Lucy Sheen
Lucy Sheen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen |
| Alma mater | Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama (BA) |
| Occupations |
|
Lucy Sheen, born Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen, is a British East Asian actress, playwright, and activist. She starred in the 1986 film Ping Pong and was a founding member of the organisation BEATS (British East Asians working in Theatre and Screen), an advocacy group on behalf of British East Asians in the arts.
Early life
[edit]Sheen was born Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen in Kowloon, British Hong Kong. She was abandoned as a baby, and was one of 106 transracially adopted children from the 1950s until 1963 through the Hong Kong Project.[1][2] Sheen arrived in the UK in 1963; her ethnicity was not talked about in her family, and she later expressed feelings of rejection from both white and East Asian communities.[3] She graduated from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in 1984,[4] being the first Chinese British actress to graduate from drama school.[5]
Career
[edit]Sheen's first professional acting credit was in a leading role in Ping Pong (1986).[6][7] The film was one of the first Chinese British films, and the first to be filmed on location in London's Chinatown.[8] She works as a professional actor, appearing on stage, and on TV shows such as Casualty, Call the Midwife, and Eastenders.[9][10]
Sheen has been outspoken about her cultural identity and stereotyping of East Asians in the arts. She wrote a feature in the 2018 book Foreign Goods: A Selection of Writings by British East Asian Artists, edited by Jingan Young.[11] She was one of the founding members of BEATS (British East Asians working in Theatre and Screen) along with Jennifer Lim and Daniel York Loh, a group dedicated to the advancement of representation for British Asian actors. To encompass different heritages and cultures, the group embraced a pan-Asian identity.[12] The organisation was originally formed under the name British East Asian Artists (BEAA) in the wake of a casting controversy in 2012–2013 by the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Orphan of Zhao.[13][10] In 2019 the group objected to the lack of East Asian writers on the children's sitcom Living with the Lams, with Sheen joining over 100 other industry professionals in signing a letter to the BBC protesting the conditions of the show's production.[14][15]
In 2020, Sheen wrote the titular drama in an online theatre project entitled WeRNotVirus, a series directed Jennifer Tang and Anthony Lau in response to the rise in racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. A review in The Guardian gave the whole project three stars out of five, referring to Sheen's piece as the "most rousing" of the short plays.[16]
Credits
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Ping Pong | Elaine Choi | Directed by Po-Chih Leong | [6] |
| 1987 | Business as Usual | Rowena Freeman | Directed by Lezli An-Barrett | |
| 1996 | Secrets and Lies | Nurse | Directed by Mike Leigh | |
| 2010 | Hungry Ghosts | Pin-De | Directed by Tim Luscombe, theatre | [17] |
| 2015 | Abandoned Adopted Here | Director, documentary short film | [2] | |
| 2024 | The Listeners | Teresa | Directed by Janicza Bravo | [18] |
| 2025 | Back in Action | Yao Fang | Directed by Seth Gordon |
References
[edit]- ^ Sheen 2022.
- ^ a b KIIFF.
- ^ Myung Ja, Potter & Vance 2014, p. 110–112.
- ^ About Lucy Sheen.
- ^ Thorpe & Yeh 2018, p. 175.
- ^ a b Pym 2000, p. 813.
- ^ Ping Pong (1986) on Screenonline.
- ^ Attributed to multiple references: Thorpe & Yeh 2018, p. 175, Burton & Chibnall 2013, p. 347, Arnot 2015
- ^ BBC profile.
- ^ a b McCarty 2024.
- ^ Cheung 2018.
- ^ Yeh 2021, p. 56–58.
- ^ Yeh 2021, p. 57.
- ^ Masso 2019.
- ^ BBC 2019.
- ^ Akbar 2020.
- ^ Hungry Ghosts 2010.
- ^ Craig 2024.
Citations
[edit]- Pym, John, ed. (2000) [1989]. Time Out Film Guide (8th ed.). London: Penguin Group. ISBN 0-140-28365-X.
- Akbar, Arifa (15 June 2020). "WeRNotVirus review – responses to a pandemic of racism". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 August 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
- Arnot, Chris (25 August 2015). "Malcolm Craddock obituary". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 November 2024. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
- "Living With The Lams: CBBC in race row over children's show". BBC. 14 February 2019. Archived from the original on 13 January 2025. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
- "BBC Profile". BBC. 2020. Archived from the original on 12 June 2025. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- Burton, Alan; Chibnall, Steve (2013). Historical Dictionary of British Cinema. Plymouth: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-8026-9.
- Cheung, Helier (1 February 2018). "British East Asian actors 'face prejudice in theatre and TV'". BBC. Archived from the original on 21 February 2025. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- Craig, David (19 November 2024). "The Listeners cast: Full list of actors and characters in BBC drama". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 27 November 2024. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
- "Hungry Ghosts". Orange Tree Theatre. Archived from the original on 2 April 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- "Abandoned Adopted Here: Lucy Sheen's Journey into Identity, Belonging, and Transracial Adoption". M&R Pictures. KIIFF. 2 January 2025. Archived from the original on 21 April 2025. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- Masso, Giverny (15 February 2019). "BBC criticised for under-representation of British East Asian writers on TV series about Chinese family". The Stage. Archived from the original on 22 September 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
- McCarty, Stephen (30 January 2024). "Call the Midwife and Silent Witness actress Lucy Sheen talks diversity and inclusion, and promoting East and Southeast Asian talent". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
- Myung Ja, Janine; Potter, Michael Allen; Vance, Allen L., eds. (21 July 2014). Adoptionland: From Orphans to Activists. Against Child Trafficking USA. p. 254. ISBN 9781500957940.
- Ling-wan, Pak. "Ping Pong (1986)". Screenonline. BFI. Archived from the original on 25 January 2025. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
- Sheen, Lucy. "About". Archived from the original on 21 April 2025. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- Sheen, Lucy (2022). "My Story: Lucy Sheen & Being Othered by the 'Others'". &Asian. Archived from the original on 12 June 2025. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- Thorpe, Ashley; Yeh, Diana, eds. (2018). Contesting Chinese British Culture. Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-71159-1. ISBN 9783319711591.
- Yeh, Diana (July 2021). "Becoming "British East Asian and Southeast Asian": Anti-racism, Chineseness, and Political Love in the Cultural and Creative Industries". British Journal of Chinese Studies. 11: 53–70. ISSN 2048-0601.