Jiayi Chen

Details

Name

Jiayi Chen

Job title

Director and Producer

About

Jiayi Chen is an Edinburgh based artist, director, and producer whose multidisciplinary practice revitalises Nüshu, the world’s only writing system created and used exclusively by women. Through body based performance, calligraphy, movement, and community participation, she brings feminist histories, diasporic memory, and intergenerational storytelling into contemporary performance and visual art.

She is the founder and director of The Great Her CIC, an East Asian women’s artists’ collective that amplifies under represented voices through exhibitions, workshops, and socially engaged programmes. Her acclaimed performance Nüshu: Written for Her, on Her, by Her has been showcased internationally and has received multiple four star reviews and festival recognitions.

Jiayi is the first Chinese woman to win the Creative Edinburgh Award in its twelve year history. She is also a shortlisted finalist for the UN Women UK Outstanding Grassroots Campaigner Award 2025. Her previous Fringe production Weaving Me, Weaving Mum received the Best Production Runner Up at the Asian Arts Awards and was recognised by the Fringe’s Access, Diversity and Inclusion Awards.

Her work has been presented at Edinburgh College of Art, King’s College London, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh Printmakers, and the Shanghai International Arts Festival. Through performance, workshops, and research, Jiayi creates spaces where personal story, cultural heritage, and collective healing can be written, embodied, and witnessed together.

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