Sylvia Chew was the daughter of an Australian-born mother of Chinese descent and a father who had travelled to Australia from China as a tourist and then remained. Chew grew up in the Victorian country town of Shepparton where her father was a doctor. After completing her secondary schooling, she undertook teacher training at Melbourne Teachers' College and subsequently taught at schools in Mebourne and at country Nar Nar Goon. Some years after the birth of her son, Chew set up a kindergarten in the Melbourne suburb of Burwood where she lived. The kindergarten ran from 1940 until the end of World War II. During this time Chew wrote Little Chiu : A Series of Stories, the first in an intended series of children's picture books. Although two further books were written, Chew was unable to find a publisher. Her original Australian publisher (Murfett) had ceased publishing books and no British publishers were prepared, at that time, to publish a work with a Chinese subject although Collins responded favourably to the book itself.
