My Story

Intro

Problems in our societies are complex and multi-layered and those aiming to meet development challenges must carry with them the necessary humility to listen for solutions within their target communities, recognising that no single solution will ever solve these challenges. Caroline has worked tiredless to meet the challenges of migrant workers in China, building their self- awarness and confidence through theatre workshop.

About Me

As a child growing up, I was fascinated with the idea that each of us faces choices between whether we act with love, or we act with fear.  It seemed to me that we are constantly being invited to choose between these two and I made a commitment to myself that I would always strive to choose the path of love.

When I studied theatre throughout school and university, I found in the arts a sense of freedom and possibility that I felt was unparalleled in other mediums.  It seemed to me that the arts had a way of speaking to us all at a fundamental level about life, love and transformation that went beyond words and were able to impact us at a deep ‘soul’ level.  My continued study of how the arts can be harnessed to affect personal and social transformation lead me to come to China in 2003, to explore the impact that such approaches might have here to enable people to live more fearless lives and uncover their full potential.

I started running workshops in 2004 at a migrant woman’s shelter in Beijing, and since than have explored and experimented to develop a concrete model for using arts-based approaches for social change.

I never set out to be an entrepreneur per se, but I did have a strong sense of my mission in the world from a very early age and I believe it is this that has informed the need to grow an organization. Although I do very much enjoy being an entrepreneur, I believe that entrepreneurs are lead more by a need to create change in the world, rather than the desire to ‘run a business’.  I love both the challenges and opportunities that my work presents and feel hugely blessed to be able to impact other’s lives for the better.

As a person, I love to grow and support the growth of others and I have a very strong sense of adventure!  I love to travel, read, learn, connect and share with others.  And I love to love!  I also love to cook (and eat!) with friends as cooking represents for me the ability to bring together my passion for creativity, caring and nourishing others, and inspiring a sense of abundance in the world.

My Venture

Hua Dan was founded in 2004 with the mission to identify key areas in Chinese society where fear-based thinking limits the potential of the community.  We seek to develop participatory arts-based programmes that build a platform for multiple stakeholders to challenge those limitations, bringing communities together to overcome those barriers and thus enable the fulfillment of human potential at an individual, national and global level. We operate a hybrid non-profit/for-profit company and have an employment model that creates opportunities for our target groups to work within and for the organization.

Our Beijing programs have focused on, and continue to focus on, the issue of internal migration and the challenges and opportunities that this issue offers contemporary Chinese society.  We see this issue as symptomatic and representative of the bigger-picture issues surrounding urbanisation, globalisation and growing wealth gaps in society.  However, we believe that it is critical to look at both the challenges and opportunities that such an issue presents, seeking to solve many of the challenges through our work, whilst also harnessing the phenomenal energy and creativity that such dynamic populations offer in terms of global leadership.

In seeking to explore the issue of internal migration within China, we aim to develop a coherent model for using arts-based approaches to look at ways of overcoming fear-based thinking that can thereafter be applied to other challenges on both a national and global scale.  The first regional branch, to scale our work, is in Sichuan, set up in the aftermath of the 2008 earthquake to aid in psychosocial rehabilitation of children affected by the trauma.  We plan to branch out internationally to develop similar models elsewhere.