Extract from 'Anna enjoys world's fast lane'
by John Blair, published in Northern District Times, Wednesday, February 8, 2006, page 9:“Studying for a degree in politics, an arm-long list of television commitments, duties as an Australia Day ambassador and preparing for Sydney’s Chinese New Year celebrations have kept Anna Choy busy. She also squeezed in a chat with John Blair.
Anna Choy is a busy international woman. At 27, she astounds family and friends just coping with a frantic schedule which peaked recently with Australia Day ambassadorial duties, working on Sydney’s Chinese New Year festivities and packing for a television assignment in the US.
Born in Hong Kong – “I think of myself more as a ‘Made in Hong Kong’ person” – where her father had business, Choy’s ‘Australianisation’ began with a jar of imported Vegemite. There’s always a jar of the iconic yeast extract handy, even now, at her ****** home. The family moved here while Choy was very young and her Eurasian beauty impressed a casting agent studying tai-chi with her father.
At 11, Choy had a role in the ABC mini-series, Cassidy. At 11, she won the lead in NHK/Film Australia’s Escape from Jupiter and Return to Jupiter. For the past five years she has been a presenter on the Seven Network’s The Big Breakfast and The Big Arvo.
She was drafted as an Australia Day ambassador in 2001 and was a NSW judge for the Australian of the Year in 2003. Choy managed to juggle studies and an acting career. She did a NIDA course while she was still at the selective Fort Street High School, completed a Bachelor of Arts in politics at Macquarie University while working full-time at Seven, and doing voiceover training at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Her background made her a useful member of Sydney City Council’s Chinese New Year 2006 planning sub-committee.
Chinese New Year traditions are strictly observed in the Choy household. “It would have been inauspicious not to be a part of that,” Choy said.” …
Extract from 'China's Finest Export'
by Alexandra Walker and Cara Davis, appeared in the Sydney Central Courier, Wednesday January 25, 2006, Volume 2 Issue No. 3, page 14, published by FPC Courier, A division of Eastern Suburbs Newspapers partnership“Anna Choy – Actor and Channel Seven presenter Anna Choy was born in Hong Kong to a Chinese father and Australian mother, making the trip to Australia with her parents when she was six months old. She had always thought about what it meant to be Chinese-Australian because people always asked her where she was from.
‘I do a lot of work that explores my Chinese Australian identity because I think it’s important to see people keep their culture but also be very much Australian,’ she said. ‘For example we turn sausages on the barbie with chopsticks in my family, but they are Australian sausages and it was this land that fed us. Some of the best Chinese you can have is made of Australian produce.’
Ms Choy said Chinese New Year was a family affair for her. ‘For the Chinese New Year meal we have fish, because the Chinese word for fish sounds like the Chinese word for abundance, so you eat fish in the hope that the coming year you will have more than enough of everything you need,’ she said.
‘You also wear new clothes so that everything is new for the new year. As a kid you get lucky money, and the Chinese bring in the New Year with a lot of noise, such as firecrackers, and the dragon dances with drums, to scare away the evil spirits for the new year.’
Extract from 'The Year of the Rooster'
by Nina Lamparski Sydney City published by FPC Courier, a Division of Eastern Suburbs Newspapers Partnership, which is owned by General Newspapers PTY LTD and Suburban Publications PTY LTD, page 12-13Channel Seven presenter Anna Choy recalls that she didn’t realise ‘it was unusual to have two cultures’ until she went to school. Born to an Australian mother and Chinese father, the 26-year-old host of the kids program Big Arvo says that she grew up with the best of both worlds. …
The bubbly multi-talent has been unstoppable since making her early career debut as a year five student portraying the part of Rose in the ABC mini-series Cassidy. Five years ago, after two movies in which she obtained the lead roles, Choy started working for Channel 7.
Like Fong and Pan, she shows a strong commitment to supporting and furthering Sydney’s multiculturalism. In 2003, she was invited to be a judge on the NSW panel of 2003 Australian of the Year awards, and since 2001 she has been an Australia Day ambassador.
Taking on this role has changed her perception of what Australia means to her. “Now that I’ve done it for a while, I’ve realised that there is not right or wrong answer. There are lots of different ideas which all exist together”. …
January 26 represented a frantic date for the female ambassador, who had to flit from community breakfasts to church services, attend official lunches and afternoon parades before eventually holding speeches at the award ceremony during the evening. Her Chinese New Year, however, will be spent in a less official manner. “We’ll have a big dinner with my grandma and then go to the temple. You give thanks for the past year, think about what lies ahead and ask for a blessing.”