Special Collection: How I made peace with my mother and our complicated relationship

Diana Nguyen's mother would walk out of her performances at interval in protest of her career, but Diana forged on and in the process healed this mother-daughter relationship. (R)

Diana Nguyen knew she was born for a life on the stage when she discovered dancing while staying in a nunnery as a child.

Her love affair with the arts, however, fractured her relationship with her mother, who had escaped Vietnam by boat and wanted her eldest daughter to be 'more' than a performer.

But a trip to her motherland helped heal this mother-daughter relationship, and after years of walking out of her performances in protest, Diana finally saw her mum from the stage as she took her bow.