Nielsen Margaret - Growing up Asian in Australia

Growing up Asian in Australia

Growing up Asian
in Australia
......................................

Edited by
Alice Pung

Published by Black Inc.,
an imprint of Schwartz Media Pty Ltd
Level 5, 289 Flinders Lane
Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia
email: enquiries@blackincbooks.com
http://www.blackincbooks.com

Introduction and this collection Alice Pung & Black Inc. 2008.
Individual works retained by the authors.
Reprinted 2008.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior consent of the publishers.

Photo of Hoa Pham by Alister Air. Photo of Joy Hopwood by Yanna Black.

The National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

Pung, Alice (ed.)
Growing up Asian in Australia.
ISBN 9781863951913

1. Pung, Alice. 2. Asians Australia Social life and customs.
3. Immigrants writings Australia. 4. Asians Australia Literary collections. 5. Race relations Australia. 6. Australia Social conditions.

A820.80355

Book design: Thomas Deverall
Typeset by J&M Typesetting

Printed in Australia by Griffin Press

Dedicated to all Asian-Australians, whose struggles,
aspirations and hopes across the generations have
helped make this an ace country in which to grow up.

For Alexander, Alison and Alina, who make life
wonderful, because they are.

Contents

Alice Pung

Amy Choi

Sunil Badami

Tom Cho

Ivy Tseng

Ken Chau

Francis Lee

Thao Nguyen

Christopher Cyrill

Simon Tong

Hop Dac

Annette Shun Wah

Lily Chan

Kevin Lai & Matt Huynh

Aditi Gouvernel

Oliver Phommavanh

Ray Wing-Lun

Tanveer Ahmed

Vanessa Woods

Simone Lazaroo

Rudi Soman

Oanh Thi Tran

Bon-Wai Chou

Mia Francis

Benjamin Law

Ken Chau

Diem Vo

Ken Chan

HaiHa Le

Phillip Tang

Shalini Akhil

Cindy Pan

Chin Shen

Glenn Lieu & Matt Huynh

Benjamin Law

Chi Vu

Xerxes Matza

Lian Low

Jenny Kee

Uyen Loewald

Leanne Hall

Tony Ayres

James Chong

Mei Yen Chua

Michelle Law

Joo-Inn Chew

Diana Nguyen

Pauline Nguyen

Paul Nguyen

Emily J. Sun

Kylie Kwong

Blossom Beeby

Jacqui Larkin

Sim Shen

When I was growing up, we were called Power-Points. I thought it was because we were so smart and dweeby in a dynamic Microsoft-magnate sort of way. All that untapped potential! All that electrifying brain power! Then someone pointed to an Australian power socket, and told me to take a closer look. Imagine that if it was a face, they said, think about what kind of face it would be. They saw two sloping lines and one straight down the middle, and thought it was hilarious. I didnt get it, because the power socket was white.

In fact, if there was any kind of face on it, it looked vacuously cute, like most of the lead characters in the teen fiction I was reading at the time. After a while with the exception of Claudia from the Babysitters Club, who was Asian and funny, good at art and bad at maths most teen fiction gave me the idea that I needed extensive plastic surgery. So I stopped reading those books and turned to John Marsden and Robert Cormier instead, who wrote with raw honesty and real feeling about coming of age.

Growing up is a funny time. During no other period will we experience so many firsts: first day at school, first friend, first love, first fear, first heartbreak, first loss, first epiphany. This anthology is a book of firsts all from a uniquely Asian-Australian perspective. Whether growing up in the 1950s with ancestry from the gold-rush days, or arriving more recently and attempting to find solidarity in schoolyard friendship, our authors show us what it is like behind the stereotypes. Asian-Australians have often been written about by outsiders, as outsiders. Here, they tell their own stories. They are not distant observers, plucking the most garish fruit from the lowest-hanging branches of an exotic cultural tree. These writers are the tree, and they write from its roots.

The poet Horace said Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur: Change only the name and this story is also about you. I felt this way when reading many of these stories. Compiling this anthology also made me more aware of the difficulties faced by earlier generations of immigrants parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Even with our mastery of Strine, those born in Australia in the past four decades find it difficult to be Asian-Australian. Imagine what it must be like for Asian-Australians who didnt and still dont have the language. Usually, it is the second generation that accumulates enough cultural capital to be able to put their parents experiences into words. They also have their own stories to tell about mediating between two cultures. Stories such as Thao Nguyens Water Buffalo and Pauline Nguyens The Courage of Soldiers explore the generational divide with compassion, while Mia Franciss ode to her adopted son and Blossom Beebys acceptance of her adopted heritage move us with their unassuming love.

This collection also reveals that there is more than one voice within any given culture from Tom Chos brilliant satirical surrealism to Vanessa Woodss wonderful self-deprecating humour, from Paul Nguyens aching account of adolescent loneliness to Chi Vus bewildered young lovers, from Hoa Phams painful personal journey towards acceptance to Francis Lees arrival in the Upside-Down Year of 1961, and from Jenny Kees jubilant adolescent sexual awakening to Quan Yeomans insightful meditation on art and family. As Benjamin Law tentatively steps towards manhood with Mariah Careys Music Box blaring in his ears, as Shalini Akhil works towards becoming Indian Wonder Woman, as Annette Shun Wah helps run her family chicken farm, and as HaiHa Le leaves Jehovah to become an actress these stories show us what it is like beyond the stereotypes.

I have arranged the anthology around loose themes selected with a certain irony, picking out traits that have been worthy of collective national pride the Battler, the Pioneer, the Legend to show that these heroic characteristics are not confined to those with white faces and First-Fleet heritage.

Strine explores the difficulties of navigating a different language: Ivy Tseng receives careful Chinese lessons from her father, Sunil Badami tries to change his name, and Amy Choi reminisces about her late grandfather. Pioneers includes Ken Chaus personally political poems, their impact like a punch to the gut, while Simon Tong surmounts a loss of words through sheer will and quiet observation, and Christopher Cyrill shows that a sense of home can be tied to, but can also transcend, the physical landscape. Battlers