News

Jingan was named a Broadcast Now Hotshot 2024 announced online and in the June print edition of the magazine.

Her feature film Number 2 Daughter is now in development with Bona Dea Films and the British Film Institute. She is currently developing a new crime series with Carnival Films, a locked-room thriller with West Road Pictures and an action romantic comedy with Insight Management and Production.

In 2024, she wrote episode 4 of the hit ITV series RED EYE created by Pete Dowling and produced by Bad Wolf and Sony International, starring Richard Armitage, Lesley Sharp and Jing Lusi. She was also a story consultant for the series. She is currently writing on the second series for Bad Wolf and ITV.

She is currently a guest lecturer at the London Film Academy. The second edition of her book Soho on Screen (Berghahn Books) will be published in paperback February 2025.

About

Jingan (Yang Jing’an 楊靜安) is a multi-award-winning writer originally from Hong Kong, currently writing on series 2 of Red Eye, developing her feature with the BFI, and three TV projects with Insight, Carnival Films and West Road Pictures.

She holds a PhD from King's College London (2020), a Master's from Oxford University (2014), and BA (Hons) from King's College London (2012). Her first monograph  SOHO ON SCREEN  was published by  Berghahn Books  with a foreword by Peter Bradshaw in May 2022 and was featured in Sight and Sound. It will be published in paperback in February 2025. She has held lectureships at Birkbeck University and Brunel University in screenwriting. She is currently a visiting lecturer at London Film Academy and King's College London. She has mentored young screenwriters informally for over a decade.

She spearheaded the first British East Asian play collection published in the UK, Foreign Goods published by Oberon/Bloomsbury Books which features new writing from showcases she produced for ten years with her company POKFULAM RD PRODUCTIONS. The next volume is currently in development.

Once upon a time she was signed to a Hong Kong record company and has worked in and around Soho's pubs and restaurants (such as the eponymous Polpo ) from the age of 18.

She also held marketing posts in Hong Kong (Workgroup Asia) and the UK (Creative Skillset). She is a freelance copywriter at WriteLabel and has written broadcast radio adverts for a variety of U.S brands.

She is a regular contributor to the Guardian and Sight and Sound and she previously wrote a column for the SCMP newspaper .

She lives in London with her husband and son.

Stage & Screen

Jingan writes for TV, Film, Radio and Theatre. More recently she was a Broadcast Now Hotshot 2024. She wrote episode 4 of the hit Sony International/Badwolf, ITV thriller RED EYE starring Richard Armitage and Jing Lusi which premiered Sunday April 21, 2024 on ITV1 with all episodes streaming on ITVX. She was also a story consultant for the show. She is writing on Series 2.

She is currently developing TV projects with Carnival Films (NBC), Insight Management + Production and West Road Pictures.

Her feature film, a British East Asian romantic comedy NUMBER TWO DAUGHTER was developed with BBC Writersroom and was the winner of the Triforce Events Script Search Competition in 2020 with Greenacre Films. The film is currently in development with Bona Dea Films and the British Film Institute (BFI).

She was named as ‘one to watch’ by the BBC and Idris Elba on the BBC Talent Hotlist 2017 and was a fellow on the BEATS/BFI scheme. She was shortlisted for the Felix Dexter Bursary in 2018 and Blacklight TV's C4 On The Edge series in 2022. Credits include Biff and Chip with CBBC/BBC Kids. She is a BAFTA Connect and EAST TV NETWORK member.

Jingan was the first playwright commissioned in the English language for FILTH (Failed in London, Try Hong Kong) which premiered at the 42nd HK Arts Festival in 2014. From 2014-2018 she produced the sellout  FOREIGN GOODS  showcases at Theatre 503, the Park and the Arcola Theatre, culminating in the seminal publication of the same name by Bloomsbury Books. LIFE AND DEATH OF A JOURNALIST   ran to critical acclaim at the VAULT Festival 2020. The Guardian called it ‘intensely smart…prickling with intelligence and anger.’ In 2023, her play HONG KONG TRAGEDY was shortlisted for the Jermyn Street Theatre Woven Voices Prize. She was chosen for the inaugural Sky Comedy and Birmingham Rep scheme for upcoming comedy talent in 2022.

