MINH BULH JONES was walking home one day when he suddenly heard the revving of a car engine behind him. He turned around and saw the bonnet of a Holden Monaro accelerating towards him.
Minh dropped his bag and started running frantically as the two men chased him, laughing at the sight of him dodging for cover. "Go back where you come from, ching-chong," they yelled before driving away.
This was the final straw for Minh. For ten years, since arriving from Vietnam, he had tried hard to fit into Australian society. His efforts included taking up Aussie Rules, playing cricket in a helmet twice his size, holding BBQs in his backyard, buying regular jars of vegemite and becoming a journalist because "that's what an Australian without any career prospects would do."
Despite such attempts, Minh says he still "stood out like Henry Lawson's Bastard from the Bush".
So finally, he gave up, angry and hurt at his wasted efforts. He turned his back on Australia and started to proclaim he was Vietnamese. “I convinced myself that I was living in exile, and that one day, I would, like Odysseus, set sail for that sweetest of journeys – home, which was Viet Nam, my island in the mind,” he says.
In 1993 Minh finally reached his romanticised home country but he was unprepared for the culture shock that awaited him there. Nothing was as he had imagined and he realised “the bittersweet truth, both disillusioning and exhilarating…being in Viet Nam was making me homesick. I was missing Australia – the country I had rejected”.
Minh is one of three writers who penned an essay for In-Between 1.5 generation Viet-Aust, a combination of literary and artistic works that looked at the issues of the 1.5 generation Vietnamese in Australia.
Minh's experiences, as told above, are catalogued in “The Journey Home”, which tells his story of living between two cultures and constantly searching for a sense of belonging between them.
"Young immigrants like myself who fall between the definitional stools of first and second generations; social misfits who neither fit into their family nor their society; Nigels of the cultural never-never. Those of us whose home is a floating world of split identities, cultural ambiguities and multiple neuroses," is how Minh describes the 1.5 generation.
Who are the 1.5 generation?
Many 1.5 generation Asian-Australians (1.5ers) are able to identify with Minh's description. The 1.5ers are those who were born overseas but migrated to Australia with their parents when they were young children.
This group is able to immerse itself into their new country, unlike their parents. They attend local schools, mingle with Australian peers, learn to speak the language fluently and grow up with an intimate knowledge of their new country’s culture.
However, at the same time, they also grow up with the values and traditions of their birth country. In the family home, the 1.5ers' parents try to retain their origin's culture and a sense of stability amidst an environment of change.
Hence the 1.5ers live in between two cultures and often feel pulled between the two.
Dr Allen Bartley, who researched 1.5 generation Asian-New Zealanders for his doctorate thesis, describes this group as “a special category of migrants”. They contend with the challenges that all migrants undergo, such as displacement, adjustment and alienation, but in addition to that they also experience other unique challenges specific to them.
“They are located at the convergence of a number of different social pressures: between childhood and adulthood; often between their parents and the local community; between origin and host societies; and between competing demands on loyalty and attachment,” says Dr Bartley.
This holds interesting implications for the 1.5ers in terms of how they construct their identity and create a balance between their two cultures.
Identity - Is Asian-Australian an oxymoron?
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| Thao Nguyen |
She told The Sydney Morning Herald that when she was 11-years-old, she was confused after reading on her passport that she was Australian. “I thought Australia was white and I never called myself Australian,” says Thao.
For 1.5 generation Asian-Australians like Thao, their perceived physical difference – in a country where the mainstream is Anglo-Saxon – can often play a role in hindering them from feeling completely Australian.
Despite Pauline Hanson's claims of Asians "swamping" Australia, Department of Immigration statistics reveal only 4.5% of the Australian population is made up of people from Asian background.
"You look at the Chinese that have been here since the gold rush – five or six generations – and they’re still asked, ‘can you speak English?’ or ‘where are you from?' "says Thao.
“So you still have a legacy that Australia is white and the White Australia Policy was only officially dismantled in the 70s, so there is this sense of White Australia still existing and it will take incredible effort in order to shift that.”
