For twin brothers, Andrew and Chris Yee, their careers in the creative industries were born when drawing superheroes and watching cartoons while waiting for their mum to get home from work.
It was during those formative years when they were “left to their own devices” at home, perfecting superhero drawings, that led them down the creative path as artists, designers, animators and ultimately, storytellers.
Now, the brothers have amassed years of creative work under their belt. work has featured in The Art Gallery Of New South Wales, The National Gallery of Victoria and the 4A Centre For Contemporary Asian Art.
has produced work for VIVID Festival Sydney, Apple, Sony Australia, Vans, and Estée Lauder. His animation work has also appeared in music videos for Justin Bieber and ARIA award winner, Genesis Owusu.
Chinese-Australian artist Chris Yee in his studio. Source: Supplied
They were recently named as the lead producers for the Australian arm of global digital media platform, .
Backed by the team behind 88rising and VICE, EST’s goal is to bring the stories of Asia to the world, with the Yee brothers tasked with telling original Asian-Australian stories through short-form video content via online mini- and micro-documentaries.
Getting to this point hasn't always been the smoothest path, says Andrew, who describes himself as a content creator who works as an artist, animator, writer, creative director and now producer.
Chris sees himself as an artist first, with the other creative fields following.
“But, it's always under that cultural banner, which is good, because it opens the doors for more people to give it a try,” Chris said
Growing up in East Ryde
Andrew and Chris grew up in East Ryde, in Sydney’s northwest, and still live nearby. And the twins always had a creative inkling from a young age, according to Andrew.
“Do you remember cartridge paper? Yeah, [our dad] used to bring home a stack of cartridge paper and we would just draw on the ground. It's like superheroes and stuff,” he said.
Their lives drastically changed when their father passed away when they were just eight years old, which meant their mum spent more time working and away from home.
“When there's too much time to kill … we’re not going to tutoring or anything … so what are we doing to do? We’re going to draw,” Chris said.
After their dad’s death, Andrew said their mum wanted them “to just be okay”.
"So we get home from school. And we'd have like four or five hours just to ourselves … so we just draw and watch cartoons and stuff,” he said.
Yeah, she [mum] used to say, ‘As long as you guys are happy. That's all I care about.’
Chris Yee (left) and Andrew Yee still enjoy spending time in Ryde, located in northwest Sydney. Source: SBS / Kevin Cheng
East Ryde sits in the federal seat of Bennelong, where 28.8 per cent of its residents identified as having Chinese heritage in the 2021 Census. Further, 66 per cent of residents had both of their parents born overseas.
“I think it's a combination of comfort. But also … a sense of belonging, I feel like because of the way we grew up, and the things we were kind of into, we didn't necessarily fit neatly into anywhere growing up,” Andrew said.
“[In Ryde] we just found a level of acceptance and comfort.”
After both graduated from Epping Boys High, Chris said he really noticed how comfortable he felt around his local area.
“When I finished high school …. I went to COFA [UNSW College of Fine Arts, now known as UNSW Art & Design] straightaway … and I felt so out of place, like completely out of place,” Chris said.
“Because no one else from our area did a creative course … and everyone was from Eastern Suburbs schools and didn't look like me … I felt very, very out of place, especially [being] from Ryde.
“So, then, because of that, [I] always appreciate coming back to Ryde, because our friends would like eat and drink out here and still hang out around here."
So Ryde was always a place that felt like home, where I felt like I belonged.
The Asian-Australian identity
Chris says the struggle to project his unique Asian-Australian identity became more apparent as he began forging his career in the arts and advertising worlds.
“Once I left high school and started going to university, and then after that, working, I started to really feel the pressure of being an Asian-Australian … How do I fit in? Whether it was conceptually if I try to put forward something that was a bit more culturally focused … or my own story,” he said.
That’s what prompted their desire to work for EST to tell stories of Asian-Australians, whose identity is “so nuanced” and not mono-cultural, Chris says.