She has been in writersrooms with Bad Wolf, Channel 4 and CBBC/BBC Kids. In 2021, she completed the prestigious Channel 4 Screenwriting Course (1/12 writers chosen from over 3000 scripts). Jingan has trained with BBC Writersroom on the invitation-only London Voices and was a member of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme (2012) tutored by Mike Bartlett, Hampstead Theatre’s Heat & Light (2012), tutored byJames Graham, and the Soho Theatre’s Writers Lab (2013). 

Her plays have been produced at the Arcola Theatre, Theatre 503, HK Arts Festival, Pleasance Theatre, Old Vic, Vault Festival, Jacksons Lane, Old Red Lion, New Wimbledon Theatre and Camden People’s Theatre. Her radio plays have been produced by Roundhouse (Camden) Radio.

She is represented by Nick Fenwick at Curtis Brown.

Awards

  • Netflix Arts Fund

    2020 & 2021

  • Society of Authors Fund

    2020 & 2021

  • Winner of Triforce Events Competition with Greenacre Films

    2020

  • Women of the Future Award (Commendation)

    2018

  • Idris Elba/BBC Talent Hotlist

    2017

  • Peggy Ramsay Foundation Award

    2016

  • Michael Grandage Company Futures Fund

    2016

  • Hong Kong Arts and Development Fund

    2014

Training

  • Channel 4 Screenwriting Scheme

    2021 & 22

  • Sky Studios Comedy Scheme

    2021 & 22

  • BBC Writersroom BAME Script Editing Scheme

    2016

  • Park Theatre Script Accelerator

    2014

  • Soho Theatre’s Writers Lab

    2013

  • Royal Court Young Writers Programme

    2011

  • Hampstead Theatre’s Heat & Light Programme

    2011

Research

Jingan is currently a guest lecturer at London Film Academy and a BA/MA Dissertation supervisor in the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London.  She was previously the convenor of the Introduction to Screenwriting module in the School of Arts at Birkbeck University, where she also lectured on other modules from September 2022 – July 2023.

Her first monograph SOHO ON SCREEN was published by Berghahn Books with a foreword by Peter Bradshaw in May 2022. She had appeared on a special SOHO themed episode of BBC 3 Free Thinking with Dr Matthew Sweet (May 12, 2021) and gave an invited lecture at the London’s BFI Southbank in June 2023 for NEW WRITINGS . Her second monograph is currently under peer review. Most recently, her chapter on Emeric Pressburger was published in Global London on Screen (Manchester University Press).

She has previously lectured at Brunel University (Production/Film Studies) and King’s College London (Film Studies/Digital Humanities). She has also held posts in the Department of Film Studies and CMCI. This includes a role in King’s Academy, assessing the King’s Global Talent Awards.

She has presented at high-profile, international conferences and is published by numerous journals. Wider engagement includes the Soho on Screen , Soho Bites & Cities in Cinema podcast(s) (produced by Dom Delargy). In 2020 she created the Cities in Cinema network and in fall 2024 she will launch a new podcast, ‘Days of Being Wild’, a podcast about Hong Kong politics, art and filmmaking.

She is a contributor to the Guardian , Sight and Sound, Nylon Magazine, South China Morning Post Newspaper , London Review of Books, and of course – the Soho Clarion. She has also been an editorial intern at British   Vogue and the Guardian's Books department.

For academic enquiries, please email jingan.young@kcl.ac.uk or jingan.young@tutor.lfa.ac.uk.

Broadcasting

Jingan has appeared on BBC World News, BBC Radio 4 Today, ABC Radio, London Live,  BBC Radio 4 Front Row and BBC 3 Free Thinking with Matthew Sweet. She created the original Soho Bites podcast and the new season is now hosted and produced by Dom Delargy. Original and new episodes can be found on all podcast platforms. 

Jingan’s new guest-led podcast  The Days of Being Wild Podcast  阿飛正傳, on Hong Kong, launches soon.

She is available for presenting and research requests.

Contact