Thao, who was selected as Australia’s Youth Representative to the United Nations in 2004, says her selection was “ironic” because many people didn't think of her as Australian. They would say things like, “we never would think you would be Australian” or “oh, you don’t look Australian”.
“I don’t know if I took it personally because it was just about their perception of Australia as a country. But it made me feel a sense of exclusion because you’re not legitimate in a sense; you’re not a real Australian,” says Thao.
She says it was also disappointing because “time isn’t a factor” in being considered Australian.
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| Elaina Ou |
Elaina says she considers herself Australian even though she was born in China. She is more laid-back and easy-going, characteristics that she attributes to being Australian
For Danny Kwon, the issue of his cultural identity is a no-brainer – he’s Australian. Despite his Asian appearance, he says he grew up in Australia with Australian people and “at the end of the day I see myself as an Australian, not Korean."
In Dr Bartley’s research, he found most 1.5ers’ identities were oriented towards being Asian rather than New Zealander. He says the social distance these 1.5ers felt between themselves and other New Zealanders was attributed to them being Asian.
The Korean-American journalist, Connie Kang went as far as to say that Asians could never fit into Western society because of their appearance.
“I do not believe we Asians can assimilate…because of how we look,” writes Ms Kang in her autobiography. “The melting pot was possible for non-English-speaking Caucasians from Europe once the second generation spoke English like natives. But with us, it does not matter how long our ancestors have been here and how well we speak English. Even a fourth-generation Chinese-American whose grandparents came to San Francisco in the 1850s will still be considered a “foreigner” in America."
However, there are subjective notions of being perceived as different, according to Christina Ho, from the University of Technology, Sydney. Hence people of Asian background may not be regarded as so different in the future.
Perceptions are also contextual, says Ms Ho,whose research interests include migration and identity. She points out that while European migrants were considered to be almost "alien-looking" in the 1950s, nowadays they are not considered to be that different.
"Even though objectively Asians do look different, it is still quite subjective,” says Ms Ho.
“I think a lot of these things have a subjective symbolism that becomes more or less important in different times. Asians are always going to look physically different but what subjective symbolism that difference has can change quite dramatically."
But for the time being, many 1.5ers identify with the 'banana' analogy: 'white' on the inside, 'yellow' on the outside. This conflict between what's inner and what's outer can leave them feeling split between the two identities, 'stuck in between' their two cultural sensibilities.
Stuck in the middle: The ‘in-between’ generation
The 1.5 generation often feel pulled between their two cultures and many describe it as being “stuck in between” or “living in two worlds”.
Daniel Kim says it is like wearing two invisible hats – he puts on his “Australian hat” when he leaves the house then dons the “Korean hat” when he comes back home.
He says the two hats “represents all things Australian, all things Western – the politics, the jokes, the sports, the food, the mannerisms, the use of language, the dispelling of stereotypes.”
Thao also identifies with this idea of wearing hats in different cultural environments. “Sometimes you can’t coexist in both of these worlds simultaneously,” says Ms Nguyen.
“Like the Thao with her boyfriend is different to the Thao with her family. Thao with her Anglo-Saxon friends is different to Thao with her Cabramatta friends.
“And so you do wear different hats and sometimes it’s very, very conscious. I do that and that’s a normal function of daily life for me, it basically becomes normal,” says Thao.
“I think it’s the only thing that you can do in order for all these parts of your life to exist [together] without a lot of trouble. So I think this is a mechanism that you’re forced to adopt."
For some 1.5ers, like Daniel and Thao, moving back and forth between the two cultural worlds is easy. Over time, it has become a part of their lives and they have grown accustomed to it.
However, for others, it can be more difficult and confusing. Connie Kang described it as “mental gymnastics of moving back and forth between these often-conflicting two worlds.”
