Writer & Director & Actor

Full-time Instructor & Supervisor of Film at the School of English, HKU

Simon’s News

Simon has published several short stories in English and is currently working on his first collection of short stories. His recent academic article, “Dynamic Writing with A Flash of Inspiration: The Application and Future of Improvisation in Interactive Performative Writing,” won first prize in the Global Association of Chinese Creative Writing and was published in Chinese Creative Writing Studies, Shanghai University Press in 2025. He is also a master’s candidate in the Harvard University Writers’ Program.

As a filmmaker, the films he has starred in have won numerous awards at many international film festivals. His feature film debut, Under the River, is coming in 2026.

He currently teaches creative courses and supervises graduate students’ capstone projects at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He was awarded the Excellent Teacher honor from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where he collaborated with Dr. Li-Min LIN.

Wolfdog is a quiet and heartbreaking story that follows Lucas, a film director grappling with grief, love, and the blurred boundaries between cinema and real life during the chaotic production of a film adapted from a novel co-written with his long-time collaborator, Mei. As changes to the script, casting, and even the dog actor unfold, the film shoot becomes a site of emotional confrontation—both between collaborators and within Lucas himself. The arrival of a new assistant, Wilson, introduces unexpected intimacy, forcing Lucas to reckon with past loss and present desire.

The short story “When Children Start to Doubt” is set against the cultural differences between Beijing and Hong Kong, and tells the story of the complex emotions experienced by sixteen-year-old girl Yihan during adolescence, cultural differences and family tensions. As Yihan becomes more proficient in Cantonese, language becomes one of the factors influencing her relationships. The story explores multilingual and multi-text writing. Yihan’s diary combines real experiences with fictional narratives, making the feelings and actions of the characters more complex and subtle.

The Winner of the Best Youth Actor – Berlin International Art Film Festival

Winner, Best LGBT Film: https://swedenfilmawards.se/the-blue-pleated-skirt/

Publications

Short Stories:

Wu, Simon. “Wolfdog.” Lecture Notes in Education, Arts, Management and Social Science 3, no. 3, 2025. doi:10.18063/LNE.V3I3.834.

Wu, Simon. “When Children Start to Doubt.” Global Vision Research, 2024. doi:10.69979/3041-0843.24.2.030.

Book Chapter:

Wu, Simon. “Dynamic Writing with A Flash of Inspiration: The Application and Future of Improvisation in Interactive Performative Writing.” Chinese Creative Writing Studies, Shanghai University Press, 2025.

Selected Filmography：

Wu, Simon. (Director & Leading Actor). (2026). Under the River. [Feature Film], Upcoming.

Wu, Simon. (Leading Actor). (2025). Poets and Yu. [Feature Film], Beijing Shengying Shiguang Film and Television Culture Co., Ltd.

Wu, Simon. (Leading Actor). (2024). The Light. [Feature Film], A Certain Regard, Hedong Pictures.

Wu, Simon. (Leading Actor). (2022). The Blue Pleated Skirt [Feature Film], iQIYI Pictures.

Speaker

Producing and Exporting Gender Narratives: Chinese Games, Platforms, Reality TV and Films, Association of Asian Studies, 2025.

Hidden Traces—Refracted Chinese Identity in Yiyun Li’s Non-Chinese Narratives, Global Cultural Management Forum, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , 2025.

Drifting in Historical Images: Trauma, Memory, and Spectatorship in Lu Chuan’s City of Life and Death, Chinese Film History Annual Conference, China Film Art Research Center, 2025.

Dynamic Writing with A Flash of Inspiration: The Application and Future of Improvisation in Interactive Performative Writing, Global Association of Chinese Creative Writing, 2024.

Ambassador

Becoming Andy Warhol

On Weibo, We Take Action And Deliver For Good!