Angela Yeung wanted to start a jewellery design company, without much experience or money, so she did. Since then her company Impilo was a finalist in the 2012 Anglo American Platinum Award, the greatest accolade for a jeweller in South Africa. In 2014 she won more two awards in the Anglo Ashanti Gold design competition. In 2017 she was the first Asian female to be invited to be a member of the Diamond Dealers Club.

Angela wanted to climb Kilimanjaro, so she did. Twice. For the charities Tre4Mandela and Caring4Girls.

Angela wanted to do ballroom dancing so she participated in the USA International Dance Championship and won four medals.

Angela had problems delivering speeches but has just been elected president of Sandton Toastmasters. The list of her achievements is awe inspiring. Angela. Delicate as an orchid. Gentler than a petal. When you meet her in person, this soft spoken beauty is humble and kind. But her achievements list makes her worthy of her title of Woman of Stature entrepreneur of the year 2019.

Just as she takes various elements, stones and gold, and creates the most extraordinary jewels, she has created a jewel of a life for herself. But it has been quite a journey. Her story will astound you.

Photos: Angela wearing Impilo Collection

In her own words, here is her journey from ashes to diamonds:

My dad often told me stories of his childhood in China.

His family was persecuted by the communist regime because they were wealthy.

After the Second World War before the beginning of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, he and grandmother suffered from hunger because all their possessions were taken. The officials broke open their floors to confiscate their hidden gold. They only received one spoon of oil for cooking a week and ate sweet potatoes most of the time. This gave them very little nutrition. My dad suffered many illnesses due to this malnutrition. As a young child he had work on a farm. His legs were cut open by poisonous plants, his flesh was peeling. This left him with lots of scars. Boxes of paper money no longer had any value, so they used it to start the fire for cooking and to keep themselves warm.

Overcome by poverty, my dad, uncles and grandmother escaped from China to Macau then onto Hong Kong as refugees.

When they arrived in Hong Kong, they managed to find jobs and worked in a factory. My grandmother was very ill at the time. The owner of the factory told my grandmother “You are able to change your circumstance, your destiny and increase your life force by chanting the Buddhist phrase Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo. (I devote my life to mystic law of the universe)”

At first she thought this must be some kind of cult from Japan: How could one believe in something that destroyed our Nation? After that the owner of the factory explained to my grandmother: “There are many sects of Buddhism and not all Japanese are evil and there are religions in Japan also passionate about creating value in others and during the war the Soka Gakkai -Value Creation Society- Buddhist (SGI) was leading the protest to stop the nuclear war and weapons.”

Eventually my dad followed my grandmother’s new belief and realised there was nothing to lose by chanting after work, maybe by tapping into the rhythm of their life hoping things will change. Gradually my grandmother recovered from her illness with faith and my dad also decided to go to Japan and study further.

During those days, my dad had to work part-time to support his own study, moving heavy carpets from different events late at night. The exhaustion made him vomit with blood. In 1975 after 3 years of studies, he overcame all the hardships and my dad finally graduated in Japan.

During the study period, through Buddhist activities, he also met a lady called “Kameyo Ikeda” a beautiful Japanese lady with short dark hair. It was love at first sight for both of them and they decided to get married and start a new life back in Hong Kong. She was to become my mother.

My uncle was very against this International marriage: he predicted this was not going to work — with two different nationalities, two different cultures and two different languages. He pointed out her protruding nose predicted she would only bring my dad bad fortune.

The Chinese believe that “One's appearance is formed through one’s thoughts.” One's looks is decided by one’s emotions. The exterior of a person is dependent on internal thinking, so one’s physical looks is based on the mind inside.

In 1976 after being married a short while, my mother tried to adapt to her new environment. Then to her horror, she realised she was pregnant. She just kept thinking: “This is not happening!” So she started jumping off her bed to the ground, hoping she may miscarry her baby.

My dad tried very hard to keep her calm and took a lot of pictures while she was pregnant, very proud to become a father.

The 19th September 1976, its was a night of heavy rain with a typhoon rated stage eight. The year of Dragon in Chinese zodiac. I was born that night. As a lady of the Dragon, I caused the weather to change and announced my arrival with a storm.

