Writer, researcher and filmmaker Christine uses art and storytelling to empower marginalized communities. Through the Fellowship, she hopes to make fruitful connections and learn how to measure social impact for the long-term sustainability of her projects. She is keen to find inspiration for her next steps, combining research, advocacy and art.

Born in Cebu and having moved to Hong Kong at the age of two, Christine regards her growing up in the city as an exercise in longing to belong. Existing “in-between” two places, cultures and homes, she embraces the complexity of her identities while critically questioning how they shape her experience of (un)belonging to Hong Kong. Informed by her own health and wellbeing experiences, she wants to start a conversation in the city about healing rooted in community, and the value of collective care over individualism.

Christine is the Founder and Director of be/longing, a community arts-for-education lab that harnesses the transformative power of storytelling to cultivate and co-create cultures of inclusion for Hong Kong’s ethnically-diverse communities. In addition, she co-founded gongsik, a Hong Kong-based volunteer-run collective of artists, activists, and educators committed to building transnational solidarity for racial justice. In her role as a research assistant at the Chinese University of Hong Kong she provides assistance on research linked to enhancing mental health for migrant domestic workers (MDWs). Alongside Migrant Writers of Hong Kong (MWHK), where she serves on the Advisory Board, she helps organize “The Writer’s Toolbox” a writing workshop series created by MDWs for MDWs. While there is no blueprint for social justice, she believes that one constant in the equation is community. She believes that power comes in learning from each other, as well as being in dialogue with and in community with one another.

Through the Fellowship, Christine hopes to meet allies and like-minded people to overcome the often isolating nature of community work. She is also interested in better contextualizing her work in Hong Kong’s health and wellbeing landscape and gaining tools to interweave her research, advocacy, and artistic pursuits. She is keen to polish her project management skills, learn how to develop a social impact assessment framework and evaluate social impact to prioritize sustainability.

In her spare time, Christine enjoys writing, film, photography and karaoke.