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a penguin of very little brain
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| in the anticipation of |
[Jan. 24th, 2009|09:17 pm] |
what are you all doing for chinese new year?
today i:
- braved the crowds at the chinese grocers down william street for a lantern for my mum (emma's was very busy! there was a lot of choice!)
- bought the required new chopsticks (this year they are red!)
- very thoroughly cleaned the house
this chinese new year i am looking forward to:
- all the very delicious things my mum is cooking for reunion dinner
- playing a lot of mahjong
- wearing a new (sadly not ang) dress (noooooo)
- seeing lots of friends
- eating a lot of noodles
- eating a lot of love letters and kuih. also if i am really lucky there will be some pineapple tarts in my future, and perhaps some yam cake
to do tomorrow:
- OMG BUY ORANGES
- return CGB's book
- put up the Gaudiest Decorations Ever |
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| a memo to the internet: |
[Jan. 5th, 2009|07:34 pm] |
2009 isn't the Year of the Ox until we've had the Chinese New Year! It is still currently the year of the Rat for twenty-one more days! OKAY GOOD.
In other news, I don't do New Year's resolutions. If I want to change then I'll pick today to change. But if you do them, I am intrigued to know why! And also perhaps to what you have resolved yourself.
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| [book] growing up asian in australia, alice pung (ed) |
[Oct. 11th, 2008|10:04 pm] |
I cannot review this book impartially, and I'm not sorry. I can only review this as an Asian-Australian who grew up in Australia.
Growing Up Asian In Australia is an anthology edited by Alice Pung, unsurprisingly about growing up Asian in Australia. It was published in July, and I am going to force it upon my sister (surprise!), and when she is done I am going to force it upon ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) elaran and then upon linstar, and then after that a queue has already been formed by the one million Chinese-Malaysian Australians with whom I am acquainted.
This book was amazing. It resonated so much for me, about the problematic negotiation of being Asian in Australia, about the search for identity and place, about the way I feel about speaking Mandarin and Cantonese and Bahasa, the way I feel about being Chinese and being Australian and not being Chinese enough or not being Australian enough. Cultural identity is more than how you look or what language you speak or where you were born, and this book is so many anecdotes and stories, tales of going through what I go through and that search for identity, that desire to belong to know who you are.
My favourite tale was 'Destiny,' by Shalini Akhil, about an Indian-Australian who wants to be an Indian Wonder Woman, and the way her grandmother gently guides her. I almost wept as I finished the first piece in the anthology, 'The Relative Advantages of Learning My Language,' by Amy Choi, about not bothering to learn Chinese as a child. I also loved Ken Chau's 'The Terrorists,' about that judgement when you're not from around here.*
Some of the pieces I enjoyed more than others, and some pieces resonated more with me than other pieces did. Only one left me wishing it had not been included, 'Are You Different,' about a Caucasian-Australian couple who internationally adopted a Filipino baby. This piece really jarred, because every other story was about a young Asian-Australian struggling with growing up and trying to become an adult in a predominately 'White' country, whereas this story was about an adult Caucasian woman justifying her international adoption of an Asian child. It just felt a bit off to me in this anthology.
Overall, the anthology is this thoughtful collection of stories. It has taken me about three days (I started on Wednesday night and finished just now, I sulked when I drove to archery today because I couldn't read, I was driving), and some of it was funny, and some of it was painful, and some of it was delightful, but it was all amazing.
In the introduction, Pung says that the anthology is the sort of book she wishes she had had when growing up, and I absolutely agree. We exist! I am not alone.
An interview with Alice Pung and the author of 'Destiny,' Shalini Akhil, can be found here. Growing Up Asian in Australia can be found at major book stores.
* in particular: I want to kill / the fucking bastards / for making me feel that / being born in Australia / and being an Australian / are not the same. I make a point of saying 'Sydney' when I'm asked, and I still feel like I'm betraying something, and I still hate being made to feel like I'm a novelty. |
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| cultural appropriation: what's left behind when you're done with your fun |
[Aug. 25th, 2008|03:00 pm] |
I saw an auntie on Saturday night. She was attending a work function in the hotel in which we are staying, so she was all dressed up with pretty clothes and painted toe nails and a diamante swastika pendant on a chain around her neck, because she is Buddhist.
The bus I've been catching from the hospital meanders down Dato Keramat and past a building with a swastika carved into its face.
The coffin is draped in a silk covering, the covering patterned with swastikas; I visited a shop selling sparkling, multicoloured swastikas; I drove past cast iron swastikas forming the shapes in fences.
The thing about cultural appropriation is that maybe you think it's fun, or just a symbol, or whatever, but sometimes it leaves a legacy that means this religious symbol is pretty universally equated with white supremacists and hate crimes (and Nazis) in the West. This is interesting, though, because I would suggest that Jesus' cross has also been co-opted by white supremacists, but the image of a crucifix doesn't inspire that visceral, gut reaction. Well, not as much, anyway.
Anyway. Cultural Appropriation: stop stealing other people's stuff. You might think your appropriation is harmless, but have you asked? |
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| i got lost in the sound |
[May. 2nd, 2008|06:52 pm] |
The punchline:
At work today, I found myself involved in a conversation which included Will saying, "Steven's Chinese, of course he likes fried chicken!"
Some backstory:
We have developed this theory, one supported by about ten of us of Chinese descent, by way of Malaysia. This might taint our research somewhat: perhaps the fried chicken theory applies only to Chinese-Malaysians, rather than Chinese people in general; or it might apply to people from South-East Asia.
When Davyd and I had our second wedding feast in Penang, course number three comprised of a vegan fried chicken dish; when we have catered meetings at work, a lack of KFC is always met with protest. My colleagues, who don't understand the vegetarian thing, have tried Utopia's mock fried chicken - it's fried chicken, it has to be sampled (The verify that it is delicious).
And so:
I sort of wish I had left the punchline to float in the ether, so you had no idea what I was talking about, but you can feel free to weigh in on the issue. Obviously I no longer eat fried chicken and I don't want to, but my word do I miss it, sometimes, and the mock fried chicken was so good.
But:
It's still racial stereotyping when you do it to yourself. But that doesn't mean other people get to make the same jokes. |
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| dan lepas |
[Feb. 13th, 2008|10:52 pm] |
hari ini saya mulai belajar bahasa jerman |
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| lions |
[Feb. 8th, 2008|08:44 pm] |
As we stepped off the bus I turned my head; I could hear the drum beats in the air, that familiar sound that means a lion is dancing, for heads of lettuce and for money. The lion dances to bring good fortune and luck, and dances to the beat of the drum and the echo of the gongs in order to scare away the bad spirits.
As we walked, the drums grew louder and faster until it was clear that they were finished, that the lion had done its exorcism and eaten its ang pao, and we saw finally the lion itself, a beautiful red one with white through it, and the dance never changes but equally it is never the same, and it never fails to thrill me, to hear that beat in the air. |
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