My life: Joanna Chan

I was born into an intellectual family in Fanling, in the New Territories. My father was a graduate of Peiping (now Beijing) Yanching University, specialising in agriculture. He took a picture of me as an infant lying next to the tomatoes he experimented with, using imported seeds. There was also one of me as a toddler among Leghorn chickens. Before I had turned 10, my parents had lost everything - twice. First was our Fanling farm falling to the Japanese invasion, in 1941. We moved to Guangzhou, and rebuilt our family (life) there. But we lost everything again in 1949, in the regime change. My parents were then in their 20s, living in tumultuous times with a family to feed, but never uttered a single word of complaint. Their model of bravery and courage has affected my entire life.

After we relocated back to Hong Kong, I enrolled in Tack Ching Girls' Secondary School. I did quite well and scored No1 in class every year. Writing was my favourite subject, so I chose arts instead of science as my major in the senior form. The decision shocked both the principal and my family because all good students took science by default in those days. That is why I chose mathematics as my major at Hong Kong Chinese University. Though I graduated in math, I did not give up writing. Once I contributed three short stories to the Kung Sheung Yat Po (newspaper) and got a HK$87.50 writing fee for each - not a small amount in those days. One of the stories was about a young girl killing her father, a subject definitely not suitable for children. I had no idea where I got that story from; perhaps it was some kind of teenager's fantasy.

Aside from writing, I studied painting with Hon Chi-fun, one of the leading modern masters, thanks to a university classmate: his sister. I studied under him for seven years. He harboured high hopes towards the second student he had ever recruited. But I gave it all up and joined the Maryknoll convent and became a sister. I think my decision had something to do with The Nun's Story, a movie starring Audrey Hepburn as a nun showing her vow to God by sacrificing what she loved most. But the true reason is that I had fallen in love with Jesus. With him as a soul mate, I have had no excuse not to treasure anyone who comes into contact with me. That's what has been behind me in the following 50 years of my life.

Despite the huge shock dealt to my family, I left for three years of training at the Maryknoll novitiate in the Philippines. After that I was sent to help with new immigrants, first in Chicago then New York. There was no e-mail in those days and I spent a year's savings on long-distance phone calls, which were US$12 for three minutes, just enough for a few words to my parents and my four siblings. I don't think I ever overcame the strain between me and my family over my decision, at least for 20 or 30 years.

It was at Columbia University, in New York, that I finished my doctorate degree in theatre and communication. Shortly after that, Hong Kong Cardinal John Baptist Wu (Cheng-chung) invited me to return, to set up the Diocesan audio-visual centre. That is where my math training became evident. There, not a penny of deficit was registered. That was also true with the art groups I founded and led in New York (Four Seas Players and the Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America) and Hong Kong. No one believed I was also an artist, who are generally believed, though erroneously, to be not so organised and logical. So I am grateful to my parents and teachers for their insistence in my science training.

I gradually turned professional in the theatrical arts, first as a guest playwright and then guest director, and finally I became artistic director of the Hong Kong Repertory, in 1986.