Lucy Sheen is an actor, writer, and hopefully soon to be film director and producer with your help. She wishes to make a documentary about adopted Hong Kong babies in the

UK. During the late 50s and early 60s, one hundred Hong Kong babies were adopted to mainly English families. The first organised group of trans-racially adopted children. Lucy was one of those babies

In 2010/2011 Lucy became one of the participants in a research study aiming to look into the lives of as many of those original 100 Hong Kong adoptees. How had their lives unfolded? It was in 2010 that Lucy first met about a dozen other Hong Kong adoptees at the first UK-HK adoptee reunion.

She adds ” I had always known in the back of my mind that there must have been other children like me but it had never occurred to me to seek them out. Being an adoptee, being trans-racially adopted, culturally displaced and dislocated has made me the person that I am. It colours my work and how I work in ways that I cannot begin to effectively articulate. It prefaces and to a certain degree predefines how people from my own ethnic community relate to and interact with me especially those who have retained the ability to speak Chinese or are bilingual. I find myself existing in a no man’s land neither British nor Chinese. This documentary will take a peek into what it means to be culturally displaced, to have lost one’s emotional, historical and cultural identity. 

Adoption is an emotive topic at the best of times but couple that to dislocating, disassociating and displacing a child from their heritage, history and birth right in the late 50s early 60s, what happens to that child, that teenager – the adult.

The British-Chinese in my professional and personal experience at best are ignored at worst remain the butt of everyone’s jokes. Apart from the cliched coverage of Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festivals, Martial Arts, Lanterns and Chinese food the British-Chinese are not really taken into consideration. Until we figure on the mainstream cultural landscape of Britain in the same manner as the Black and South Asian communities do, I believe we will always be subject to prejudice, racism and ignorant intolerant behaviours. I want to introduce a different view point. I want to take this opportunity to let people walk that mile in someone else’s shoes.

By supporting this arts and diversely independent project, you give a voice to many who have remained silent. You help add to the richness and complexities of a changing society for the better. You are instrumental in assisting and ensuring that the creative industry continues to grow by making opportunities available for new writers, directors and camera people.  You can help to de-mistify and deconstruct ignorant and incorrect perceptions of people and communities “. 

Lucy sheen in her first professional acting role, playing the female lead in the first British-Chinese feature film about the UK Chinese community. PING PONG directed by Po Ch’ih Leong, co starring David Yip (1986)