In Conversation: Becky Kuek

Written by Fern Seto

Most people would imagine that being a talking dog would be more fun than regular life, but Becky Kuek can speak from experience. As the writer, director and showrunner of Tales of Nai Nai, Becky wears many hats, including voicing Baobao, the talking chow. She’s also had to navigate many paths and identities in her life as a screen performer of mixed race heritage - Australian, Kiwi, too Asian, not Asian enough. She sat down with contributor Fern Seto to talk about the importance of accents, feeling disposable, and explaining her face. 

Becky -  where are you FROM from, i.e. what’s your heritage? 

So I am secretly, technically Australian, but I fully embrace my Kiwi identity. My dad is Chinese Malaysian, and my mum is Pākehā*. My dad finished high school in Christchurch, New Zealand, and met my mother at university there. They moved to Melbourne, where my siblings and I were born, and where we lived until I was about eight. 

The next few years were really formative for me as we moved to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam for three years. Living in an Asian country, I was finally exposed to not just Vietnamese culture but the whole breadth and variety of cultures and countries in Southeast Asia. I was also really lucky to spend time with my grandparents in Malaysia. If my parents hadn’t moved us there I would have thought of myself as fully white, with no comprehension of what Asia really was, or what it meant to me, so I am really grateful they made that call. 

To further add to the confusion, while we were living in Australia my parents were constantly trying to convince us that we were Kiwi, even though we felt completely Aussie – it was all we knew. It wasn’t until we settled in New Zealand after living in Vietnam that I really began to embrace my Kiwi identity. 

* Pākehā is the Māori term for people of European descent in New Zealand. 

Many Asians find it challenging to pursue paths in the creative world, given the cultural pressure that we face to do the “sensible” thing i.e. train and practice as a lawyer, doctor, engineer or accountant. Did you face any challenges from your family or community on this front?

I decided I wanted to be an actor at 11, and despite my parents desperately trying to ignore this and hoping it was a phase, I never stopped. They  took me to drama classes and let me do the school musicals, that kind of thing. Then, when I was about 15, I brought home the parental consent form and contract with an agent for them to sign. At this point I think they started to realise that this maybe wasn’t a phase. Weeks, months after I gave them that form to sign I would find it hidden in weird places around the house. I think they thought that if they ignored it for long enough, I’d get bored and focus on something else. 

My high school had a really strong academic focus, so when I spoke to the guidance counsellors in my last year there and told them what I wanted to do, they all said, effectively, “hmmm, ok cool, but lets go with plan B.” My counsellors, my teachers, my friends, my parents – everybody told me to go with Plan B. I didn’t have any role models or mentors in my life who knew how to navigate a path as an actor, or even vaguely supported me, so I went with plan B and started a qualification in interior & spatial design. I knew this wasn’t what I wanted to do, so I half-arsed it, and dropped out without even finishing the first semester. 

Do you think that if you looked different – if you were blue eyed, blonde, ready to pop up on Home & Away – you would have received more support or different advice from those around you? 

100%. I think if my parents and teachers would have been able to see examples of people like me on screen, they would have been able to see a trajectory for me.  However being Asian – and more specifically, being mixed – even I knew from a young age that it was going to be an uphill battle, because I couldn’t see anyone like me on screen.

I remember wondering “how is anyone going to cast me in a family?”. I had literally never seen a mixed family on screen. Even recently I've had conversations with people who can't figure out how a mixed person can have parents who look completely different to them, and I'm like, “hello! Where do you think we come from?!” Being mixed race seems to break people’s brains. It often feels like I am literally being asked to explain my face. 

Let’s talk about Tales of Nainai. What is the show about?

Nainai is about a Chinese-Kiwi family, with two parents and a pair of twins whose grandma lives with them. It’s important to Grandma that her grandkids have an understanding of and pride in where they come from, so she tells them magical stories from all around Asia, as well as balancing this out with their Kiwi identity. Nainai realises that as diaspora communities grow up further and further from their homelands, they can lose their sense of roots and identity, so she makes sure they don’t lose sight of their heritage by sending her grandkids off on adventures through her magical silk purse.

