[Music]
[Applause]
we all hate conflict right fighting it’s
bad right we are taught to avoid
conflict
don’t fight rise above it ignore the
bullies don’t get bored and then they’ll
leave you alone
well maybe not conflict has been a part
of my journey my life it’s in my genes
and my family in here in Australia I was
confronted challenged and bullied but as
an adult I decided to try something new
as a lonely scraggly kid with a bold cut
with a few friends my parents enrolled
me in to a local dojo in Cabramatta I
had been bullied I even tried to stand
up for other kids at school but I always
ended up on my back
beaten up conflict sucks doesn’t it my
parents put me into the dojo to learn
the art of self-defense to become unpick
horrible a bully proof I was obsessed
with watching kung fu movies as it was
the only thing that gave me solace at
that time I love the dojo but I wasn’t
really in it for self-defense well not
really as a martial artist one of the
first few things that I learned that
radically changed the way I lived today
is to increase safety move towards the
conflict engage in
your opponent’s in kung fu movies Jackie
Chan doesn’t avoid conflict and when you
avoid fighting you’re coming from a
place of fear and I wanted to learn how
to be strong now my mother she was
jailed for more than six times before
finally fighting away onto a small boat
to a refugee camp in Malaysia
my father was put into re-education in a
prison where he spent almost six years
malnourished in in solitary confinement
by the time I was born they had both
made it to Australia to start new lives
they left the war behind them but they
never confronted it we never spoke about
it we all hated conflict their version
of strength is quiet they even tried to
avoid the conflict my parents were too
busy burying themselves in coping in
this new country learning a new language
finding work starting this new life but
their traumatic experiences my homelands
conflict was dormant left unchallenged
within my parents and it never went away
growing up I saw this fear fester in
them they had escaped but they weren’t
able to move on from the war my father
turned to gambling and then became an
alcoholic my mother found work in
Vietnam
in a marketing company but in Australia
she was working in a sweatshop doing
10-hour days she fell into anxiety
depression she was either sad or angry
at herself sewing hems sleeves and
collars day in day out and despite all
of this they never once spoke about it
it was thought that it would have
brought shame onto my family if the
community knew about it conflict
avoidant praying that like the bullies
if they didn’t fight back their ghosts
would leave them alone meanwhile the
only thing that kept me going was
martial arts and it wasn’t to fight back
the bullies or my parents but it was for
my own strength and power my arms my
legs and the awareness of my mind I drew
strength from working on myself and I
was a learning a different way on being
strong high-energy punches are strong
and fast but still loose paired with
your legs and kicks and it’s up to your
minds intent what you want to do with
them but physical strength forms and
skills can be learnt and taught it’s up
to the artistic conception a true
martial artist is only perceived from
within
therefore it was essential to master
physical movement and martial skills
it was more crucial to train the mind in
the spirit and cultivate the Chi we need
some brace conflict as it is what drives
us and like the kungfu action heroes our
authentic life is not free from struggle
we need to engage embrace conflict as it
is what drives us forward now conflict
didn’t stop when he left school bullies
and learnt martial arts I grew up I
completed a psychology degree but deep
down inside I wanted to be creative I
wanted to make films action films but to
my parents being an artist being
creative were dirty forbidden words
being an artist to them was equivalent
to being unemployed so I was going to
have to fight that one as well
now martial arts has taught me well I
was precise in the dojo
I learned to be disciplined structured
and free-flowing and snap back like a
punch I decided that I wanted to live my
life kick-ass and like the heroes of my
favorite movies Jackie Chan the hero’s
journey that I knew so well I wanted to
turn my life into a film so to speak the
Hiromi started off in an ordinary world
programmed by the learnings of my
parents to fear the world to be conflict
avoidant but then go on an adventure
challenge themselves in a decisive
crisis wins the victory
comes home changed and transformed what
was going to be my adventure of my life
how do I challenge myself to become a
hero and to be strong I wanted to be in
action films but I grew up frustrated
with Australian film and television I
mean I don’t know about you but there’s
not many Asian Australian women kicking
ass on primetime TV so I was going to
have to fight that one too but in 2009 I
decided to do something pretty random
I made a public declaration that I was
on the quest to find Jackie Chan I mean
Jackie Chan is like the biggest Asian
superstar in the whole wide world and I
was the biggest strange kid from Western
Sydney and you know what to be honest
with you Jackie Chan he’s not like a
relative from China or anything I had no
connection to him but that dream it was
something bigger that I thought would
ever be possible and as a screenwriter
of my own life it was the most biggest
ridiculous idea that could come from a
bullied kid from Western Sydney and I
persisted in this quest my movie
