Ophelia chong, CO-Creator/ presently still here
Ophelia's interest in the Asian Canadian awareness movement began in 1984 when she helped produce the play “FOB” by David Henry Hwang, and she loved the play so much she married the playwright. They moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco and there began the melding of Asian American and Canadian with involvement in the AA theatre.
After graduating from the Art Center College of Design in 1989, she traveled the world for a few years and found her calling in photography. She began her career as the photographer for David Carson at Raygun Magazine, Sony Music, Mercury, Epitaph, and Interview Magazine. Her next career phase began with the make the leap from music to the creative director at Strand Releasing, distributing over 50 films to Sundance, Toronto, New York, Venice, Berlin and Outfest film festivals.
She was the creative director for Slamdance Film Festival for 10 years and never for the ski once at Park City. The next career jump came with the stock and assignment photography business, beginning as the creative director at Workbook and Workbookstock. From 2005 to the present, she has specialized in marketing and designing for photographers, photography monographs, and photography agencies.
Ophelia teaches Marketing and Self-Promotion to photography students at the Art Center College of Design since 2010 and is an art director in the MFA writing program at CalArts since 2008. Ophelia is the founder of Stock Pot Images.
EDWARD CHIEN, Co-creator/ ALSO PRESENTLY HERE
Edward Chien is the driving force behind 626 Night Market, California’s powerhouse for food, art, entertainment and everything Asian. Growing up in San Gabriel Valley, Asian identity has always been a big part of his identity. His goals in his entrepreneurship endeavors was how to preserve traditions and set new trends?
Edward has worked with many businesses and clients like: Ramen Burger, Kogi Food Truck, CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice, & Shannon Lee (Daughter of Bruce Lee). With the talents, business concepts, and careful curation of events he helped bring together California’s most unique food festival bringing up to 100,000+ attendees an event.
His advocacy in cannabis started at a very young age and he quickly learned cannabis connected a lot of people. Now with the legalization of cannabis, Edward has brought into fruition, The Munchies Cannabis Food Festival. Connecting the world with diverse food and cannabis culture.
PacGrow (Pacific Grow) is an extension to the ideas of The Munchies Festival and outreach of Asian Americans for Cannabis Education. PacGrow focuses on cannabis business development, that provides consulting, turnkey management, overseas and domestic venture opportunities, brand acquisitions, and licensing to entrepreneurs coast to coast.