Telling a story of generations: Cynthia Lam's first play

If you start trying to untangle your family history, you never know where you’ll end up – or what you’ll end up discovering. 

Hong Kong-born playwright and doctoral student Cynthia Lam knows this very well – she's spent a fair part of her PhD in creative writing working on her first play, a solo female memoir called 愛 媽媽 (Love, Mum), which premieres at Auckland Fringe on September 16.  

愛 媽媽 (Love, Mum) tells the story of three generations of Lam’s family – from her two grandmothers (Ah Mah and Por Por) who lived in Hong Kong, to her mum and her family’s journey to New Zealand in the 1990s, and finally to Lam, whose own journey has taken her between Hong Kong and back again. 

Hong Kong-born playwright and creative writing doctoral student Cynthia Lam is bringing her autobiographical play to the stage for Auckland Fringe. Image: Supplied

The story behind writing 愛 媽媽 (Love, Mum) started when she came back to New Zealand seven years ago and started pursuing writing. Since she was a child in the 1990s, she has moved back and forth between New Zealand and Hong Kong, but it was her last stint living in Hong Kong where she reached a turning point in her life.  

She had a decent job and was married but she wasn’t happy. She left her life and husband and came back to New Zealand for what she considered to be her “second chance at life”.   

“When I write, it's because I try to understand things or make sense of things that happened like my personal experiences,” Lam says, “Why was it that I felt so unhappy? Why was it that I felt depressed?” 

She pursued her passion for writing – first by taking writing and literature classes, before starting a PhD in Creative Writing at Massey University and throughout all this, she was always drawn to autobiographical writing. She started writing about herself, about her mum, her grandmothers.  

This helped form the basis of her PhD: her doctoral research focuses on matrilineal narratives and female autoethnography, where through self-reflection and writing, “you situate yourself within certain social and cultural frameworks.”  

Lam wrote the play in short, sharp bursts, building a collection of different vignettes. She took those and arranged them to create a non-linear play that doesn’t conform to more traditional story-telling methods. 

“Instead [it] honours the process and interwoven-ness of memories, feelings and relationships and all the disparate pieces that make up our lives,” she says.  

This story is told over 70 minutes and incorporates a lot of different media – including 2D and 3D animations from artist Celine Chan – alongside tai chi and Chinese martial arts, and Cantonese songs. 

By following her mum’s story and her two grandmothers’ stories, Lam weaves together her family history, alongside her personal journey with depression and the cultural and societal pressures she felt living in Hong Kong.   

“As I was writing about the experiences of my two grandmothers and my mother, I realized that we are a product of our times and I think sometimes that's what creates tension. Growing up, there was tension between me and my mother, but writing the play helped me understand where she was coming from.” 

“The interesting thing was [this play] brought me and my mum closer.” 

Her creative process also drew in her wider family too, as Lam tried to uncover the truth behind different family tales and pull together her narrative: she spent time following threads – going from her dad to an aunt, to an uncle – to find someone who remembered how events actually happened.  

Lam says the process of writing the play brought her and her family closer together. Image: Supplied

It didn’t stop there: her mum helped record a Cantonese pop song for her performance, while Lam’s aunt wrote out some Chinese calligraphy to be used on the set. Lam’s brother has even come on board partly to help with marketing, and partly to help with building a set.  

Ultimately, Lam wants people who see her play to go on a similar journey she went on - “I want the audience [to] start thinking about their maternal figures - their mothers, their grandmothers, and their family history, and then it actually starts a dialogue between people.” 

愛 媽媽 (Love, Mum), performed by Cynthia Lam and directed by Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren will be performed at the Herald Theatre in Auckland on 16 and 17 September. 17 September performing is also streaming online at vidzing.tv 

- Asia Media Centre