campaigning every Australian capital
city and Hong Kong and then I was
stranded in China broke left there’s
only $20 and still no Jackie Chan’s
but here’s a bit of a twist in my story
and if you imagine the next eight years
as the kind of montage I kept on working
hard martial arts had taught me to be a
warrior you must commit to your
objective without shame
or doubt I had failed to meet Jackie my
quest but I wasn’t going to give up
every warrior must commit to the the
objective regardless of what people say
we often to afraid that what we publicly
declare to people we were seen as taken
too seriously or what if we fail I
adopted a warrior’s mindset and
continued training making my own movies
in Western Sydney I got roles in China
and Vietnam but there I had to deal with
a new set of challenges in the martial
arts action genre less than 1% of
directors are females who get to work
with action hence as a female action
director it was rare now in martial arts
every move comes with a risk whether you
take sexism in ignore it or draw a line
every single action that you make can
invite the unknown into your life I was
made fun of on set I was called weak a
silly girl some of my co actors would
even ask me are you going to show me how
to punch like a girl and I did I embrace
conflict
I understood that conflict is always
around us and that success can come at
the price of someone else but failure
can rock your whole entire life that’s a
battle that’s a war and I learned
something else people became drawn
towards me stood beside me when they saw
me take a stance against sexism I got a
chance to try
not to do my own stunts to choreograph
fight scenes and I think it reminded
them of their own strength
the potential warrior from within last
year
I was hired by someone from the action
film industry this time it was a long
side of wait for it Jackie Chan
[Applause]
after eight years my own personal movie
has come to a resolution I got a chance
to work with Jackie on his film and
after that I got a chance to go on a
road trip with him to camera to visit
his parents home and then right before
he flew back to China
I shared a moment with Jackie and this
is what I said Jackie you like my dad
no seriously that’s exactly what I said
out of all things but I guess things
have come full circle for me and my
family and living kick-ass comes in all
shapes and sizes but you can’t do it
afraid you have to find ways to publicly
declare your dreams be ready to meet the
challenges in conflicts that comes up
along the way with powerful fluid
strength my parents had finally come
around to creativity in the arts my dad
is now into competitive karaoke and mum
she’s passionate about Friday night
disco dancing thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
we all hate conflict right fighting it’s
bad right we are taught to avoid
conflict
don’t fight rise above it ignore the
bullies don’t get bored and then they’ll
leave you alone
well maybe not conflict has been a part
of my journey my life it’s in my genes
and my family in here in Australia I was
confronted challenged and bullied but as
an adult I decided to try something new
as a lonely scraggly kid with a bold cut
with a few friends my parents enrolled
me in to a local dojo in Cabramatta I
had been bullied I even tried to stand
up for other kids at school but I always
ended up on my back
beaten up conflict sucks doesn’t it my
parents put me into the dojo to learn
the art of self-defense to become unpick
horrible a bully proof I was obsessed
with watching kung fu movies as it was
the only thing that gave me solace at
that time I love the dojo but I wasn’t
really in it for self-defense well not
really as a martial artist one of the
first few things that I learned that
radically changed the way I lived today
is to increase safety move towards the
conflict engage in
your opponent’s in kung fu movies Jackie
Chan doesn’t avoid conflict and when you
avoid fighting you’re coming from a
place of fear and I wanted to learn how
to be strong now my mother she was
jailed for more than six times before
finally fighting away onto a small boat
to a refugee camp in Malaysia
my father was put into re-education in a
prison where he spent almost six years
malnourished in in solitary confinement
by the time I was born they had both
made it to Australia to start new lives
they left the war behind them but they
never confronted it we never spoke about
it we all hated conflict their version
of strength is quiet they even tried to
avoid the conflict my parents were too
busy burying themselves in coping in
this new country learning a new language
finding work starting this new life but
their traumatic experiences my homelands
conflict was dormant left unchallenged
within my parents and it never went away
growing up I saw this fear fester in
them they had escaped but they weren’t
able to move on from the war my father
turned to gambling and then became an
alcoholic my mother found work in
Vietnam
in a marketing company but in Australia
she was working in a sweatshop doing
10-hour days she fell into anxiety
depression she was either sad or angry
at herself sewing hems sleeves and
collars day in day out and despite all
of this they never once spoke about it
it was thought that it would have
brought shame onto my family if the
community knew about it conflict
avoidant praying that like the bullies
if they didn’t fight back their ghosts
would leave them alone meanwhile the
only thing that kept me going was
martial arts and it wasn’t to fight back
the bullies or my parents but it was for
