I was born in a remote rice farming village. My house was surrounded by five mountain peaks and glistening rice terraces. I belonged to the Hakka tribe.
According to the tradition of my people, I should’ve been sold as a Tung Yang Xi (A child/baby to be raised as a daughter-in-law) when I was a baby. But I had a loving father who defied that tradition. He fought against the will of my mother and the elders and kept me as his daughter.
What had happened to me as a child was mostly hidden from my conscious mind because of my memory loss caused by trauma and my father’s efforts to shield me from the painful truth.
Seven years ago, I started writing a novel. Three years ago, I started sculpting in clay. Over time, a theme emerged in these two art forms that I practised daily, and I realised I was telling bits of my childhood experience through art.
I can’t tell you what happened to me as a child in a coherent narrative, but I can tell you how I feel through my novel and my sculptures. I may have blocked out those dark memories of my childhood, but my body keeps the scores (Dr Bessel Van Der Kolk’s book on childhood trauma—The Body Keeps the Scores: Brain, Mind, Body in the Healing of Trauma.)
As I became more in tune with my body, stories of my past began to emerge in my writing and my sculptures. I created this website to better understand myself, and at the same time share my creativity with whoever is out there that resonates with my art and the message it embodies.
