Funnily enough, I went back for the first time this year after my grandfather passed away. I felt quite emotional seeing his old and very traditional house. I couldn't believe it though when I saw people washing their clothes in a dirty river that had dead fish floating in it.

Moving to Shenzhen was the first time I went to school. That first day of school, the teacher called out my name and I stood up. It turned out there was someone else with a name that I thought was similar to mine. I think my confusion arose from only being able to speak the Chaozhou dialect and not knowing Mandarin or Cantonese.

We'd moved to Shenzhen with the hope of settling in Hong Kong eventually. I didn't feel I was any older than the other kids at school, who were three years or so younger than me. I don't think you notice at that age. I hung out with the boys - I found girls annoying because they became too easily upset.

Later, we moved to Hong Kong living first in Kowloon Tong and then on The Peak. I went to two schools, neither of which I rated that highly. All the kids were quite naughty while I wasn't; in fact, I was quite quiet. I was still older than the other kids but as I looked younger and was quite short, no one seemed to notice. At the second school in Sai Ying Pun, our skirts had to be below the knee and lots of the girls liked theirs higher.

I found I was good at maths and business. I liked living on The Peak in a big house. It wasn't good for my parents' relationship though. Dad would go to Macau to gamble and lose money.

In the run-up to the handover in 1997, my parents decided it would be best to make plans. I found I felt different about school after moving to Singapore, where I went to the Australian International School. There I had to study English and retake Form Four. Most of my classmates were Australian and they all seemed so tall.

I liked school there and it was where art began to interest me. I think that's how I began to emerge from my shell. I dreamed of becoming a fashion designer, although my dad wanted me to take over his business. I was supposed to do economics at school but I didn't tell my parents that I'd opted for visual art, which was how I learned about painting.

I ended up with a still-life painting on the cover of the school magazine and that persuaded my father to let me go to the London College of Fashion for a year, but then he wanted me to return to Hong Kong, so I studied accountancy while working for a fashion company.

One day I was walking by the Arts Centre and decided I needed to do a course. I ended up doing a bachelor's in fine art. That spurred me to quit working as an accountant and become an artist.

I knit for 10 hours, creating garments from strips of magazine paper, exploring the connections between fashion, the body and sculpture, and looking at new ways to communicate with audiences. It's funny how my parents didn't understand this initially but now they come to my exhibitions and even bring their friends.

My husband didn't like me being an artist either at first because I wasn't earning so much but even he helps me prepare for each exhibition. He can see I'm so much happier and everyone should follow their heart.

Movana Chen has launched her book, Two-Way Communication, and will perform at the International Art Fair at the Convention and Exhibition Centre at 6.30pm on May 14 and 3pm on May15-18. She was talking to David Phair.