“My several lives were often incompatible, and I led a schizophrenic existence. I shut the door to one when I entered the other. Back and forth I traveled, sometimes within minutes of each other. At times I felt at home in all, and at other times I thought I belonged to none. Could I really find one world where my life’s many components – now separated by languages, culture, and sensibilities – could be integrated?” writes Kang in her autobiography.
It is not easy negotiating a stable identity that incorporates both Asian and Australian, agrees Dr Bartley. “It is a difficult journey to get there,” he says.
The question for the 1.5 generation is whether they want to attempt to reconcile the two worlds or shift primacy – of loyalty, belonging and identity – to one or the other.
Often this is difficult to negotiate because the 1.5ers find it difficult to feel a complete sense of belonging in any of the worlds they exist in. Whether it is in Australia, their ethnic community in Australia or their country of origin, they never seem to feel a total sense of belonging. Thao says when she is in Australia she feels more Vietnamese but in Vietnam she feels more Australian. And while she feels more attachement to the latter, "at the same time, it's not complete, it's not complete belonging anywhere," she says.
Sahny Van describes a 1.5er as being "someone that isn’t identified as a person from their country of residence nor their place of birth. Someone that is caught in-between cultures." Sahny says he is definitely a person of the 1.5 generation. "Anglo-Saxons don't see me as an Australian from my looks dispite my accent. But Australian-Asians don't see me as Vietnamese because I don't speak Vietnamese, have a strong [Australian] accent and have been here for over 20 years," he says.
However, Dr Bartley says the conflict between the 1.5ers' two worlds is not always necessarily cultural. It also includes intergenerational tension.
“Parents often want or need them to acculturate quickly in order to be cultural brokers,” says Dr Bartley.
In other words, the 1.5 generation, who learn to speak English proficiently, are relied upon to act as mediators between their parents or migrant communities with the broader Australian society.
Thao took on this role as mediator from a young age. She’d translate documents and talk to insurance companies for her parents. When she was six-years-old she even negotiated a car accident settlement on behalf of her mother.
At the age of 14, Thao also coordinated the Holy Trinity Committee at her younger brother’s school, and attended all of his parent-teacher nights.
She says the responsibility forced her to be independent and resourceful.
Elaina is also familiar with the process of being child mediator. From the age of eight, she helped run her parents’ business, a Chinese takeout/restaurant at The Oaks.
She dealt with everyone from customers and tradesman to the local council where she would go with her dad to renew their business licence. She says she was her parents’ “little translator” because they couldn’t speak English.
Dr Bartley says parents want their children to quickly acculturate so they can help out with family responsibilities but at the same time, they also want their children to not acculturate too quickly, and retain the values and practices of their origin culture.
This is when the intergenerational conflict manifests itself because the 1.5 generation often can not meet both demands. Their parents want them to become Australian in one sense, but at the same time, they don’t want them to become completely Australian.
It is also difficult for the parents who want their children to retain their origin's heritage but see them becoming 'too Australian'. This is the situation faced by the Chinese mothers in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club when one of them says, "I wanted my children to have the best combinations: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things do not mix?"
The 1.5ers would have to agree that the two things do not mix. They have to quickly become independent, resilient and resourceful in the Australian society but within the family home, they are expected be obedient, respectful and dutiful to their parents. These two sets of expectations often clash.
The 1.5ers may thus have more responsibilities but perhaps less rights than their Australian peers. Many 1.5ers have stricter impositions on things such as going out, staying out late and studying hard.
In particular, there is a great emphasis placed on studying and education by the parents of the 1.5ers. This is partly because many of the parents came to Australia seeking better opportunities for their children and partly because Asian Confucius culture places a high premium on education and learning.
Thao says her parents wanted her to study hard so she could “a) redeem them and b) not recycle their lives.” She says her parents worked incredibly hard so she and her siblings could have the opportunity to succeed.
However, Thao says a lot of the pressure was also self-imposed. She says 1.5ers have direct access to the sufferings of their parents as they witness them struggling in a new country. Thao say this had an impact on her and gave her the impetus to over-achieve.
