A THEATRE SHOW DESIGNED FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, YONG TELLS THE STORY OF A TEENAGED BOY AND HIS FATHER MAKING THE TREACHEROUS JOURNEY FROM THEIR HOME IN CANTON TO THE GOLDFIELDS OF BALLARAT IN 1857.

Translating Janeen Brian's book, Yong: the Journey of an Unworthy Son, into this one-person production was a labour of love for writer Jenevieve Chang, director Darren Yap and Chinese cultural consultant Charles Zhang.

During the peak of the goldrush, as many as one in four miners in Ballarat had come here from China. In the centuries since, they and their descendants have had a deep and enduring impact on our town.

For Charles Zhang, watching Yong for the first time was an emotional experience – even with the knowledge he had from working with the theatre company, Monkey Baa, to ensure the production's historical and cultural accuracy was up to scratch.

"Even though I knew every detail, watching the first show I was almost in tears," Charles remembers. "There's a very strong connection to my own experience and my family's, so it made me very emotional. I think it's the first show of its kind in Australian history."

Jenevieve Chang had worked with Monkey Baa as an actor in the past, and jumped at the chance to write the stage adaptation of Janeen Brian's book. It was a sprawling tale that crossed continents and featured a broad cast of characters, which proved challenging when Jenevieve learned just how short her cast list would be: "It needed to be envisioned as a one-person show," she laughs.

Luckily, with creative flourishes at her fingertips – think flashbacks and inventive audio tricks – Jenevieve could make it work. She also relied on that vital piece of the theatre puzzle: imagination.

"We had to remember this is not film. This is theatre. We don't have to be literal," says dramaturg and director Darren Yap. He describes Yong as "a memory play", one where a ladder can become a mountain and the playful, creative minds of young audiences will go on a ride with you, if they emotionally connect to the story you're telling. "I found the whole thing wonderfully challenging. And scary – but with an incredibly supportive team.

"It might be about memory and set in the 1800s, but Jenevieve ensured Yong wouldn't feel like sitting a history exam. "We wanted it to feel really contemporary and vital, but still be faithful to the specificity of the time that the story takes place in," she says.

Through his roles at Ballarat Chinese Library and the Chinese Australian Cultural Society of Ballarat, Charles has devoted much of the past 27 years to expanding and sharing the stories of the people like Yong who found their way here. To deepen the true connections between town and theatre, he took Jenevieve and Darren on a tour of the town, visiting the new and old cemeteries. He also invited them to meet with the descendants of people who came to Australia by boat, landed in Robe, South Australia, and walked to Victoria to try their luck on the goldfields. "I think engaging with those true stories made this show more real," Charles says.

The journey from Robe is one Darren's great-great-grandfather took when he arrived from China in 1856, "So this story is a very personal story of my ancestors. And it's very emotional as you watch this young boy travel all the way from China. When he finally reaches Ballarat, it's an extraordinary sense of beauty and release and relief. He thanks his dead mother and father for the journey. I understand that and the privilege that I had because of what my ancestors did.

"Charles is deeply connected to the journey from Robe to Ballarat as well, having taken that pilgrimage three times himself, following the footsteps of Chinese migrants like Yong and Darren's patriarch. "It's a very, very complicated feeling," Charles says of what plays on his mind during the 438km walk.

"The important thing is to have appreciation for what we have now compared to 160 years ago. I always say we can't change history but we need to learn from the past and make sure we're doing the right thing now and for the future."

Yong is more than just an entertaining and sophisticated stage show. It's a chance to complete the gaps left in history lessons, to draw links between goldrush booms and the cruel response from government – namely through the White Australia policy. It also represents, to Jenevieve, the chance to imagine a different future for cultural depictions in Australian arts: "I feel like we're at the vanguard of a new movement where we are really recognising this country's history."

When Yong opens at Her Maj, it will be something of a homecoming. "It's very personal to Ballarat," Darren says. Jenevieve agrees, saying, "It just feels like history has come full circle. It means a great deal."