A brutal attack inspired this action comedy coming to Wollongong's IPAC in November

A Practical Guide to Self Defence is the first major theatre work for the Australian-Chinese playwright, which is loosely based on his life as he goes from asthmatic geek to brutal fighting machine.

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Yang had studied multiple forms of self defence like Kung Fu and Judo but was left wondering if he'd barely be able to walk again, let alone practice martial arts, after that vicious attack on his way to work.

"My nervous system had been damaged and I looked up and I just I was in so much pain," he said.

Yang said when he finally was able to get out of bed, he resolved to write about it and parts of his life.

"The play is about more than just martial arts, but it's certainly a starting point," he said.

"It's loosely based on my experiences growing up and what was going on in Sydney and I suppose that very superficial male masculine view of self-defense is about fighting."

Part play, part instructional guide, the piece is sprinkled with practical demonstrations, like how to trip and how to fall as we hurtle towards our existential contradiction-defeating the beast within.

Yang was born in 1969, two years after the White Australia policy was abolished (a set of historical policies aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin from immigrating to Australia).

He said growing up in Wollongong he didn't feel like people were being racist towards him, "it was just life".

"I look back and I realise there were so many things that were probably racist things happening from the adults," he said.

"There were things happening from the kids, but it's so much more innocent when they're kids as they don't really know."

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Originally written as a series of short stories, it's taken more than a decade to get Yang's story to the stage.

It runs for about one hour and 30 minutes (no interval). Yang will do a Q&A after his November 10 performance.

A Practical Guide to Self Defence will debut at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta on Thursday October 20, before heading to the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre from November 9 to 12.

For more details on the Wollongong show, visit: www.merrigong.com.au.

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