The Art of Screenwriting: Lulu Wang

The number of modern filmmakers who silently transformed the emotional vocabulary of screenwriting is quite large, and Lulu Wang is one of the most unique voices of the past ten years. Wang is best known as the screenwriter of The Farewell (2019), whose stories are intimate but broad, personal but culturally expansive. Her writing deals with family, identity, migration, language, and the silent negotiations between truth and love. What can writers learn about the way Lulu Wang tells stories? Let's take a closer look.

Photo license: Miami Film Festival

Narrative as Engine of Personal Experience

The most characteristic feature of Wang is that she is ready to rely on her personal life. The Farewell is a widely known film that is loosely based on the true story of her family concealing a terminal illness diagnosis from her grandmother as they all convene in China under the guise of a wedding.

This is not memoir as confession, but memoir as structure, in which personal history is a structure around which to ask wider questions about duty, love, and moral responsibility. What are we supposed to give back to our families, and when is protection deceit? What role do cultural values play in influencing our decisions of what is right?

To writers, this is a very important lesson. Wang does not consider personal material as self-indulgent but as raw narrative clay that can be molded into something bigger than the self. Her experience is so particular that it makes the story universal, as the more accurate the emotional truth, the broader its scope.

Cultural Tension Is Not Simple

Wang frequently writes about the intercultural gap. She was born in China and brought up in the United States, which makes her a figure of a liminal identity that is the focus of her narratives.

In The Farewell, illness is not the main conflict, but worldview. In the West, telling the truth is commonly defined as a moral imperative, whereas in her family, Chinese culture views shielding the patient from the weight of knowledge as an expression of love.

It is interesting to note that Wang does not provide a simple solution to this conflict. She does not pronounce either of these cultures right and the other wrong but rather leaves the contradiction to be unresolved on the page. This is one of the most important screenwriting techniques: opposing values dramatized without flattening one or the other. Wang composes argument into action instead of rhetoric, and the conflict is created by silence, body language, and embarrassing situations instead of ideological discourse.

Delicacy More than Plot Machinery

The scripts of Wang are not motivated by the plot twists or the external stakes but by the emotional pressure.

In The Farewell, the external goal is easy: to make it through the visit without letting the secret out. Small details, the hesitation of a doctor, a breakdown of a relative, and a glance that lasted a second too long are the driving force of the story. This is a restraint that is intentional. Wang is a believer in accumulation, which means that tension is built by repetition and delay instead of escalation.

To writers, this illustrates another form of plotting other than high-concept plotting. Emotional proximity can also serve to propel a story forward, and every scene closes the emotional net by a little bit.

Tone: Humor Inside Grief

The ability to control the tone is one of the strongest points of Wang. The Farewell is a comedy of death that is usually humorous, clumsy, and surprisingly happy. The comedy does not diminish the sorrow but coexists with it. Family dinners, enforced smiles, mistranslations, and social rituals are both funny and depressing simultaneously.

This tonal duality is a mirror of real life. Wang realizes that sorrow is never so serious all the time but is interrupted with jokes, logistics, banality, and affection. This is a sophisticated tonal ability for screenwriters. Admission of several emotional registers in the same scene is not comic relief but emotional subtext when laughter enhances the suffering instead of taking it away.

Language as Character

Wang is painfully conscious of the use of language as a drama. In The Farewell, the characters alternate between Mandarin and English, and in many cases, they show different sides of themselves, depending on the language they speak.

The main character, Billi, is more emotionally vulnerable in English and more closed in Chinese, and misinterpretations are not only linguistic but also very emotional. What is not said is frequently as much as what is said. This application of bilingualism is not ornamental but architectural, and language is turned into a prism through which identity, belonging, and alienation are in a state of constant refraction.

This sensitivity to voice can be learned by writers. It is not only what the characters say, but also the manner in which they say it, the language they use, the register, the rhythm, etc., that can create character more profoundly than exposition could ever have done.

Family as a Moral System

The work of Wang does not just consider family as relationships but as a moral ecosystem. In The Farewell, all family members are involved in the lie, and the responsibility is shared between generations. There is no one innocent and no one villainous. This shared duty produces an unusual sort of tension. It does not have an antagonist to overcome but a circumstance to bear.

Wang does not care so much about individual heroism as about collective complicity, and drama is created by observing how individuals have to strike a balance between loyalty, fear, and love in a system they have not created.

To writers, this is a strong reminder that conflict does not have to involve an opponent. The driving force of drama can be a family, a tradition, or a social norm.

Watching More than Telling

The scripts written by Wang do not contain much exposition but observation. Instead of describing the differences in cultures, she demonstrates them by actions. A doctor speaking evasively, family members correcting each other on the manners, rituals that are done as a duty and not as a belief.

She leaves the audience to read between the lines, and this reserve is what makes the work intelligent and dignified. Most of the upcoming screenwriters are overly explanatory because they are afraid of confusing the reader, yet Wang proves that one does not need to be verbal to be emotionally clear. There are occasions when what is not said makes more of an impression than what is said.

Evolution From Indie Roots

Prior to The Farewell, Wang already demonstrated her fascination with grief, intimacy, and human connection in Posthumous (2014), a smaller indie film. The scale was modest, yet the concerns were similar.

Her development has not been one of giving up her voice, but perfecting it. The Farewell is more restrained, more accurate, more self-assured, and yet very personal. This development implies a valuable career lesson. Depth before breadth. Wang never pursued genre or spectacle but refined a small range of concerns until they became strong enough to support a big film.

Writing Process and Patience

Wang has talked of the lengthy periods of development and the challenge of autobiographical writing. The Farewell took many years to form, to rewrite, and to grow emotionally detached.

This patience is reflected in the script, where scenes are not hurried but are thought through, and the structure is not formulaic but organic.

To screenwriters, this is a reminder of a fact that is easily disregarded. Certain narratives are not subject to quick writing, particularly autobiographical ones, since time is an element of the art.

What Can Writers Learn about Lulu Wang?

To begin with, dig your own graves. The stories of Wang originated in the areas where the values are in conflict between cultures, generations, and personal will. Second, trust subtlety. Not all stories require huge twists, as emotional tension that is managed well can be equally compelling. Third, let tone be complex. Sorrow and joy, hatred and affection, and devotion and suspicion may exist in the same scene. Fourth, write about relationships as opposed to outside relationships. The scripts of Wang are not about the events but rather how people are able to survive them collectively. Lastly, have your voice molded by who you are and not what the market wants. Wang was not a trend chaser, but rather she dedicated herself to her own emotional landscape.

Lulu Wang is a reminder that in a world where spectacle and noise can often prevail, there is another force at work: the force of a family room, a shared secret, and a few unsaid words.