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O J A I M AG A Z I N E | WINTER 2025
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very movie is a miracle. Every TV show is a miracle,” said Janet Yang, Hollywood producer extraordinaire and erstwhile president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The feathers in Yang’s film-producing cap are many and multihued, but just as colorful is Yang’s path to championing film as a cultural bridge-builder across the world. And, like moviemaking itself, life is an uphill journey sprinkled with miracles. THE FIRST JOURNEY HOME
In the ’40s, Janet’s parents came to the U.S. from China as university students. Her father was from Shanghai and her mother from Hunan, “which is very famous for its spicy food, and also the birthplace of Chairman Mao (Zedong),” Janet shared. Her parents married in America, but once Mao took over China in 1949, they could not return. “Unlike a lot of other Chinese immigrants, they didn’t go through Hong Kong or Taiwan,” Janet said. “They came directly to America under this government program that subsidized their studies abroad. They kind of lived life a little bit in limbo for many years.” Born in Queens, New York, Janet was the youngest of the couple’s three children. Given the turmoil in China, the family decided to “be an American family” and moved to Long Island when Janet was 5. They were the only Asian family in a white, mostly Jewish neighborhood, Janet said. “That probably had something to do with my desire to give people a sense of belonging, because I didn’t have that growing up,” she confided. Still, her parents’ grit and tenacity helped carve Janet’s path. Her father found work as an engineer, and her mother worked for the U.N. “They lived through so many changes in China,” Janet said. “My mother’s older sister had bound feet and was in an arranged marriage, was uneducated, and somehow my mother managed to carve out a completely different existence for herself.”
by MIMI WALKER
AfTer the
OscaRS
Janet Yang stays the course of movie magic