Francis Wong () is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, and erhu player. Wong is of Chinese descent; his father is from Shanghai and his mother is Cantonese. He specializes in the fusion of free jazz and Asian musics, and is a central member in the Asian American jazz movement. He has worked with Glenn Horiuchi, Jon Jang, John Tchicai, James Newton, Cecil Taylor, Anthony Brown, and Liu Qi-Chao. He and Jon Jang founded Asian Improv Records in 1987 (now Asian Improv aRts) and both have recorded albums for the label. Wong lives in South San Francisco, California. As a performer Wong is known for his versatility on the saxophone. He can use aggressive-sounding extended techniques, but can also play "so slowly and softly that he dissolves into the group, giving the feeling of an ethereal string ensemble." In an interview, Wong said: I've put a lot of time into saxophone playing and having an individual sound on the instrument itself. I've gone through a lot of different influences and tried to develop extended techniques in my approach to the horn in order to be able to play the saxophone the way I feel. How can I make the saxophone play in my image? Part of it is getting from the masters certain traditions and sounds. But also, with that sense of control or mastery of the instrument, be able to have come out what's inside of me. Relating that to some sense of self-empowerment with the instrument. This is one of the basic messages of the African American masters. Be yourself. Looking at that whole tradition, every player that has come along to develop his individual sound has had to change the instrument or the way the instrument is played in order to be themself with it.Central to Wong’s oeuvre is the intercultural cast of his music. The self-defining and uplifting qualities expressed in the music of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and later Art Ensemble of Chicago, Cecil Taylor, and Ornette Coleman shaped him as a performer and composer. Asian American musicians felt comfortable exploring their heritage “in the context of African American music” because of prior collaborations such as Nat Janning performing with Cantonese opera musicians in 1968 and John Handy partnering with Ali Akbar Khan in 1973. Musicians found the “moment-to- moment interactions” amongst peers enriching, expanding musical dialogue into unknown sonic territories. Asian American musicians