Mai-Anh Vũ Peterson (she/her)

Mai-Anh is a Hong-Kong born, British Vietnamese, London-to-Edinburgh transplant who has spent ten years living abroad in France and Senegal. She comes to besea.n with a passion for interconnected, global social justice and a desire to create a space for belonging, shared experience and knowledge exchange among East and South East Asian people and other marginalised communities.

Mai-Anh is a writer, facilitator and strategist, with a background in project management and languages. She’s a more-than-alright cook, avid bookworm, bird geek, hip hop fan and a lover of languages. She can also name all the capitals of Africa in less than three minutes.

Amy Phung (she/her)

Amy is a British Born Chinese Londoner whose doodles can be described as Graphic Design, Illustration and Animation. She believes in broader and fair representation for marginalised folk and is excited to to make besea.n the flavoursome alternative to the bland dishes we have been previously served by mainstream media. She also wants to kick the British history curriculum into shape, shine a light on ESEA creatives and be able to finally fold the perfect dumpling.

Amy has previously lived in Japan and Switzerland and spends her downtime writing in the third person, watching trashy TV shows and playing the ukulele badly.

Karlie Wu (she/her)

Karlie is a Hong Kong Hakka Chinese Glaswegian, who hopes to support and share stories of those (re)discovering their own heritage, and to create resources at besea.n that celebrate ESEA people’s experiences.

Karlie is an artist who creates from her personal history and from the shared British Chinese experience; and also works at a contemporary art gallery. When not taking down internet trolls and stopping racism against ESEA people, she enjoys historical dramas, boogieing to Disco, bringing back vintage Chinese fashion and, unsurprisingly, devouring mangoes.

Viv Yau (she/her)

Viv is a British Chinese Northerner based in Manchester, born in Warrington. Viv brings marketing, event organisation and general comedic vibes to besea.n.

After noticing the lack of British ESEA podcasts, Viv created ‘'But Where Are You From?’ podcast, with the aim of bringing an upbeat and relatable take on being British Chinese. The podcast has since evolved, bringing all the besea.n members in as hosts talking about ESEA experiences (and then some). By day, Viv is the founder of an influencer marketing and talent agency, Bee Influence. In her spare time, Viv enjoys napping, eating dumplings and sausage bao her mum makes.

Pippa Hollington (she/her)

Pippa is a Filipina transracial adoptee who grew up in Hong Kong until the age of 9, when her family moved to London. Having been brought up as an adoptee in a Westernised environment, she is passionate about the importance of fighting against racial and social injustice. She has felt invigorated to connect with her heritage and works hard to close the 'identity gap'. With this outlook, she also hopes to help advocate for other transracial adoptees who may feel displaced. Pippa is a Digital Project Manager by day and in her spare time loves to cook, eat and binge watch terrible TV shows, as well as listen to ABBA on repeat.

Peiwen Tian (she/her)

Peiwen grew up in China and moved to the UK as a teenager. She is currently based in rural Cambridgeshire, having previously lived in the bustling cities of London and Sydney. She is passionate about tackling all forms of discrimination, and fighting for a fair and inclusive transition in our rapidly evolving world. Peiwen works as a Consultant in the Energy and Sustainability space by day. She is a wannabe yogi and also attempting to learn the piano. Her favourite hobbies include travelling and daydreaming about where she will go next.

Tribute from besea.n
Peiwen, we will always remember you as someone who exuded loving care and positivity towards all those you met. Your sense of humour and sharp observations about the UK, after moving here at the age of 16, made us laugh. You’re right, Peiwen, how does the country that pioneered the industrial revolution still use a separate hot and cold tap system?!

In early 2022, you began volunteering for us, doing the critical work of project managing our website, making sure articles about ESEA experiences were checked, uploaded and shared for all to read. By spring of the same year, we were grateful to welcome you as a fully-fledged core team member. You wrote grant applications and helped us to gain funding for ESEAHM23. Without this, we would not have had the resources to create our flagship events that brought together so many people.

You co-organised our Storytelling evening last year, creating a space that embodied who we are as besea.n. Through your thoughtfulness, perseverance and love of good food, you enabled us to share a night feeling uplifted and eating copious amounts of pandan cake.

As an advocate for social and climate justice, you continually gave your time and knowledge to make this world a better place. More than this, you were our friend, a light that never failed us. Your calm and understanding nature always helped us to see the bigger picture when we sometimes felt hopeless. A Jay Chou superfan with an adventurous spirit, you took every opportunity to live life fully. Thank you for every memory you gave us, thank you for who you were.

We love you and we miss you ❤️

Any donations the “Wild Life Trust" and Arthur Rank hospice would be welcomed here: https://peasgoodandskeates.co.uk/donate-in-memory/