About Jane

Jane Houng is the mother of Rebecca ‘Becky’ Dykes. She has lived in Hong Kong and China since 1985 but grew up in the UK. She is a graduate of Chetham’s School of Music, the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Young Children and Adults, and Cambridge University.

She has worked as an academic, businesswoman, media personality and English teacher. She now divides her time between Hong Kong, the UK, Lebanon and Greece.

Jane is a writer. She has published five children’s books for The Commercial Press Hong Kong. She has also published with Oxford University Press, Sing Tao Publishing Ltd, Pearson Publishing and the Asian Review of Books.

Since losing her daughter, and in response to the UN Women’s ‘Orange The World’ campaign to reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG), Jane has established three charitable projects:

In many countries, safety alarms have become the ‘go-to’ solution for safeguarding people but they are expensive and only sold commercially. Jane and her team design and donate Becky’s Button to humanitarians who educate and distribute to poor, vulnerable women in their communities. Pilot schemes in Greece and Lebanon are currently underway.

Continuing Becky’s humanitarian work with refugees, Jane and her team established this wellness sanctuary in 2018. It offers shower, laundry and personal hygiene services to women and children from Mavrovouni refugee camp on Lesvos Island in Greece. Since integrating with When We Band Together, its service has extended to vocational and language training for women. 

As a writer herself, Jane knows the power of telling stories. She hopes Becky’s legacy will include the publication of more books about people who have survived violence, and families who have lost loved ones due to violence. Collaborating with Heather Demetrios and other American colleagues, Rebecca Dykes Writers organises workshops in the US to empower writers to publish trailblazing stories, for children. 

Memoir Beirut Is More Beautiful By Bike was published in Arabic by Dar El Machreq in November 2022.
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Under Lion Rock tells the story of how a Hong Kong boy overcame domestic abuse in the 1970s through a love of music.
Pending
Asian Elephant Art recounts how an endangered orphan elephant in Thailand expresses his trauma through painting.
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