Leslie Hui-Yun Chu

Leslie Hui-Yun Chu

Strengths: Social Entrepreneurship; Creative & Art Industry

Leslie Chu was born and raised in Taiwan and has lived most of her adult life in the United States and China.  Leslie is an accomplished artist in ceramics, Chinese brush painting and calligraphy.  Her original training was in Taiwan, and she later attended the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC.

Leslie’s paintings are characterized by a modern style with bold emotional strokes of the brush and highlighted by evocative and original poetry.  She specializes in wheel thrown and hand-built ceramics with each one of her pieces an artistic original.  Her paintings and ceramics are in private collections throughout the United States, China, Europe and Australia.

In April 2000 Leslie held a charity exhibition of her ceramics works to benefit Rural Women Continuing Education Fund, a Chinese non-profit organization that she founded that is dedicated to providing vocational programs to poor rural girls who have dropped out of formal education due to their families’ difficult financial situations.  With the money raised, Leslie has brought thousands of girls from China’s poorest countryside to Beijing to learn new skills and develop self-esteem and confidence.  Leslie remains a Director of the Board of the Practical Skills Training Centre for Rural Women, where the Fund’s programs are hosted, and served several years as Director of Rural Women, the umbrella organization for Centre, the Fund and several other initiatives.

Leslie, along with her two children Kaarina and Alec, in 2008 initiated a program of support for the Kuthor School, a private school for orphans and poor children in a rural Tibetan village in remote Qinghai province.