my own strength and power my arms my
legs and the awareness of my mind I drew
strength from working on myself and I
was a learning a different way on being
strong high-energy punches are strong
and fast but still loose paired with
your legs and kicks and it’s up to your
minds intent what you want to do with
them but physical strength forms and
skills can be learnt and taught it’s up
to the artistic conception a true
martial artist is only perceived from
within
therefore it was essential to master
physical movement and martial skills
it was more crucial to train the mind in
the spirit and cultivate the Chi we need
some brace conflict as it is what drives
us and like the kungfu action heroes our
authentic life is not free from struggle
we need to engage embrace conflict as it
is what drives us forward now conflict
didn’t stop when he left school bullies
and learnt martial arts I grew up I
completed a psychology degree but deep
down inside I wanted to be creative I
wanted to make films action films but to
my parents being an artist being
creative were dirty forbidden words
being an artist to them was equivalent
to being unemployed so I was going to
have to fight that one as well
now martial arts has taught me well I
was precise in the dojo
I learned to be disciplined structured
and free-flowing and snap back like a
punch I decided that I wanted to live my
life kick-ass and like the heroes of my
favorite movies Jackie Chan the hero’s
journey that I knew so well I wanted to
turn my life into a film so to speak the
Hiromi started off in an ordinary world
programmed by the learnings of my
parents to fear the world to be conflict
avoidant but then go on an adventure
challenge themselves in a decisive
crisis wins the victory
comes home changed and transformed what
was going to be my adventure of my life
how do I challenge myself to become a
hero and to be strong I wanted to be in
action films but I grew up frustrated
with Australian film and television I
mean I don’t know about you but there’s
not many Asian Australian women kicking
ass on primetime TV so I was going to
have to fight that one too but in 2009 I
decided to do something pretty random
I made a public declaration that I was
on the quest to find Jackie Chan I mean
Jackie Chan is like the biggest Asian
superstar in the whole wide world and I
was the biggest strange kid from Western
Sydney and you know what to be honest
with you Jackie Chan he’s not like a
relative from China or anything I had no
connection to him but that dream it was
something bigger that I thought would
ever be possible and as a screenwriter
of my own life it was the most biggest
ridiculous idea that could come from a
bullied kid from Western Sydney and I
persisted in this quest my movie
campaigning every Australian capital
city and Hong Kong and then I was
stranded in China broke left there’s
only $20 and still no Jackie Chan’s
but here’s a bit of a twist in my story
and if you imagine the next eight years
as the kind of montage I kept on working
hard martial arts had taught me to be a
warrior you must commit to your
objective without shame
or doubt I had failed to meet Jackie my
quest but I wasn’t going to give up
every warrior must commit to the the
objective regardless of what people say
we often to afraid that what we publicly
declare to people we were seen as taken
too seriously or what if we fail I
adopted a warrior’s mindset and
continued training making my own movies
in Western Sydney I got roles in China
and Vietnam but there I had to deal with
a new set of challenges in the martial
arts action genre less than 1% of
directors are females who get to work
with action hence as a female action
director it was rare now in martial arts
every move comes with a risk whether you
take sexism in ignore it or draw a line
every single action that you make can
invite the unknown into your life I was
made fun of on set I was called weak a
silly girl some of my co actors would
even ask me are you going to show me how
to punch like a girl and I did I embrace
conflict
I understood that conflict is always
around us and that success can come at
the price of someone else but failure
can rock your whole entire life that’s a
battle that’s a war and I learned
something else people became drawn
towards me stood beside me when they saw
me take a stance against sexism I got a
chance to try
not to do my own stunts to choreograph
fight scenes and I think it reminded
them of their own strength
the potential warrior from within last
year
I was hired by someone from the action
film industry this time it was a long
side of wait for it Jackie Chan
[Applause]
after eight years my own personal movie
has come to a resolution I got a chance
to work with Jackie on his film and
after that I got a chance to go on a
road trip with him to camera to visit
his parents home and then right before
he flew back to China
I shared a moment with Jackie and this
is what I said Jackie you like my dad
no seriously that’s exactly what I said
out of all things but I guess things
have come full circle for me and my
family and living kick-ass comes in all
shapes and sizes but you can’t do it
afraid you have to find ways to publicly
declare your dreams be ready to meet the
challenges in conflicts that comes up
along the way with powerful fluid
strength my parents had finally come
around to creativity in the arts my dad
is now into competitive karaoke and mum
she’s passionate about Friday night
disco dancing thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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