In 2017, Michelle Law’s play Single Asian Female shook up the Australian theatre industry. That wildly successful production, about a Chinese-Australian woman and her two daughters, went on to run for five years around Australia and New Zealand. Since then, Law has penned two more plays – the latest of which is Miss Peony, a trilingual dive into the world of beauty pageants. Law wrote and stars in the play, which premieres at Sydney’s Belvoir St theatre in July before heading around the country.
Off-stage, Law has co-created the streaming series Homecoming Queens, about two best friends – one with cancer, the other alopecia. Here, the writer tells us about her own experience with alopecia areata, as well as the stories of other important personal belongings.
What I’d save from my house in a fire
Back in 2019 when my brother Ben was filming the ABC documentary Waltzing the Dragon – about the relationship between China and Australia – he found a pair of porcelain lions in our dad’s childhood home in Guangzhou.
Dad was born in the house and he still owns it, but these days it’s quite dilapidated. Ben salvaged two lions, some porcelain crockery, and a portrait of our great-grandmother that was found under layers of dirt.
I’m not sure how old the lions are, but it’s meaningful to me that they were found in a home that has belonged to our family for generations. Judging by their form, the lions look like incense holders for a family shrine.
The lions are a priceless link to my family history and a mother country I’ve never actually been to. They’ve survived so many generations that I’d probably be cursed by my ancestors if I didn’t save them in a fire.
My most useful object
I have an autoimmune disease called alopecia areata that causes hair loss, so I wear a wig most days. I lost my hair for the first time when I was around 13, and then again when I was 21, so wigs have been a great accessory for most of my life.
I started wearing synthetic wigs with fabric caps as a teenager, and moved on to Freedom Wigs as an adult. Freedom Wigs are custom-made to the shape of your head, which essentially means they suction on and then don’t budge; I’ve worn mine on a couple of rollercoasters.
A lot of the time I don’t wear wigs – when I’m at home, chilling with family and friends, or when I’m exercising. But when I’m out and about in the world I personally find it makes life a lot easier when I don’t have to explain my baldness to every single person I interact with.
There are a lot of upsides to wigs. It’s fun having a rotation of different styles and lengths to play with, and I never have to worry about having a bad hair day. I just pop one on and off I go.
The item I most regret losing
For a couple of years, I’d had my eye on my brother’s boyfriend’s umbrella. It was a gorgeous mustard umbrella with a solid oak handle. I put the same umbrella on my Christmas wishlist one year, and one of my sisters bought it for me. She went to a lot of trouble because the colour had been discontinued and it needed to be ordered in specially.
One day, my housemate borrowed the umbrella for her shift at the childcare centre where she worked, and one of the parents stole it! We couldn’t believe it. It’s a very distinct umbrella so it couldn’t have been an accident. Now, if you know the umbrella I’m talking about, and that umbrella is in your house … I still think about it and want it back. No shame and no judgement. Please just turn it in to the Guardian office or something and I can go pick it up, no dramas!
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Miss Peony runs from 1–29 July at Sydney’s Belvoir St theatre, before touring to Melbourne, Canberra, Wollongong and Geelong
