Michelle Chung, Founder

I’m so pleased you’ve found us here! I’m Michelle, a Bruneian born baby from the tiny country of Brunei. I grew up in a big family of Chinese and Dusuns (one of the native tribes) and a crossover of Christians, Buddhists and Muslims. Everyone knows everyone in Brunei and in one way or the other, we find a way to live, eat and play together.  

Mum and dad both came from low-income families, living in houses with few rooms shared with multiple siblings. From mum’s humble beginnings, she regularly practised non-judgment and tried her best not to assume much of others. In my early years, she’d always nudge at me if I’d pull a funny face or if I was on the edge of saying something mean. She’d remind me often that, “you don’t really know them or what they’re going through” or even, “what if one day something like that happens to you”. 

My first memories of learning to love someone from a different class to me was of our nanny from Indonesia. To us she was our ‘jie jie’, our big sister, and we treated her so. Our family and friends could not understand why she was sharing meals with us, sleeping in our rooms or even using the same toilets as us. At such a young age, I didn’t realise then but it was one of my first experiences of a disconnection with everyone else where my own perception of her worth was greater than others.

Unfortunately, some 30 years later, this disconnect continues today. 

I spent the last decade working to build bridges between communities and sectors from all sorts of backgrounds and lived experiences across the world. In this time I met such incredible people and was constantly finding ways to share their stories and to help others understand their worth. Having relationships with many people unlike me on paper also let me build collaborative ways of working and to get sh*t done. It’s much less faffing and more doing, who wouldn’t want that?

Behind The Label came to life because I wanted everyone else to experience the benefits of listening, connecting and learning from others. On the day-to-day, it makes life much richer and more fun. More seriously, at a time when we are facing huge global challenges, empathy education will be one of the most valuable investments we can make that will have positive returns on the community, economy and our environment. If that sounds good to you, then get in touch with us and let’s move mountains together.