My Japanese name was called “智子 – Tomoko” means a child with wisdom. A mixture of Chinese and Japanese, which was very unusual. The Japanese had damaged so much in China and killed so many Chinese. This history of hatred couldn’t be easily forgiven.

Amongst the extremely competitive societies in South East Asia, the Japanese economy was blossoming and they were often seen to be more superior. I was and still am a mixture of different colours: a biracial child.

At that time, the Chinese were very against mixed marriages and mixed races.

My existence represented peace between two nations with love and unity.

My dad and my mom bravely with an open mind, broke away from stereotypes and created me “a child with wisdom” 智子 the meaning of my name.

I was born with three crowns on my head — one right on the top of my forehead, second middle crown and another at the back of my head.

The Chinese said, “One crown is a normal human being, two crowns is evil and three crowns is a monkey!” Everybody thought that I was going to bring trouble.

My nickname was called “Kewpie Chan” I looked just like the cartoon character of “Kewpie doll," “Chan” in Japanese means “little girl.”

A beautiful girl often has an unfortunate life, it is believed in China.

Beauty often comes with a price, like the most beautiful flower will attract more bees and getting into relationships brings its own complications which then often brings misfortunate.

When I was 42 I was given my grandmother’s diary written when she visited Hong Kong from Japan.

And then I only found out, how precious I was to my O bachan in Japanese means “grandmother”.

I don’t remember my O bachan as she returned to Japan soon after my birth. It is an A5 size dairy she recorded every single day of her activities during the time she visited Hong Kong from Japan. I never knew that she loved and cherished me.

It recorded how Chinese people made her feel, and how different the culture was compared to Japanese culture.

When my mom gave birth to me, she vividly recorded the maternity ward - South ward no.11- and the time and how it was pouring with rain and how impatient she was and how she wanted to make sure my mom was safe, healthy and whole. She recorded that I had a round little face and looked like her — my O bachan.

She spent almost two months with my mother, she was very supportive and protected my mother and myself.

O bachan was called Bijin which means a beautiful lady in Japanese. My O bachan was open-minded and she had a strong Buddhist faith. That was why she was never against the intercultural marriage between my parents. My dad had often told me that grandmother had won a beauty pageant in Japan during her youth.

She had had a tough marriage, and my mother had been born in that marriage. Thereafter she got divorced. She did however remarry. My mother’s name was-"Kame” mean tortoise in Japanese. This was because my grandmother had given birth to twins, but my mother, with her strong will, was the only one who survived.

My mother graduated from the University in Japan majoring in Chinese culture. In those days, it was rare for Asian women to achieve a University degree. My dad’s mother often told everyone how amazing it was that my mother was a Japanese University graduate. And how proud she was of her daughter in-law.

However after my mom gave birth to me, she became a very different person. When my grand mother came to visit me, my mother chased her out of the house. She became bitter and this change in attitude perplexed my dad and his family.

My mom missed her home and missed the food in Japan. She even worked in a Japanese restaurant so she could have Japanese food. Just before I turned one, she took me back to Japan to visit O bachan, her family and friends. We stayed in Japan for a while and she didn’t want to return to Hong Kong. My dad had to beg her to go back to Hong Kong.

Even though I was very small I was aware the conflict between my parents. I remembered an incident during our dinner time when they had fight. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but one of them pushed the dinner table and everything dropped on the floor. To my horror, my favourite rice bowl that I loved so much with a pattern of a little red bear facing a little green frog dropped on the floor and spun over and over again on the floor. I felt helpless, threatened and scared.

The week before I turned three, my mom decided to abandoned me and returned to her home in Japan. I still remember that my dad carried me and ran to the airport but it was too late to catch her. My dad always told me that I was so aware of what was going on even though I was only three. I knew that he was very sad and I even told my dad “It’s okay, just let her go!” Only later did I realise that my mother was pregnant and that she wanted to have an abortion in Japan before it was too late. It would be years before I saw her again.

