Afternoon Tea with Jenevieve Chang - From Suburban Sydney to Shanghai Show Girl - Saturday May 6th

Raised to be a 'good girl' in the claustrophobia of suburban Sydney, Jenevieve Chang has been running away for as long as she can remember...

The Good Girl of Chinatown

The true story of a good girl from a suburban Chinese-Australian family who becomes a Shanghai showgirl

Join us for afternoon tea on Saturday May 6th at 2pm and hear Jenevieve Chang talk about her extraordinary life so far!

Jenevieve Chang, aged 4, arrived in Australia with her parents and sister in 1982. Jen’s childhood was defined by a heavy-handed approach to discipline which demanded good behaviour, hard work, excellent grades and a low social profile.

After studying theatre, Jen finds too few roles for young Asian women on the Australian audition circuit and instead focuses her efforts on contemporary dance, winning a place to study at the prestigious Laban conservatoire in London. While in London, she discovers the city’s flourishing burlesque scene, revamps her look as a pin-up girl and falls in love with her lean, rippling yoga teacher Femi. Although a study in contrasts – Black/Asian, English/Australian, teacher/student – when Jen’s visa expires the unlikely pair marry for pragmatic purposes, much to the horror of Jen’s family back in Australia. But the challenges of living alongside three generations of Femi’s family is enough to persuade the couple to move to Shanghai, in the country Jenevieve’s family once called home.

But the glamorous and outrageous Shanghai is not quite like the stories Jenevieve remembers from her childhood. Here, Jen experiences reverse racism in an emerging market obsessed with foreign faces. As her marriage collapses and she struggles to fit in, Jenevieve searches for a place to call home. And then she finds it: “Chinatown”, Shanghai’s first Vaudeville, Variety and Burlesque Club – a mecca for the good ol’ days in a city intent on reviving its reputation as the world’s most decadent destination. However, when Chinese markets begin to feel the after-effects of the global financial crisis, investors quickly dry up and China’s first burlesque show begins to spectacularly derail.

Through the voices of Jen’s parents and grandparents – which are interspersed throughout the story – we realise her painful search for home and identity runs deep. Forced to flee mainland China to survive during the communist takeover, it seems the Chang family has a history of ‘running away’. With memories of the past pressing in, Jenevieve travels further and further away from the person she wants to be. How will she choose between the pleasure of propping up illusions, and the painful redemption of facing up to her past?

Vibrant, bold and raw, The Good Girl of Chinatown is a true story of cultural clash and hedonism gone awry. It is a story about the boundaries we choose to cross and the roles we choose to play. And it is a story about family and the ways we try – but sometimes fail – to be good for them.

About the author: Jenevieve Chang is an actor, writer, movement geek and recovering showgirl. After skipping Australia to train in London, Jenevieve moved to Shanghai and became part of China’s first Vaudeville, Variety and Burlesque club, called Chinatown.

Returning to Australia, Jenevieve performed in Stories Then and Now, directed by Performance 4a’s William Yang and Annette Shun Wah. Most recently, Jenevieve starred in Monkey Baa Theatre’s The Peasant Prince, the award-winning stage adaptation of Mao’s Last Dancer.