Growing up in a family that believed that children should study to become lawyers or doctors, Chi found that no-one understood her creative drive. from her own memories of the refugee experience, Chi found it hard to do something as ‘useless’ as writing. How do you justify that when there were more important things like building bridges, or growing wheat or rice so that you and your loved ones have enough to eat? What use is writing? Why write and read?

Eventually Chi found her own answer to those questions, and continues to find new answers. After completing her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of commerce at Melbourne University, she became a short story writer and scriptwriter, and has now been a community theatre writer/director for four years. She was the joint winner of the Not the Premier’s Literary Award and short-listed in The Age short story competition in 1996.

Chi has led many workshops, devising drama and script with young people out of that process. Asialink have given her a grant to spend several months in Vietnam this year to develop scripts and she has recently been commissioned by the Melbourne Theatre Company to write a short work for the Art & Soul project. She is also a board member of Maribyrnong’s Big West Festival.

She is available in the second half of the year for school talks and to give writing/ theatre workshops.

Talks

How I nearly became an accountant

Chi recounts her childhood growing up in Footscray from a migrant background and her journey to become a writer.

Writing & Theatre Workshops

Writer’s Tools

Techniques to enhance and focus what you already want to say.

How, or where, do I start?

ideas to get over the FEAR of sounding silly, or not having anything worthwhile to say, and to just find your own voice.

Invent a scene, starting from now………..

A series of warm-up and imagination games which are workshopped on the floor to become the scenes of a play. These works can then be scripted and revised.

Create a character from physicality

Chi leads the students through a process of finding the characters (through their physicality and environment) and their stories.