It was a most excruciatingly painful time for my dad. He had to face the Chinese humiliation that he was a useless “skinny” man who couldn’t even keep his wife in marriage. Usually it is the man who runs away in a relationship. But in this case it was the opposite. He didn’t know how to handle this situation and didn't know how to look after me. He didn’t know how to dress me — he put on a long sleeved top over short sleeved on me and tried to dress me to make me a bit prettier by putting on a skirt on tops pants because he worried that I would catch a cold. He didn’t know how to look after my hair. The other children teased me.

After school I often had to wait for my dad to finish work and so I was always the last person to be fetched from school. I learned to be independent and entertain myself and chatted to the cleaning lady. At break time when everybody else had snacks from their lunch box, I was hungry and often turned to my friend Steven and asked him “Can I share some of your sandwiches?” I didn’t realise that I should have asked my dad for a lunch box!

Every holiday was a nightmare for me as there was no one at home to look after me. So I had to sleep under my dad’s office desk with a little blanket and hold a little cloth of his used to cover his eyes when he slept so it was permeated with his smell. There was something about my dad’s aroma - I often used to go around him and smell him because I thought his smelt like a love potion. And that made me feel familiar and safe. In Chinese culture it is thought that a daughter was the possible lover of her dad in his last lifetime.

Sometimes when I got really bored, I would run around my dad’s office and irritated his colleagues. They suggested to him not to drag me around wherever he went but rather take me to the orphanage. My uncle (The one who predicted that my mom was going to bring my dad bad luck) told my dad should leave me with their auntie who had mental illness, the suggestion was to abandon me. My dad simply replied “She has a parent!”

The Hong Kong government created an opportunity for the less fortunate by providing a loan to buy a semi private apartment in a better area. But one condition was that you needed to have a child or children. Ah… so had my dad given me away to the orphanage, he would not have been considered. So there is a reason for everything. So from 100 applicants my father was one of the luckiest eight to get the house loan. And so we moved from a small little flat to a bigger semi private apartment, with two bedrooms, a sitting room and kitchen. My dad was still trying very hard to get in touch with my mom. So he dressed me up into a small little Kimono and took a picture of us in our new home with a tripod, and sent it to her, hoping that she would change her mind and come back to us. We often chanted for her to come back.

Everyone thought my dad was a “useless” man, but to me he was the bravest man. We took a picture together in our new home and swore that we would never leave each other. The photo was evidence of our pact.

When I was ten, my mom finally came back to Hong Kong to write an article about citizen living and the current circumstance in Hong Kong under the British law, as she was a journalist.

She called our home number in HK, when I heard my mom’s voice for the very first time after 7 years, my tears just poured non stop. It was very emotional, I called her “Okasan” - mother in Japanese. I was so hurt and not sure how to react but cried, too young to ask why I was abandoned? I was confused and bewildered.

That same week my mom joined us for dinner. Longing for this fantasy but not sure what to expect, I remember her face with a long black hair and that I admired her beauty. I was allowed to spend a night with my mom in the hotel. It was awkward that I could not even communicate properly with her that we both cannot speak each other languages. I never thought of asking her to take me with her or complaining to her.

It wasn’t my choice that my biological mom decided to abandon me, but the feeling of guilt was always there. As if it was my fault.

Life was not kind to me, because of my sensitivity I felt trapped between the gaps. Constantly feeling negative, guilty, not good enough and trying to please my stepmom, being perfect and uplifting myself to prove that I can do things, be better and improved. Beating up myself silently, whipping my soul into pieces at night and with no one to talk to.

Only realised later in life, I carried a sign of “low self-esteem” around my neck, I thought it was invisible but people do notice and that attracted bullies at school, caused career obstacles and attracted the wrong man in marriage.

In 1990, we moved to Bloemfontein, South Africa. Another shock to the system - from a big city to Apartheid small town. We moved when Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule, causing worries about the political situation, we moved to South Africa as my stepmother had family there.

During my university days, I had problems with relationships and struggled with feelings of insecurity. I sought guidance from a senior leader in the Buddhist SGI community we belonged to, who told me that it was important that I find my own identity. “Identity.” This concept was alien to me. I didn’t understand what she was talking about.

