True tales: Australian artist William Yang draws out the inner storyteller in young Chinese

William Yang believes that everyone has a story that only he or she can tell.

The prominent photographer-turned-independent artist from Australia has spent the past 25 years exploring social diversity and belonging through words and images.

Yang, a third-generation Australian of Chinese ancestry, grew up in northern Queensland on a tobacco farm and has been an architect, a playwright, a photographer, a visual artist and a film-maker.

It has all made Yang a firm believer in the power and therapeutic value of storytelling.

“If your experiences are too stressful to you, it can burn you down. Everyone should tell their own stories, because they can just sort out results in some way in their lives,” Yang said after a trip to the mainland last month.

During the trip to China, the first to his ancestral home, Yang told his story and heard from young mainlanders about their family and views on homosexuality, among other topics.

The month-long trip took in seven cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xian, and was part of a cultural exchange programme sponsored by the Australian government.

It was a chance for Yang to present his autobiographical project, The Story Only I Can Tell, a 45-minute monologue about his journey through life in a Chinese family, cross-cultural dilemmas, and his gay identity.