LATEST:
Anna Chen's first stand-up comedy gig. Click on pic for video. Or for more videos, click on Gallery. For photos of Anna's stand-up comedy, click here
Click on pic for photos of the launch of Anna's recent groundbreaking BBC Radio 4 series about the history of the Chinese in Britain
Click on The Grudge Lonely Heart for Madam Miaow's latest short movie. To see all short movies click on Gallery.
Sitemap:
Welcome page
Gallery
News
Press
Theatre
Writing
Poetry
Links
Illustrated essays:
George Orwell
Sergei Eisenstein
Favourite photos:
James Marsters and Anna
Suzy Wrong
Bob Carlos Clark/Vivienne Westwood catsuit
Anna Chen's new Blog:
Madam Miaow Says ...
Anna's MySpace page
Anna's YouTube page - Madam Miaow productions
Anna's New Internationalist column
Masthead photos by Sukey Parnell
Design:
ThamesPath Propaganda for Commerce.
Anna Chen's Home Page
NEW:
Poem and video of Anna reading her poetry in St Ives, May 2008.
Plus new videos of St Ives on Anna's Madam Miaow YouTube page
Anna starts a quarterly column in New Internationalist
Chinese In Britain — BBC Radio 4
A ten-part series repeated in two omnibus editions 9pm Fridays 16th & 23rd May 2008 on BBC Radio 4 to coincide with this year's Reith Lectures, presented by Anna Chen
“A fascinating story” - Chris Campling, The Times
“Each episode sounded effortless only because it had been crafted with such supreme care” - Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph
Visit the Chinese In Britain BBC page
Pictures of the series launch
It is my pleasure and privilege to welcome you to a variety of different views into the world of Anna Chen: actor, playwright, poet, singer, songwriter, comic, cineaste and martial artist.
Anna was the first homegrown British Chinese comedienne to appear on UK television via a guest appearance on Stewart Lee & Richard Herring's Fist Of Fun on BBC2, and in 1994 she became the first east asian woman comic to write and perform her own show for the theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Suzy Wrong - Human Cannon was, like its creator, challenging, insightful, witty, politically informed, transgressive to the toenails, thought-provoking and very, very funny. (Suzy Wrong pix here)
These truths, which we hold to be self-evident, were duly recognised with a blizzard of ecstatic reviews (find a selection under Press) praising Ms Chen for her formidable wit, ingenuity and intellectual prowess. Suzy Wrong was followed by an all-too-brief outing of I, Imelda, and The Opium Wars, a stand-up comedy show about, well, the Opium Wars in the 19th century. There are occasional sightings of Madam Miaow for the eagle-eyed, while 2007 sees her stand-up comedy taking off on the UK circuit.
Anna has written and presented for radio, and her play, Red Guard, Yellow Submarine, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2004. She is currently working on her first novel Coolie, a tale of the Chinese workers who built the first transcontinental railroad across America. "I started writing about this in 1993 so it's already taken longer than the construction of the actual railroad."
By the way, she's also a magnificent chef, hell on wheels in quizzes and a formidable authority on all things cinematic, but it was when I saw her making really good shadow animals that I realised I was in the presence of true genius....
-- Charles Shaar Murray