It’s always easier to depend on others for one’s happiness, rather than forging one’s own. I got married early and decided it was my mission in life to be a good housewife. It seemed to me that I had achieved picture-perfect happiness.

When I gave birth to my daughter, not long after getting married, I struggled a lot as a parent. Childhood feelings of abandonment and rejection still clouded my mind. I struggled to love to my daughter and felt depressed. I felt that a mother’s love for her child should be the most natural thing in the world, and there must be something fundamentally wrong with me as I grappled with showing my feelings.

Again I sought guidance from my mentor and she told me that it was important that I learn to love myself and to listen to myself so that I could give love to my daughter. This was almost shocking to hear. I had never thought about loving myself. It sounded selfish. I understand now what good advice it was and why it is important to seek guidance from a mentor and gain new perspective on one’s struggles. I chanted Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with the prayer to treasure my life and nurture myself. This was the beginning of a gradual process of change in my heart, which eventually manifested in all areas of my life.

I know for sure that my Buddhist practice gave me everything I needed to truly empower myself and expand my life.

In the meantime, though, my marriage did not last long and my husband and I went our separate ways. I realised that I had got married for the wrong reasons. I moved into little flat with my young daughter and was not sure what to do with myself after six years of being a housewife.

Having done part time work selling jewellery, and because of my interest in coloured gems and the love of beautiful things, I completed a course in gemmology and began making jewellery, which I loved. I got a stand at a Christmas flea market, hoping someone would buy something I had made and feeling disappointed when no one did.

However, as SGI president Ikeda writes, “The place where you are now is vital. Challenge your circumstances and steadily persevere. The path toward victory opens from where you stand.” Through the good fortune we accumulate through our practice, we find ourselves in the right place at the right time to grasp a great opportunity.

Sometime after this I was invited to display my jewellery at a performance of the National Ballet at the University of Johannesburg. My name and contact details were placed on top of the display cabinet, and soon after the show I received a phone call from a man asking to purchase a bangle for his wife. I discovered from his business card that he was the CEO of a well-known company.

Later I received a phone call from his wife thanking me for making such a beautiful piece and asking if I could make a matching ring for the bangle. She simply fell in love with my jewellery! Many of her friends then began to get in touch with me with requests for my creations. Things began to take off and before long I was developing a stable business.

Another big struggle at this time was to move into a better accommodation. I chanted sincerely to have a bigger place for our group meetings, but because I hadn’t been working for very long it was it was very difficult to secure a bond.

Fortunately, my estate agent introduced me to a financial planner who managed to apply for a bond for me, and in 2009 I finally bought my first property.

In 2013, I was inspired when I saw that the theme of AngloGold Ashanti “AUDITIONS” gold design competition was “Celestial Origin.” This theme immediately resonated with me and with my Buddhist belief that the power of the universe exists in the life of each person. I decided to enter the competition so that I could share the ideas that the theme inspired in me, and to create some exposure for my jewellery design business.

I was one of 16 finalist chosen from 500 entries of top designers around South Africa, and went on to place second overall in the competition. I was then invited by AngloGold Ashanti to exhibit my piece at the Design Indaba Expo in Cape Town—a showcase for the finest South African designers in all spheres.

Suddenly it felt like my life had become a dream.

Financial independence has allowed me to pursue other goals. Dancing has always been one of my passions and I was now able to take private lessons and enter various competitions each year. I have won many awards.

In March 2012, I attended the SGI - Value Creation Society youth training course in Tokyo. During the course, I had an opportunity to receive personal guidance from a senior leader, Mrs Akimoto, and I asked her about an issue that had been weighing on my heart for the past almost 30 years. Finding my mother.

Over the years, I made efforts to contact her but was unsuccessful. I asked Mrs Akimoto, ‘Should I still look for my mom after all this time? Maybe she doesn't want to see me.’

Mrs Akimoto replied with confidence, ‘You must look for her, it’s important. I will help you to look for her, even if it’s like trying to find a needle in the haystack.’ I gave her all the details I had of my mom and she promised that she would chant for me and look for my mother.

I came back to South Africa and forgot about the conversation, but after a few weeks I received an email from Mrs Akimoto. She had managed to discover my mom’s whereabouts through a mutual friend. She was living in Tokyo’s Kanagawa area.