Daniel's parents also expected him to do well and placed importance on education. However, Daniel says the parental expectation is fair.
His parents, who lived affluently in South Korea, gave up everything so their children could have better opportunities in Australia. “They’ve sacrificed and as a consequence they don’t want to see their sacrifice go to waste,” says Daniel.
But he does acknowledge that parents can go overboard. “Some parents go over the edge and that can do more harm than good, so it needs to be balanced,” says Daniel.
For 1.5ers the issue is often about finding this sense of balance between the many pulling forces in their lives, compromising their position between family and society, between the different worlds they inhabit.
According to Cuong Phu Le, the Asian-Australian Community Cultural Development Officer at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, the way to create this balance is by creating a bridge between the two cultures or worlds.
Mr Le, who has initiated and curated a number of projects on 1.5 generation Vietnamese-Australians in Sydney, says the concept of the bridge is important in reconciling differences and building a harmonious balance between the two cultures.
Mr Le’s projects with the 1.5 generation aim to show how such bridges can be built. This has been done through the works of artists and writers, who show their own individual process of creating an equilibrium between two cultures through the metaphorical representation in their works.
For example, in the exhibition, In-Between 1.5 Generation Viet-Aust, Binh Truong made a short film featuring a girl who goes on a quest to find her true identity. The protagonist is symbolically named Hyphen and she is the creation of invitro fertilisation. Her search for identity is representative of the artist's own experience of yearning to know who she is because she is also made up of many components. The film concludes with Hyphen discovering that she is the product of two worlds (Alpha and Beta) and that is she the essence of the best characteristics from each world.
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| Hyphen in Binh Truong's short film. Courtesy of Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre as part of the exhibition titled In-Between 1.5 Generation Viet-Aust, 2002. Image detail: Life in Hyphen (digital video still), dir. Binh Truong, dur. 10 min, 2002 (from the exhibition titled In-Between 1.5 Generation Viet-Aust, 2002) |
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| Elaina with her family 1997 |
When Elaina went back to China for the first time in 1997 she experienced an unexpected culture shock. The air was polluted, the skies were a murky yellow colour and there were always so many people and traffic bustling about.
Elaina says she felt very Australian in China. This showed in subtle ways like how she and her two siblings couldn’t eat Chinese food every day because they grew sick of it, and they had to find a place that sold hamburgers
It also didn’t help when relatives kept commenting that the Ou children had become “so Australian”.
Elaina came back to Australia “feeling quite uncomfortable as to who I was, whether I was Australian or whether I was Chinese, whether I had to be one or the other. I also came back thinking, ‘I don’t exactly fit in over there but yet when I’m in Australia, I’m not Australian in the sense that I’m not Anglo-Saxon’…I found myself being more confused.”
When the 1.5 generation return to their country of origin, it often challenges the notions of their identity, says Dr Bartley. For some, it is realising how much they have adapted to their new country and how foreign their country of birth has become.
So for 1.5ers like Minh in “The Journey Home”, a return to their country of origin can affirm their Australian-ness.
Daniel says after his first trip to South Korea in 1996, it opened up a newfound interest and pride in his heritage.
He yearned to learn more about Korean culture, language and its people. So he started watching Korean dramas, which contain “the stereotypical Korean culture in a box” and began associating with more Korean peers at university.
“It was the realisation that deep down, I am still Korean,” says Daniel.
Similarly, Thao says a trip to Vietnam in 1999 helped her obtain a sense of peace about who she was.
She says growing up, she had always been told about a kind of “dream world”, a place where she had come from.
But Thao says she could never reach out to this “dream world” or confirm its existence, which made her feel like it was also a “ghost world”.
“But the ghost world is a part of you because you were brought up in this ghost world. You were brought up on the values of this ghost world, the images of this ghost world,” says Thao.
“And then when you go to that country, it’s realised, it’s real, it’s tangible. And so then a part of you gets validated, a part of you becomes tangible. All those things that you were brought up on – the values, how you see yourself, this and that – it becomes more cemented, it becomes more real because this world is real now it’s not just a ghost world anymore.
