Why a United Nations discussion of South Africa’s gender inequality problem will be led by a Hong Kong teenager

Ballerina Erita Chen performed for the Denis Goldberg Foundation in South Africa, then was stuck there for six months because of a coronavirus lockdown

While working with a charity feeding poor families she became aware of gender-based violence in townships. That led her to propose a UN discussion on the issue

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Erita Lee Acham Chen at Hong Kong International School in Tai Tam, Hong Kong. While performing in South Africa last year, the ballerina became aware of the country’s many gender-based issues and decided to do something about it. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 12:45pm, 24 Mar 2021Updated: 1:37pm, 24 Mar 2021

Later this week a 16-year-old Hong Kong student will co-host an online discussion as part of the annual United Nations meeting on the status of women. The topic is gender inequality in post-apartheid South Africa – not something one would assume a Hong Kong teenager from a privileged background is likely to be familiar with.

But, as Erita Lee Acham Chen explains, dance, the coronavirus pandemic, and serendipity put her in touch with charities in South Africa that are empowering disadvantaged communities, and she is doing what she can to help their endeavours.

Chen, a ballerina who studies at Hong Kong International School (HKIS), has grown up in an artistic family in Hong Kong. Her mother is pianist Lee Chui-Inn, who founded the Musicus Festival with her brother, the cellist Trey Lee Chui-yee.

In 2019, Chen went to New York for the American Ballet Theatre’s summer course and someone told her about the Denis Goldberg Foundation in Cape Town. The foundation was established by the social activist and veteran anti-apartheid campaigner after which it is named, and it provides dance, music and art education to young people in impoverished townships in South Africa.

“I found it fascinating how, after fighting for the end to apartheid, Denis Goldberg was continuing to work for racial harmony and advocating for arts education, which he thought was a way for children to be empowered, and for all races and classes to come together,” she recalls.

Denis Goldberg, a South African former anti-apartheid activist, with Chen in 2020. Photo: Courtesy of Erita Chen

She became involved in fundraising for the Denis Goldberg Foundation, and was invited to dance the following year at the inaugural concert for its flagship project, the Denis Goldberg House of Hope. She also interviewed Goldberg over Zoom for a school essay, and found him an inspiring figure.