“So it's not just one version of Asian-Australia, what you typically see in media, it can be a bunch of everything … but you need someone in a position of power or producing to open the door,” he says.
It's so dynamic now, it's so fluid … the Asian-Australian identity can be tied to history and heritage, but it will also be new and dangerous and exciting.
“Asians can be aggressive. They can be hyper-masculine. They can be strong. They don’t have to be a model minority,” Chris says.
The pair have already produced a short documentary about the Malaysian-Chinese-fronted band Gang Called Speed who are changing the face of Sydney’s hardcore music scene.
“I definitely resonated with EST’s ethos of the people whose story [we’re telling], it's like their voices … if you notice, the docos don't have narration, it’s the subject telling their story," Andrew says.
"We thought that was such an important part of coming on board … It's not just covering these stories … they’re telling the importance of it, they’re telling their journey."
“The feedback wasn’t just good, it was a shock and it’s something they haven’t seen before and showing a side of Asian-Australia that you haven’t seen before,” Chris says.
'The greatest stories never told'
Andrew said EST functions “like a newsroom” - a different experience for the pair. And the pace is fast once creative ideas are confirmed by EST’s management team in the United States.
“It's pretty much like crunch time … you get the treatment together while we're going to shoot, the questions, and then we start organising the shoot,” Andrew said.
“It starts off with the narrative … what is the story within the story? What are you saying here? How does it reflect Australia’s personality and Asian-Australia?” Chris says.
“But (the) good thing is, compared to other jobs, even myself in art, there's no bad thing … everything is valid. It's just awesome.”
Since EST’s Australia launch in June, the pair have worked with its all-Asian production team to produce stories about Mongolian-Australia graffiti artist, Heesco; Chinese-Australian sculptor, NC Qin; and actress, Shirong Wu.
And the twins say there’s more to come in uncovering “the greatest stories never told”.
“Because we're also within the Sydney scene [and] the Asian creative city scene, we just know so many people doing cool stuff, or people who know a story that would be great that when this opportunity came through, we literally had like, almost 12 stories put together once we sat down and brainstormed,” Andrew says.
EST’s Hong Kong-born, Australian-raised editor-in-chief, Keshia Hannam, says: “The Asian narrative in Australia is too often controlled by media entities that don’t live, understand or embody the nuances that make up Asian culture”.
“With Eastern Standard Times, we are providing a platform that recognises Asia is not a monolith, but that we share many unifying traits that deserve more visibility.
"When it comes to reporting on stories about Asia in Australia, it’s important that they are told by people who have lived them.”
‘The power of being twins’
After graduating from high school and pursuing different careers, the Yee brothers say they never left each other’s orbit.
“There was definitely a period in our early to mid-20s, where Chris's career went one way, and my career went another way, but we're always in each other's worlds,” Andrew says.
“We will always be around to help and give advice. Even if like what Chris does, I have no expertise in it. And vice versa, which is that kind of support and open communication, which always kind of stayed open. Yeah, and it's kind of come full circle to what we're doing nowadays.
“We've worked a bunch together, especially during COVID. We did a bunch of freelance jobs, a few animation jobs … some advertising and stuff. But this is definitely the first time we've worked together where it's a shared role.”
Chris says their skill sets have “different strengths and weaknesses”.
“But we have a rhythm, and we understand each other. And this is the power of being twins, I guess, being able to sort of talk each other down as well as talk each other up,” he says.
Mum is ‘always proud’
The Yee brothers say while their mum has always supported their careers, it’s only now that she’s becoming more receptive to their work.
“She's always proud. She always supports, she doesn't quite understand but she's proud,” Chris says.
In recent years, Andrew has reported on Korean pop and Korean television dramas, which his mum can now relate to.
“She's gotten into K-dramas recently. So I think she views a latter part of my career in a whole new light … I’ve felt a sense of pride that I’ve never felt before,” Andrew says.
“She now sees the value in us representing and is proud of us representing Asian culture. [She tells us] ‘I'm very proud of you guys for doing what this means in the bigger picture.’”
