Books & Theatre

My Solo Theatre Performance

Bound Feet Blues - A Life Told in Shoes ¦ Tristan Bates Theatre, London, Nov-Dec 2015

In 2015, I took to the stage in the heart of London’s theatreland to perform my one woman play Bound Feet Blues – A Life Told in Shoes. 

The sell-out performance ran for three weeks at the Tristan Bates Theatre from 24 Nov – 12 Dec 2015. The show was part of the South East Asian Arts Festival for the second year in a row.

The play explored themes of female desirability, identity and empowerment told through my family history and using bound feet and shoes as a metaphor for what it means to be a woman.

You can watch highlights from the performance below:

Bound Feet Blues was directed by Jessica Higgs and produced by Eldarin Yeong Studio. It was supported by funding from Arts Council England, The Housing Finance Corporation and Maclay Murray Spens.

Watch the Full One Hour Show

A video of the full one hour show plus all the behind the scenes research and production information can be found at the show website www.BoundFeetBlues.Wordpress.com

Bound Feet Blues Play Script

The play script is included in an anthology of British East Asian Plays, published by Aurora Metro. You can buy the anthology from Amazon – go to amzn.to/tigerspirituk-BESplays-boundfeetblues 

Anthology including Yang-May's play Bound Feet Blues

Anthology including Yang-May’s play Bound Feet Blues

BUY the anthology including the Bound Feet Blues script

My books

A moving, ground-breaking autobiographical story using the metaphor of shoes and bound feet as a way to explore female desirability and empowerment.

What the public said:

A fascinating memoir… compelling” – 5 star Amazon review

“For anyone who loves reading about Asian history, the accounts of Yang May’s family, right from when her ancestors left China for Malaya, all passed down the generations through the tradition of story-telling, is wonderful and real.” – another 5 star Amazon review

“Inspiring, brave, enthralling” – and another 5 star Amazon review

Read more at www.boundfeetblues.co.uk

Buy a signed copy direct from Yang-May Ooi

Jasmine Lian is a brilliant young partner in a law firm. Then one of her clients bids for the most visionary construction project in Asia – Titiwangsa University, a town and campus in the rainforests of Malaysia. Jasmine is forced to choose between old life and new, East and West, right and wrong.

The Flame Tree was first published by UK Publisher Hodder & Stoughton and became a bestseller in Malaysia, outranking Ken Follett. The novel is now published in its third edition by Monsoon Books as a paperback and as an ebook.

Reviews:

“Yang-May Ooi has has a rare descriptive talent that brings the surroundings of her story… to vivid life” – New Straits Times, Malaysia.

“An accomplished first novel by Yang-May Ooi brings idealism and passion to bear in the heat of the Malaysian rainforest” – Jessica de Rothschild, Tatler Magazine, London.

“Ooi Yang-May took a risk when she gave up a secure law career to become a full-time novelist. But it was a good decision, for her very first book is a brilliant read” – Lynette Ng, Sun Magazine, Malaysia

Buy the paperback

Buy the ebook

Ambitious young lawyer Fei-Li Qwong has steered her major clients to the successful launch of their visionary sanitorium just outside Kuala Lumpur. Piers and Ginny Wyndham claim their Centre for Mental Health and Excellent will revolutionise Asia’s health care practices. Fei is proud to be part of the team. But as Fei begins to uncover the dark reality behind the Wyndhams’ public front, she finds herself drawn deep into a pall of intrigue and murder to a secret experiment that could enslave Asia under a terrifying new tyranny.

The novel was published as part of a two-book deal with UK publisher, Hodder & Stoughton. It is now re-issued by Monsoon Books as an ebook.

Reviews:

“A slow-burn thriller with a satisfyingly ambitious scope which climaxes with horrifying revelations” – Anna Sayburn, Bloomsbury Bluestocking

“Once you start reading the first lines of this novel, you just can’t put it down until you’ve finished it.” – Amazon reader

Buy the ebook

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A Business Book

In 2009, I co-authored a leading book on business communications, International Business Communications, with PR expert Silvia Cambie. The book was published by Kogan Page and nominated for the FT Goldman Sachs Business Book Award.

I wrote the social media chapters for the book at a time when blogging, podcasting and Twitter was all new. Businesses still had not grasped the potential of social media and our book contributed to the huge change in attitude that saw the world embrace the power of communication through blogs and other multimedia online tools. I was one of the first social media commentators to notice an up and coming political figure called Barack Obama using Twitter…

My expertise came from being an early adopter of blogging with my cross cultural blog Fusion View, which connected me with over 10,000 unique readers a month. I was one of the first social media consultants in the UK, offering advice and training to small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. My Fusion View podcast was featured on the BBC.

Dulwich OnView

I co-founded the blog of the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery, Dulwich Onview, with Ingrid Beazley and a group of volunteers who wrote and created the multimedia content. It was one of the first blogs by a major UK art gallery and won an international web award. Although Ingrid was the public face of the blog, I developed the strategy for its content, structure, volunteer management and distribution across multiple online channels.

Dulwich Onview was a case study for a chapter in International Communications Strategy but due to space, we had to leave it out of the book. You can read the case study on line at bit.ly/tigerspirituk-dulwichonview-casestudy

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Yang-May Ooi

Multimedia Author