"... extraordinary ... independence and spirit. A very distinct voice, very funny ..." Jean Seaton, Orwell Prize Director
The Steampunk Opium Wars
“Invigorating, engrossing, witty, passionate and righteous – they should put Anna Chen’s The Steampunk Opium Wars on the school history curriculum.” Ben Chu of the Independent
” … a novelty in politically charged entertainment, defies easy analysis. … the unforgettable Hackney and Bermondsey Tea Ceremony. … not so much political entertainment as politicising entertainment. … You can’t really ask for more.” Ben Chacko in the Morning Star
"Charming, witty and sophisticated ... I am entranced, won over." The Sunday Times
"Hard hitting and often hilarious ... arresting ... engrossing and provoking." The Scotsman
"... sensitive, intelligent ... insistent and illuminating." The Herald
"It's the stuff of brilliant satire ... riveting." The List
" ... refreshingly original ..." Sunday Telegraph
"A charismatic and attractive performer … original, amusing, rude and rousing."
Manchester Evening News
"Very witty."
Graham Norton
"I'm taking you shoplifting."
Jenny Eclair
"Best press officer in the country"
Paul Foot on Anna's innovation of left UK political engagement with the media
"Wise and wonderful creature ... transgressive being ... a disposition and complexion somewhere between a frolicking lamb and a rutting teenager that just discovered it was Britney."
Alan Pillay, "Comic Strip Presents" actor in Time Out
ANNA'S POETRY
VIDEO: “Fuckin’ great!” WILKO JOHNSON
"Anna Chen’s poetry wears wet leathers, red lipstick, stilettos – and is heavily armed. Her slim volume, Reaching for My Gnu, is filled with what I’d call 'strap-on poems'. They look like an evening’s easy pleasure but are far more painful and unforgettable than you’d bargained for."
GREG PALAST in VICE MAGAZINE
“Anna Chen is fighting the good fight with fierce, funny, moving and sulphurous poems. You wouldn’t want to cross her, but you want to read her.” HEATHCOTE WILLIAMS
Reaching for my Gnu by Anna Chen has been featured at Socialist Unity.
“It’s saucy, devilish and delightful!” MY ASIAN PLANET
” … heartfelt, funny, satirical, accessible and strong.” LOUISE WHITTLE, LABOUR BRIEFING
“… a strange rendezvous of language, wit, and the imagination. … She fully integrates the movingly personal, the vibrantly social and the diablolically political. Her rhyming is frequently quasi-Byronic, full of surprise and acerbic invention … Burning words, full of life and truth.” CHRIS SEARLE MORNING STAR
“As a poet Anna Chen is brilliant and dangerous. In Reaching For My Gnu she operates one wild-ride roller coaster that soars to altitudes of unfettered wit and then plunges with a startling and implacably knowing anger, stripping away pretence and pretension and targeting both ancient oppression and contemporary crime. ‘What work of depravity is a man who amasses more than he can spend in a lifespan?’ Her deck of cultural references includes Poe and Freud, Stalin and Hemingway, junk food, Marlon Brando, Moby Dick, and Anna Mae Wong, and she deals these cards face up with a unerringly sense of history uniquely coupled with a perception that’s as topical as tomorrow.” MICK FARREN
The Guardian
The Observer
Plays And Players
The Scotsman
London Evening Standard
The Independent
"Don't call me an Asian babe, Martin Bashir" The Guardian
New Internationalist columns
MORE PRESS HERE
The Steampunk Opium Wars
“Invigorating, engrossing, witty, passionate and righteous – they should put Anna Chen’s The Steampunk Opium Wars on the school history curriculum.” Ben Chu of the Independent
” … a novelty in politically charged entertainment, defies easy analysis. … the unforgettable Hackney and Bermondsey Tea Ceremony. … not so much political entertainment as politicising entertainment. … You can’t really ask for more.” Ben Chacko in the Morning Star
Of other work ...
"Charming, witty and sophisticated ... I am entranced, won over." The Sunday Times
"Hard hitting and often hilarious ... arresting ... engrossing and provoking." The Scotsman
"... sensitive, intelligent ... insistent and illuminating." The Herald
"It's the stuff of brilliant satire ... riveting." The List
" ... refreshingly original ..." Sunday Telegraph
"A charismatic and attractive performer … original, amusing, rude and rousing."
Manchester Evening News
"Very witty."
Graham Norton
"I'm taking you shoplifting."
Jenny Eclair
"Best press officer in the country"
Paul Foot on Anna's innovation of left UK political engagement with the media
"Wise and wonderful creature ... transgressive being ... a disposition and complexion somewhere between a frolicking lamb and a rutting teenager that just discovered it was Britney."
Alan Pillay, "Comic Strip Presents" actor in Time Out
ANNA'S POETRY
VIDEO: “Fuckin’ great!” WILKO JOHNSON
"Anna Chen’s poetry wears wet leathers, red lipstick, stilettos – and is heavily armed. Her slim volume, Reaching for My Gnu, is filled with what I’d call 'strap-on poems'. They look like an evening’s easy pleasure but are far more painful and unforgettable than you’d bargained for."
GREG PALAST in VICE MAGAZINE
“Anna Chen is fighting the good fight with fierce, funny, moving and sulphurous poems. You wouldn’t want to cross her, but you want to read her.” HEATHCOTE WILLIAMS
Reaching for my Gnu by Anna Chen has been featured at Socialist Unity.
“It’s saucy, devilish and delightful!” MY ASIAN PLANET
” … heartfelt, funny, satirical, accessible and strong.” LOUISE WHITTLE, LABOUR BRIEFING
“… a strange rendezvous of language, wit, and the imagination. … She fully integrates the movingly personal, the vibrantly social and the diablolically political. Her rhyming is frequently quasi-Byronic, full of surprise and acerbic invention … Burning words, full of life and truth.” CHRIS SEARLE MORNING STAR
“As a poet Anna Chen is brilliant and dangerous. In Reaching For My Gnu she operates one wild-ride roller coaster that soars to altitudes of unfettered wit and then plunges with a startling and implacably knowing anger, stripping away pretence and pretension and targeting both ancient oppression and contemporary crime. ‘What work of depravity is a man who amasses more than he can spend in a lifespan?’ Her deck of cultural references includes Poe and Freud, Stalin and Hemingway, junk food, Marlon Brando, Moby Dick, and Anna Mae Wong, and she deals these cards face up with a unerringly sense of history uniquely coupled with a perception that’s as topical as tomorrow.” MICK FARREN
The Guardian
The Observer
Plays And Players
The Scotsman
London Evening Standard
The Independent
"Don't call me an Asian babe, Martin Bashir" The Guardian
New Internationalist columns
MORE PRESS HERE
Pic: Suzy with her Uzi. Suzy Wrong Human Cannon, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. "Then, in an amazing coup de theatre, Suzy whips out an inflatable sex-doll and machine-guns the audience with ping-pong balls which shoot out of the nether regions of the doll with formidable muzzle velocity." Jeremy Hodges, Sunday Times
