bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
        published
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        name
        published
      }
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        relatedNewsletters {
          ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
          id
        }
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...hooksInlinePlusWidgetContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
  ... on Video {
    youtubeId
  }
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on SectionUnion {
  __isSectionUnion: __typename
  ... on Section {
    name
  }
  ... on VideoSection {
    name
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        entityId
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        entityId
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on VideoSection {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksInlinePlusWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sectionsV2 {
    value {
      __typename
      ... on Section {
        name
      }
      ... on Node {
        __isNode: __typename
        id
      }
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


types

sectionsV2

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

Stephen McCarty

These days, everyone’s at it. Streaming films and television shows on their mobile phones, posting them, being inspired, making their own.
It’s easy to forget the eye-straining micro-screen era, but into that brave new technological world went actress and producer Jennifer Lim in history-making, 2006 comic-horror series When Evil Calls: the first designed to be watched on a mobile phone.
“If it had arrived slightly later it would have been perfect!” recalls Lim fondly during a Zoom call from her native London. “But it was way ahead of its time, long before people started watching films on YouTube and before smartphones. It was a clever concept, a pioneer in some ways – and like a web series now.”
Born and raised in the British capital, Lim, an advocate for Asians in the entertainment industry, has a full work diary. She will soon be seen in feature film The Monster Beneath Us, which she calls “a period horror movie set in Yorkshire”.


“Quite fun! It takes place in 1898,” says Lim. “I play a governess with a Yorkshire accent. I like a bit of variety.”
She has just begun work on British independent film Say His Name (further details restricted); and last year found her starring in the London stage production of Worth.

“That’s a dark comedy,” says Lim, “revolving around a British-Chinese family, with Hong Kong roots, in the aftermath of the matriarch’s death. It’s very much in the vein of Succession.”
But featuring smaller amounts of money? “The mother leaves £44 [HK$440] to her four children,” she adds – children who then scramble to find their missing inheritance.
Concurrently, Lim has established a personal niche on the London theatre scene. “I’m also running my little theatre company, Moongate, currently company-in-residence at the Omnibus Theatre, in Clapham,” she says.

“For the last year or so I’ve been curating salon sessions called Moongate Mix. The idea of a salon, where you invite people round and talk about the arts, came because I was really in love with Russian literature.
“So when we were offered company-in-residence I started curating these monthly events for up to 70 people. They range from a symposium to a panel event to a screening to stand-up comedy, live music, other live performances – and there’s always a pop-up kitchen.
“It’s a place for people to connect and be creative and events are always sold out.”
Rosa Fong on her film about Chinese sailors deported after serving UK in war
Lim’s own family roots are in Singapore and although Britain is her home, Asia plays a significant role in her life and work.
Last November, she was heard in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Han Suyin’s 1952 novel A Many-Splendoured Thing. Hong Kong has informed her work in other ways, too.
“Hong Kong, I love the place,” she says, “and in the last few years I’ve been involved in a couple of projects about it.” The first was 2020’s Freedom Hi!

“Freedom Hi! started as a collective of predominantly Hong Kong artists coming together as a creative response to what was going on in Hong Kong at the time, 2019,” says Lim. “The production was an extension of that.”
Dreamers, similarly, was “a highly creative exploration [of] the loss of democratic freedom in Hong Kong” as one review put it.
Again, mobile phones were essential: messages sent via social media between cast and audience were central to both productions and even influenced dialogue.
We’ve highlighted dubious casting, stereotypes or harmful portrayals
Lim, on fighting racist stereotypes on TV with her non-profit organisation Beats
Meanwhile, should Lim ever write an autobiography it might conceivably be called Speaking in Tongues. “I grew up speaking English to my mum, Mandarin to my dad and Teochew to my grandmother,” she says. “And growing up in London, you’re surrounded by Cantonese speakers.
“I didn’t want to go to Chinatown and not be able to speak Cantonese, so I taught myself. It’s like the best of all worlds!
“I’ve done a few things in Mandarin, although I’d love to act in Mandarin more. A short film I was in recently, Our Child, written and directed by [British-Chinese Londoner] Anatole Sloan, won an award and that was all in Mandarin. On stage I speak Mandarin and Cantonese when required. I do enjoy it.”
Call the Midwife actress Lucy Sheen on a lack of diversity in film and TV
Such a facility no doubt helps with yet another of Lim’s roles: co-founder of non-profit organisation Beats, formed in 2017 to represent British East and South East Asians Working in Theatre and Screen.
It does this by aiming “to humanise” their “representation in arts and culture” and secure equal employment opportunities.
“We’ve highlighted dubious casting, stereotypes or harmful portrayals,” says Lim. “For example, in 2019 we protested against the BBC’s commissioning of a pilot episode of a comedy called Living with the Lams.” The series was subsequently cancelled.
“It wasn’t funny at all, it was for propagating stereotypes. It was about a Chinese takeaway, written by white writers. One character played in a band called Wok and Roll and they had the grandmother spitting all the time – really cheap, racist shots.”
Lim, indefatigable, sees the impact that Beats can have, but is the wider industry taking note? “Things are changing,” she says. “But not fast enough for my liking.”


Jennifer Lim on standing up for fellow British Asian actors, her role in the first series written for phone viewing, and learning Cantonese to fit in in London

Jennifer Lim on stage in Worth, about a family with Hong Kong roots. The British actress talks about acting in the first show written to be viewed on phones, and her work fighting for fair representation of Asians on TV and in theatre. Photo: Ikin Yum

Jennifer Lim in Worth, a play about a family with Hong Kong roots. The British actress talks about acting in the first show written to be viewed on phones, and her work fighting for fair representation of Asians on TV and in theatre. Photo: Ikin Yum

Lim has a fair bit of experience in the horror genre; she featured in 2005 gore fest Hostel. Photo: Sony Pictures

Jennifer Lim on stage in Worth. Photo: Instagram / @ xanadujenn

Lim in Key Workers Cycle, a play about the unsung heroes of the Covid-19 pandemic, at the Almeida Theatre in London. Photo: Facebook / @ Jennifer Lim

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Culture

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Lifestyle

Entertainment

British actress Jennifer Lim recalls 2006 horror series When Evil Calls, the first show designed to be watched on phones, as ‘clever, like a web series now’
The actress also touches on her more recent work, including plays about Hong Kong, and her organisation that combats ‘harmful portrayals’ of Asians in the arts


Actress Jennifer Lim talks to the Post about starring in the first horror series designed for phone viewing – before that became common – and combating stereotypes about Asians on stage and screen.


TV shows and streaming video

Cinema

5050

Profile

Asian diaspora

Chinese overseas

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