Traei Tsai was 6 years old when her family emigrated from Taipei, Taiwan to make a new start in Vancouver, Canada. New to a country and community where they didn’t speak the language, Traei began school where, for the first time in her life, she began to recognize that she was different. Some othe the children teased her, and to manage the discomfort she found solace in books. She began learning English through reading, even though her grasp of the language was still tenuous. In books she found the power of sharing a story, a way to open oneself to world where a different way of being was possible. She was grateful to her teachers and recalls a time when a teacher corrected her after she’d read aloud. “She did it with such grace,” she said, not shaming her in any way.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Traei found her voice in sharing the stories of others. On her podcast Her Stories Untold, she shares stories from women from various walks of life as a way to build connection to the ordinary (and extraordinary) lives we all lead. As an actress and filmmaker she aims to open hearts and minds to the challenges that exist in the world around us. Film has the ability to break us open, encouraging us to think about things differently, and then, perhaps, to shape our actions to make the world a better place.

Traei Tsai is a Taiwanese-Canadian multi-talented artist based in Vancouver, Canada, who gained recognition for her role in the globe’s first "Corona Movie," which in addition to the subject of the film’s title, explored issues of racism and xenophobia. As the Vice-President of the BC Minorities in Film & TV Society, she champions diversity in the film industry, advocating for representation both in front of and behind the camera. Traei speaks seven languages with varying degrees of fluency, including English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Taiwanese, and Russian. She is currently developing new digital art series to promote harmonious living and is in pre-development on several documentary, web series, and TV/film projects.

As you listen to this episode, ask yourself:

• What is is one story you’ve heard recently that opened you up to something new?

• How did hearing this story change the way you thought or felt?

• How might that story create opportunities to engage differently?

  You can listen to Traei’s story here.