lee Wong as part of our speaker lineup!

Ryan Lee Wong (A.B. '10) is the author of Which Side Are You On, a Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, centering on a young Asian American activist making sense of violence and cross-racial solidarity.

He lived for two years at a Zen temple, and is writing a book on Buddhism and nonviolent practice and developing a podcast chronicling the lived experiences of Asian American Buddhists. He's the son of the innovative labor educator and organizer Kent Wong, and worked with Tam Tran as a founding member of the Brown Immigrant Rights Coalition. He concentrated in Urban Studies and History of Art and Architecture, was an editor at the College Hill Independent, and a staffer at the Brown Center for Students of Color (then the Third World Center).

Attached, photo credit: Jess X. Snow

#YTBFConference #ytbf #conference #brownuniversity by @ryanlwong

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7 months ago

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8 months ago

We’re kicking off the second installment of Landscapes Issue 2: No Privacy, No Public, guest edited by artist and writer Dan S. Wang @type_rounds_1968, today with “The Cop, the Monk, and the Elephant,” an essay by Ryan Lee Wong @ryanlwong .🔸

“The Cop, The Monk, and the Elephant" explores George Orwell’s early history as an Imperial Police officer in British-occupied Burma and his encounters with resistance groups, which ultimately led to his resignation and turn toward writing. 🔸

“Far from destroying Burmese Buddhism,” Wong writes, “British rule triggered the spread of an anti-colonial diaspora that would make vipassana of Burmese Buddhism known and practiced by millions of people around the world.” Wong traces this spread of vipassana and other forms of meditation, and also explores its paradoxical contemporary co-option by police departments and neocolonial corporations. 🔸

Read “The Cop, the Monk, and the Elephant” by Ryan Lee Wong @ryanlwong on Landscapes—linked in our bio. 📙

*Landscapes is a flexible digital platform made by A Blade of Grass to explore ecosystems of socially engaged art. Each issue is shaped by a guest collaborator offering a perspective on the field from their vantage point. Landscapes commissions conversations, texts, and projects.*

Image descriptions bellow, alt text embedded.
ID1— An orange and white gradient background. A picture of Ryan Lee Wong, he is seated on open grass, black jacket, jeans. His legs are folded in front of him and his arms are slightly stretched out in front. Black text says his name followed by Writer, Buddhist. Millerton, NY.

ID’s continued in comments… A series of graphics and photos from Landscapes: No Privacy, No Public. Designs feature muted orange and gradient backgrounds, abstract black-and-white shapes, and portraits of writer Ryan Lee Wong. Large text highlights his quotes on Buddhism, colonialism, meditation, and social critique, with orange line accents. Included are a 1907 sepia photo of Burmese monks in Rangoon and a description of the issue guest-edited by Dan S. Wang. by @ryanlwong

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a year ago

Such an incredible AANHPI Community Night at SUMO last night. The audience was wonderful and so many stayed for the conversation afterwards: Masculinity and its Political Impacts moderated by author Ryan Lee Wong with playwright Lisa Sanaye Dring, fight choreographer James Yaegashi and Assemblymember Ron Kim. It was an amazing thoughtful and wide ranging conversation that made me feel unexpectedly comforted in this weird uncertain time. Thank you to Ma-Yi for always cultivating these important engagements, allowing me to work with them and to The Public for their enthusiastic unwavering support of the work. What a great night 💕 @ralphb.pena @jakoblecarter @mayitheater @publictheaterny @captain_lisa_dring @jamesyaegashi @rk4ny @ryanlwong @karinamena123 @beccakenigsberg taken in The Public Theater by @ryanlwong

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2 years ago

Loved this performance by @koreangipsy_sangjaru — how wild that music inspired by 무당 shamanism would find its way to the Hudson Valley a short drive from where I live. Great performers who locked into mind-boggling rhythms infused with funk and rock. taken in TheLocalSaugerties by @ryanlwong

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2 years ago

From Anne Carson’s “The Fall of Rome: A Traveler’s Guide.” We know collapse. by @ryanlwong

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2 years ago

Revisiting Toni Morrison, who told us how fascists use and abuse language, who told us how imperative it is that writers, poets, and all humans think and language in a way that generates, not destroys. by @ryanlwong

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2 years ago

It’s brutalist out here taken in Everson Museum of Art by @ryanlwong

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2 years ago