It’s a fairly standard format for a kids’ show – we teach a life lesson in every episode – but what sets it apart is that the lesson takes place in Asian context, with Asian characters who both speak their own language and speak accented English.

Although the central characters of Nainai are Kiwi-Asian kids, I know that you’ve really made a point to take the characters on a journey through a number of different Asian cultures and countries. Can you explain your thinking behind this?

Although around 25% of children who watch TVNZ programming are of Asian descent, there was zero kids’ programming that was made for them. The Pan-Asian Screen Collective was asked to brainstorm a kids show to meet that need, funded by NZ On Air. 

The original idea was focused only on Chinese stories, but given the breadth of cultures and countries in Asia, and this being the only children’s programme that was meant to represent this incredibly diverse community, I knew straightaway that I had to broaden the focus of the show to be pan-Asian. Not only for kids from all Asian cultures to be able to see themselves, but also for non-Asians to realise that Asia in itself is hugely diverse. That’s why the show goes all over Asia, from Mongolia to Indonesia - I really wanted to highlight as much of that diversity as I could. 

Another thing you have stood really firmly on is ensuring that characters of certain ethnicities are played by not only voice actors of the same community, but often those with strong accents. Why is this important to you?

Accents are important because it is something Asians are demonised for. They’re used against us, they were used against our parents, to mark us as less capable, to set us aside as the “other”. I wanted to really normalise accents for kids and to associate them with characters who are really fun and cool, like an aspirational Indian grandma who speaks with a strong accent, or a fun, goofy panda who is multilingual but speaks English with an American accent. 

 With Nainai I felt a real responsibility to burst the doors open as widely as possible for as many people as possible, and I wanted to make their experience of working on Nainai special and unique. This is why I try really hard to ensure that if I write a Cambodian or Mongolian story, I want a Cambodian or Mongolian actor to play that part. Almost all of our voice actors have said that Nainai is their first ever opportunity to represent their own culture, and not be a Chinese actor playing a Cambodian, or vice versa. It’s unfortunate that it’s such a rare opportunity, but that’s sadly just how it is. I’m glad to be in a position to change that. 

You and I met through the “Asians on Screen” panel that I ran a few years ago in Wellington. What has changed for Asian creatives since then, and what has changed for you personally? 

When we met, I felt like one Asian work being made per year was a great achievement. Now, it seems like we’re everywhere. I’m feeling really positive about how much Asian work is being funded and produced. 

Now whether that is coming from a place of networks being afraid of being “cancelled”, or a genuine desire and recognition of Asian work – it’s probably the former. But that seems like a necessary evil to get to a stage where Asian productions are as normal as white productions.

I’m feeling really good about not acting – I really needed a break. Actors don’t have control of their careers. As an actor there were so many lame things I had to audition for – crappy shows that meant I’d have to uproot my life and live in Toronto for pilot season. I had to ask myself, what part of that as a lifestyle do I want? No part of that is a joyous experience.

People think actors are replaceable. I’d go to an audition and there would be 20 girls there who looked like me, whereas 20 different writers are going to write 20 different things. I didn’t like the feeling of being replaceable as an actor, whereas as a writer/director I feel like I can really have an impact, especially when my work is so culturally diverse and female-focused.

So now, I am writing jobs for myself – as a writer/director I have had so many more people paying attention to me and my work.  As an actor, I don’t get a body of work if nobody decides to cast me.  However as a writer and showrunner, I can now say “look at this entire TV show I made”.

What else are you working on right now? What can you tell me about your upcoming projects?

I am such a magpie – I have so many ideas in my head and I always want to work on the newest most shiny one! Sometimes people have to remind me to do my actual paid job.

I’ve got two short films going into pre-production – one of these is being funded by the New Zealand Film Commission Gender Scholarship. I’m super excited about it because it basically showcases all the things I can do in one film. I’ve also got two feature films in early development. I’m getting a lot of offers that are all really exciting and validating.