“So then the part of you that is dependent on all of these things, this upbringing and this ghost world, becomes validated and so you as a person can obtain a sense of peace,” says Thao.
The future of 1.5 generation Asian-Australians
The emergence of 1.5 generation Asian-Australians is a relatively recent phenomenon. This is because people of Asian background have only been able to migrate to Australia since 1974 when the White Australia Policy was formally abolished.
The 1.5 generation has statistically been counted as part of the first generation and in Australia they have not received much attention from academia or broader society.
But Dr Bartley says there needs to be more awareness and research on 1.5 generation Asian-Australians.
One of his key findings showed many 1.5 Asian-New Zealanders were reproducing transnational patterns like their parents, choosing to live overseas in their adult years. Dr Bartley wonders whether Australia could be experiencing similar migration patterns.
If 1.5 generation Asian-Australians opt to work and live overseas like their New Zealand counterparts, this could have significant implications for Australia’s discourses on migration, permanent settlement and loyalty, says Dr Bartley.
And if the 1.5ers are moving overseas then Australia could be losing a valuable resource.
“This is a generation of well-resourced, ambitious, motivated, multi-lingual, culturally-flexible entrepreneurs,” Dr Bartley says.
“They have a dual insider/outsider role in both communities and the 1.5 generation can critically reflect on both cultures. What they need is the opportunity to develop a sociological imagination”.
Thao is a good example of what Dr Bartley is describing.
She was selected as Australia’s representative to the UN because the skills that were required for the role were ones that she possessed having grown up as a 1.5 generation, bicultural person. For example, she is able to move fluidly in different and often challenging environments, interacts well with a diverse range of people and looks at things with broad perspective. She attributes these skills to her background.
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| Thao at the UN, 2004 |
“You are brought up as a mediator, you are a cultural mediator,” says Thao. “And so you exist in an interface – you exist in the cultural interface and you exist as a cultural interface. And so that becomes a skill for you to negotiate diversity.”
Similarly, many other 1.5ers are able to acknowledge the skills they have developed as a bicultural person.
Elaina says her position has allowed her to be more flexible, open-minded and understanding of other people and other cultures. She is able to look at situations with two perspectives, which gives her more awareness, insight and balance.
Daniel compares the experiences of the 1.5ers to the life experiences obtained from traveling overseas.
He says when people travel overseas, they’re forced to live and breathe a different type of world to what they’re used to. Then when they return, they are able to draw upon their experiences of living in that different culture and apply what they’ve learned to their everyday lives.
“So you’ve got people who pay the money and take the time out of their life and look for that experience - I’ve been born into it. I’ve been given the opportunity to live in a foreign country and yet still grow up with this cultural heritage of being Korean,” says Daniel.
But it’s not just about what the 1.5 generation can gain. It’s also about what society can gain from the experiences and skills of this group.
Dr Bartley says the 1.5 generation also acts as a bridge between the Asian communities and mainstream Australian society.
“They can mediate between the two communities; they can model Australian values to their parents while modeling origin society values back to Australians,” he says.
Cuong Phu Le also says the 1.5ers are an important link between the first and second generations in their own ethnic communities.
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| Cuong Phu Le |
“The 1.5 generation is the bridge between the first and second [generations],” says Mr Le. “Because without them, who’s going to bring out the Vietnamese culture in a way that is accessible to the second and third generations?”
But for the time being, the 1.5 generation just want to be recognised for who they are. Rather than feeling like non-citizens, lost in an abyss, they want a sense of belonging in a country they grew up in or the cultures they were raised in.
As Minh concluded in his story, "There are hundreds if not thousands like me, those 1.5 [Asian]-Australians, who have thrashed their way through this unbidden journey of self-discovery."
Perhaps it's time the coin flipped. Maybe Australia needs to reassess its own identity as the dynamics of its multicultural society continues to change and the definition of who is Australian becomes more fluid.
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