Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth (Lisa) Liang.
Hi Elizabeth (Lisa), thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up as a Third Culture Kid (TCK) in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Morocco, Egypt, and Connecticut. My pop’s work for Xerox moved us around.
I’m also Guatemalan-American of Chinese-Spanish-Irish-French-
To quote my one-woman show (now a film): I’m not from a place, I’m from people. Those people are the family I grew up in and my husband now.
Storytelling in the form of books, theatre, and movies gave me much-needed connection while I was growing up, so of course I became a bilingual actress and audiobook narrator. Also, moving a lot and acting have things in common: actors have to live in the moment when we’re acting, just as we lived in the moment as kids when we experienced a new environment. There was only the here and now, and it could be exciting even when there was fear. Many actors have had mobile childhoods.
I got a degree in English Lit because I love to read and write, but a few years after college, I started pursuing acting seriously after having done it for fun throughout my youth. After years of playing different characters on stage and screen, I finally wrote my own story: Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey. It’s a multi-character solo show about how I grew up in the intersections of identity.
I wrote it because I had seen some wonderful solo shows but none that dealt with being a TCK and CCK, and I was tired of being asked if I was from the Midwest. I also realized that my life was an interesting story that I never talked about. I was ready to tell it.
Alien Citizen toured on four continents. It’s now a film on DVD and HD (streamable). I give filmmaker talk-backs after screenings, which is a joy.
I’m also a published essayist, and since I love learning other people’s stories, I lead workshops on creating a solo show, memoir, keynote, or personal essay. I’ve been leading them at colleges/universities, conferences, summer schools, international schools, and in private online with participants all over the world. I specialize in helping people tell their stories of growing up among worlds, whatever that may mean to them.
I’m very proud of having been the co-host of the longest-running podcast about the mixed-race experience: Hapa Happy Hour.
I’m especially pleased to now deliver keynotes on the transformational power of telling our intersectional stories!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Running a small business and pursuing an acting career are both very challenging. I’ve learned a ton about entrepreneurship, showbiz, and most of all myself in the process. This is true for all three: there’s no end to the challenges, so get comfortable with that. Fortunately, my upbringing and intercultural identity made me comfortable with discomfort. I can handle it longer than a lot of folks. I think that’s why I still get work as an actor: I knew it would be a tough road, so I accepted that and am still here.
The same goes for entrepreneurship: I just led two workshops online for an international school in Asia, screen-shared my film for an organization in South America, and am in talks about being a speaker for a conference…all because I knew entrepreneurship is a tough road, so I accepted that and my business is still here.
We’ve been impressed with HapaLis Prods, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
HapaLis Prods is an interculturally focused entertainment & education company founded to create and facilitate transformative storytelling on the page, stage, screen, and in the school & workplace.
My business validates and advocates for women and intercultural people (multiracial people, children of immigrants, borderlanders, Third Culture Kids, transnationally adopted people, and so many more) via my workshops, film, and keynote. At a fragile time in our world, my work weaves cultures together on different levels with humor and candor and helps people to overcome the fear of others and the pain of feeling other/alone. More than anything, my work brings connection, which is a building block for transformation.
I’m proud of the fact that my workshops have helped so many people tell their stories and develop an easy, pleasurable writing practice. Participants have had their work published or produced! I’m also proud of my film, Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey, which has helped so many people feel understood and validated. It’s even being used as a teaching resource by humanities professors on college and university campuses. I’m especially proud of my work as a speaker because I help people understand intersectionality, the intersections of identity, and how telling our intersectional stories is a transformative practice.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://elizabethliang.com/HapaLis-Prods
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hapalis
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interculturalstorytelling
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-liang-intercultural/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwm0xUmE1cJXBAQ1uLU3_Nw
Image Credits
Bailey Yoo Rim Steinbach
