Lee Lin Chin

Lee Lin Chin (born 1953) is an Indonesian-born Australian[1] television, radio presenter and journalist. She is best known for her association with the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) network, and presented SBS World News on weekends.

In this Chinese name, the family name is Chin.
Lee Lin Chin
Born
Jakarta, Indonesia
EducationSingapore – grad/professional school
Occupations
  • Television news presenter
  • radio presenter
  • translator
  • journalist
  • fashionista
Years active1968–2018
Known forSBS World News (1992–2018)
The Feed

Lee Lin has been a news presenter and journalist since the late 1960s and has become popular throughout social media.

In 2016, she was nominated for the Gold Logie becoming the first SBS personality to be nominated for the award in the station's 36-year run.

Early life

Chin was born in Jakarta, Indonesia to Chinese parents[2] and grew up in Singapore, where her media career began in television and radio in 1968.

Media career in Australia
Lee Lin Chin, at the Logies. Chin's eccentric style has led her to somewhat of an iconic status.[3]

Chin migrated to Australia in 1980 where she began working for SBS TV as a translator for Chinese language films.[4] Wanting to return to broadcasting, Chin moved to ABC Radio in both Newcastle and Darwin.[5] In 1987, Chin moved to SBS World News, presenting the weekend news, where she remained until her retirement in 2018.[6]

Chin has had many roles throughout her career, including news reading, research, reporting, interviews, selecting and programming music, voice-overs for commercials, and producing in-flight programmes for international airlines.

Chin has also starred in a minor role as a newsreader in the independent Australian movie Resistance by Hugh Keays-Byrne. She also had a small role, playing a Thai interpreter, in the 1989 Australian mini-series Bangkok Hilton, with Nicole Kidman.

More recently, Chin has been involved in creating small segments for SBS's The Feed where she presents small comedy segments including "Pranked with Lee Lin Chin", "Lee Lin Chin Versus Maggie Beer", "Celebrity Chin Wag", comedic cooking show "Lee Linguine" and most recently "The Real Newsreaders of Sydney" with fellow newsreaders Sandra Sully and Natalie Barr.[7][8]

On 18 May 2015, she was announced to be Australia's spokesperson for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. She gave the "all-important" twelve points to the eventual winner, Sweden's Måns Zelmerlöw and his song "Heroes".[9] She returned to this role in 2016 and gave twelve points to Belgium's Laura Tesoro and her song "What's the Pressure", and also the following year, where the twelve points were awarded to the United Kingdom's Lucie Jones with her song "Never Give Up On You". In 2018, she was replaced in this role by Ricardo Goncalves.

On 6 August 2015, The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that the tweets posted on Chin's official Twitter account were ghostwritten by comedian Chris Leben, head comedy writer for The Feed. It is unclear how much of an input Chin actually has in overseeing the account, however, an SBS spokesperson insists that Chin "has to see everything that goes out in her name". Chin's depiction on The Feed and social media are more or less an exaggeration of herself that are "inspired by" her personality. An SBS insider states that Chin "can be quite funny, which she is never allowed to be on the news". They believe the key to her success is that "people get to see something they don't usually get to see".[10]

In July 2018, Chin announced her resignation stating that "...working two days a week didn't give me enough time to devote to the pub and re-reading the complete works of Shakespeare. So now that I work zero days that issue has been addressed."[11]

In October 2018, Chin was placed number 74 on Maxim magazine's Hot 100 list.[12]

Personal life

Chin enjoys travelling and reading, William Faulkner being a particular passion of hers. She is a lover of music, a photographer, a serious film buff and an avid beer enthusiast.[10] Chin speaks conversational Cantonese, Mandarin and Hokkien.[2]

References
  1. "Lee Lin Chin". Penguin Books Australia. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  2. "Lee Lin Chin, 2004". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  3. Liaw, Adam (31 July 2018). "Lee Lin Chin was a trailblazer and I will be forever grateful to her". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  4. Lichfield, John (18 September 2006). "Inside Story: Now back to you, Tetsuya". Independent. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  5. "Saxton: Speaker Profile, Lee Lin Chin". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  6. "'Unique in every way': Lee Lin Chin bids farewell on final bulletin for SBS". ABC. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  7. "Lee Lin Chin's hilarious career change". Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  8. Code, Bill (28 November 2014). "Popular Australian newsreaders channel Anchorman in epic broadcast battle". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  9. Cronin, Seanna (24 May 2015). "And the 2015 Eurovision winner is…". Northern Star. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  10. Munro, Peter (5 August 2015). "The two faces of Lee Lin Chin". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  11. "Lee Lin Chin quits SBS after 30 years of presenting". ABC. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  12. "ROBBED: Lee Lin Chin Somehow Didn't Win Maxim's Hottest 100". Retrieved 27 October 2018.
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