British | Chinese

When i do go back to Singapore it is quite strange. But being with my mum’s family they are all so Singaporean that I do sink into it quite quickly. Whether it is the mannerisms and all that kind of stuff, the idea of family, the closeknitness, looking after each other, the politics. I do wish that I was back more. I haven’t been back for a number of years. I’m an actor. What was an amazing experience was I did a show called Tamburlaine which is produced by Yellow Earth which is a theatre company that champions British-East Asian actors. I was in a cast full of people that looked like me. It was like absolutely amazing! Some of them are more Chinese than me, some of them can speak Chinese, some of them have a similar situation to me - they have very little cultural stuff at home, feel very British but they look a lot more Chinese than I do. For them, their castings before would have encompassed half the world but now the industry is changing and you are seeing a lot more ethnic diversity, there are different faces on screen now. In saying that, I go up for British roles. English rose. Very British. And it does feel like I’m very very rarely put up for anything that is actually who I am which is very frustrating. It feels like i’m not really allowed to tell my story because I don’t look it enough. I find that very frustrating. It’s just crazy. It makes me want to write my own projects more and more. I’m really keen on writing something that is about having mixed heritage. Things are changing. Being with lots of different mixes who are in the play and the community that come to watch, it is very profound for the audience to see people that look like them on stage. And that's why I think something like Hamilton is absolutely brilliant. There is a scene early on where practically the entire cast comes to the front of the stage. They are standing there and there are people from every kind of mix that you can think of. They are in that costume and they are talking about the founding of the United States. It is really quite a profound and extraordinary movement and really moved me.