In Conversation with Mimi Kwa

Mimi will be talking about her story: 'House of Kwa'. The dragon circles and swoops … a tiger running alone in the night … Mimi Kwa ignored the letter for days. When she finally opened it, the news was so shocking her hair turned grey. Why would a father sue his own daughter? The collision was over the estate of Mimi's beloved Aunt Theresa, but its seed had been sown long ago. In an attempt to understand how it had come to this, Mimi unspools her rich family history in House of Kwa. One of a wealthy silk merchant's 32 children, Mimi's father, Francis, was just a little boy when the Kwa family became caught up in the brutal and devastating Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. Years later, he was sent to study in Australia by his now independent and successful older sister Theresa. There he met and married Mimi's mother, a nineteen-year-old with an undiagnosed, chronic mental illness. Soon after, 'tiger' Mimi arrived, and her struggle with the past – and the dragon – began… Riveting, colourful and often darkly humorous, 'House of Kwa' is an epic family drama spanning four generations, and an unforgettable story about how one woman finds the courage to stand up for her freedom and independence.