Combining her many passions and loves in life, skills and natural gifts, actress, model and physiotherapist Lai Peng Chan is now also the author and illustrator of inspirational gift and children’s picture book, the One Lost Feather.
Born to parents who were both teachers in Malaysia, Lai Peng Chan started her early life in an obscure one-street town not always found on the map. With two younger brothers to play with and an aunt who lived with her family, Lai Peng’s early childhood was rich with stories and experiences. Her creativity and love of jigsaw puzzles, art, science, mathematics, music, languages and reading books continued to be nurtured and encouraged by family, teachers and school principals. Her fascination with the explained and unexplained grew with her seemingly endless appetite for books.
Her love of art was nurtured by her mother, Lilian, who was a home economics and art teacher. Lai Peng began winning numerous art, music, elocution, design and performing awards at an early age, including prizes and medals in the Jawaharlal Nehru Shankar’s International Children’s Art Competition and was first runner-up in the Australian National Science in Schools art poster competition. The creative problem-solving mathematical and scientific side comes from her dad, Kim, a manual arts, graphics, mathematics and English language teacher. Growing up in a world rich with stories from Enid Blyton and Aesop’s Fables, her love of people, stories, reading, writing, sharing insights, art, design, illustration, plasticine sculpting, philately, stickers and coin-collecting, couture card-making, philosophy, origami, travel, psychology, music, fashion, styling and designing, accents and languages, Kids TV especially cartoons, chess, scrabble and other board games, doing character voices, acting, modeling, singing, performing, her sense of humour, innate inquisitive nature, fertile imagination, inner drive, natural “joie de vivre” and effervescence continue into her adulthood, motivating her to continue to create and to explore what life has to offer that captures her imagination, her heart, mind and spirit. She admits to sometimes watching cartoons and Kids TV by choice, with or without the company of her little nephew and niece, both of whom also share her enthusiasm for stickers.
A model student, her leadership and academic prowess made her a household name locally, skipping grades before and after her arrival in Australia. Following her family’s dream of living in Australia, and after many attempts through the proper channels and years of perseverance chasing moving goalposts, a full decade later they finally succeeded in immigrating to Australia in 1986. Quickly adapting to her new home, she completed her degree at the University of Queensland and began her physiotherapy career by being head-hunted as a pediatrics physiotherapist in special education. Against the odds, she returned to physiotherapy after an accident early in her career. She established her own physiotherapy private practice which she ran for over 17 years. Working tirelessly with virtually no proper holidays for the first three years to build her practice, she finally took time off for her first spontaneous round-the-world trip at which point the travel bug bit. Adventure after adventure filled her days. It began when she lost her passport in 1996 in Italy a few days before she was due home. Alone and with very little left in the way of resources, her determination, resilience and will, adaptability, resourcefulness and strength of character were tested. Calling on her uncanny ability to develop strong friendship bonds in a short time regardless of language differences confirmed her belief in the innate goodness that exists in most people. This journey opened her eyes to the real world around her that was filled with infinite possibilities, richness and multi-faceted aspects that life had always had to offer but was never really noticed. With the help of kind strangers and newfound friends, she found her way home. Around the globe, she continues to meet many like-minded creatives from all walks of life, making many lifelong friends who continue to have a special place in her life. She often draws inspiration from her many colourful and lustrous adventure-filled travels in her writing and her art, each time returning home to appreciate even more of her homeland Australia.
Having had an eventful and sometimes turbulent life, she took to writing as a cathartic and constructive outlet for expressing and sharing her thoughts and feelings. A prolific writer of often thought-provoking free verse poetry, she enjoys creative solitude as much as the company of people. As an actress (http://www.imdb.me/laipengchan), model, presenter, voiceover artist and dialogue coach, her screen credits include acting roles and voiceover work in film and TV, including Channel Nine’s Australian primetime TV series “Sea Patrol”, and has featured in various TV commercials and films including “Alien Sons”, an Australian feature film. She has also modeled in Paris, Barcelona, Frankfurt, London, LA, Oslo, Kuala Lumpur and Australia. She is currently attached to film and TV projects in Australia, France and the USA. Lai Peng is available for author and illustrator appearances including radio and TV appearances, talks, readings and signings, workshops and presentations, locally and internationally. For a sneak peek of her book, visit www.facebook.com/onelostfeather. For a full list of stockists and libraries, contact us.