The email mentioned the events that had taken place in my mother’s life after she left our family home. She had remarried and was running a small tutoring school where she taught children after school hours. She also owned an antique store, where she worked on weekends. 

On the first occasion that Mrs Akimoto tried to visit my mom, the store was closed. On the second trip she was able to meet her.

My mom told her all the reasons she had not been in contact with me. She said there was so much she wanted to say but felt it was not yet the right time. She wasn’t ready to face me. She felt that it might be better not to meet me.

Mrs Akimoto showed my mom an article in a paper about the meeting I had attended during the training course. There was a photo of the participants in which I appeared. Mrs Akimoto told me that my mom looked at the photo of my face for a long time. She felt, from their conversation, that my mom must have her reasons for not having contacted me, but that she loved me and thought about me. She advised me that if I decided to email my mom, I should have someone translate the messages into Japanese.

For the next five years, I sent my mom emails, but received no reply.

In 2016, during a visit to Taiwan, I met an SGI member, Maylin, who shared her experience with me of chanting up to the age of 45 to get married and eventually marrying a Japanese man. I asked where she lived and she told me it was close to Kanagawa! I felt this was very mystic, meeting a woman who could speak both Chinese and Japanese and who lived not far from my mother. She said she would be willing to assist me in making contact with my mom.

In January 2017, I was approved by the South African Department of Trade and Industry to exhibit my jewellery at the Tokyo International Jewellery Exhibition. I wanted to try to meet with my mother while I was in Japan, however I was on a very tight schedule as I had committed to two voluntary community events, and so I was not able to extend my stay beyond the exhibition. So I managed to arrange to arrive two days before the exhibition and planned with Maylin and Mrs Akimoto to try to see my mom before the exhibition. I didn’t realise the significance of this decision of the changing my date of arrival at the time.

Self doubt and questions clouded my mind, but I continued chanting daimoku for the best outcome, trying not to raise my expectations. I had endless conversations with myself, trying to calm my fear of being disappointed. I asked myself over and over, what if she rejects me again? If, at the age of 40, my mom still rejects me, how will I get over it?

I was deeply grateful that both Maylin and Mrs Akimoto made themselves available to be there for me and were willing to visit my mom with me. I requested that we could chant together before we set off. The journey to my mom’s store was almost an hour-and-a-half. When we arrived, a customer was inside the store. When I saw the back of my mother, my heart just about jumped out of my chest. I waited in the car while Maylin and Mrs Akimoto went ahead of me into the shop. After a while I went in too.

When I saw this little lady standing in front of me, I realised that I was no longer a child but a fully grow adult. She looked deeply at me and asked us to sit down.

She began to talk and told me that her parents had also divorced — that this was her karma. She explained to me why she had left my father.

I know that it is also my karma to have experienced the breakup of my parents’ marriage. I take full responsibility for my karma, my determination is to face it and change it.

I reminded myself of this with the following guidance from Ikeda Sensei: ‘The nature of human beings is truly bewildering and complex. The things we seem to have no control over is called karma. The conclusion we reach is that, when we live in accordance with the great inscrutable Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, we can harmonise everything and change the poison of any bad karma into medicine.’

My mom told me that she had had a feeling I would be coming to visit her very soon, and that it was her birthday. She said that my visit was the best gift, and if I had come the following weekend I would have missed her, as she was going to an antique fair. The timing was perfect.

She invited me to visit her home and asked if I would like to sleep over. However, the next day I needed to work at my jewellery exhibition, so instead, I invited her to the exhibition. She joined me at the gala dinner, attended by many of Japan’s top celebrities, and we spent a wonderful evening together.

After 30 years of waiting patiently, my dream of meeting my biological mother has finally been realised and the timing was perfect. The journey to this point has been a journey of understanding the karma of my parents’ separation, becoming a parent myself and experiencing the break-up of my own marriage, then rebuilding my life, piece by piece, establishing my financial independence and finding a new relationship. It has been 30 years of working day by day and year by year — investing in the diamond within myself, polishing each of its facets, waiting for the right moment to shine.