Banana Boat

This is Susanna's 2010 RMIT Project, and there are heaps of similarities with my own experiences. 

Michelle Wu looking for a win at the Gold Coast Half Ironman

Michelle Wu's website

Michelle Wu is heading to the Gold Coast Half Ironman this weekend with a winning attitude after her recent win at the Ironman 70.3 Centrair Tokoname in Japan. Wu edged out fellow Australian Rachael Paxton by two minutes to take the race. The swim proved to be the difference.

Ironically Michelle refers to her swim being her weakest leg now in triathlon even though she came from a swimming background. This is one of the reasons why she is focusing on long course non-drafting racing.

Michelle has been based in Canberra since moving from Sydney with her parents at 2 years old. She loves the lifestyle there. "Canberra is awesome for riding, running etc. I really love the way I can train here".  Michelle has been coached by Ben Gathercole since she first started in triathlon. Has been setting up her programs and training her for almost 6 years now. Ben coached Simon Thompson when he went to Athens in 2004.

Michelle grew up as a swimmer which is ironic now that she says it is her weakest leg. At high school she swam and played basketball mainly. After high school she went to Wollongong University where she completed a Bachelor of Science majoring in chemistry and physics. While at Uni Michelle did an aquathlon at the Uni that was organised by the local triathlon club.  She was one of the top finishers and was then convinced to ride a bike.

"When I finished Uni in 2003 I went back to Canberra and joined the Trident club. I am now working part time at IP Australia (Australian Patent office) and deal with patent applications in the physics department. I work about 25 hours a week which allows me to fit in all of my training. Work is very supportive of what I do and they always approve my leave applications. I have been there part time for almost 4 years".

"I was out with stress fracture at the start of 2010 and had plantar fasciitis as well. Since Byron Bay i have put in a good winter of training and I am feeling really good now".

Michelle had a great win in Japan on September 19. This was the first WTC 70.3 ironman she had competed in. "I have done a few halves with some good success but it was exciting to race an official WTC event. I knew it was going to be hot, tough day so I did not know how I would go. Living and training in Canberra I didn't think I would be prepared for the heat. I had no expectations going in to Japan and there was not much of a start list to gauge the field. Rachel Paxton from Australia finished 2nd".

"I had a good swim even though I have just been saying the swim is not my best leg. I came out of the water in second place and about 30 secs behind the first female swimmer. I took lead on bike at about 30kms and held on for the rest of the race. I headed out on to the run a minute ahead and took it out pretty hard but the heat got to me at around the half way mark. I had trouble breathing and slowed down to almost a walking past. It was almost like asthma. I am prone to it but haven't had it checked out yet. It always kicks in when conditions are really hot and humid. I do prefer a cooler race.

"I really enjoyed the time in Japan and have been there a few times. I always have really good experiences in Japan and I love Japanese food". Michelle studied Japanese at school and did a few exchange trips to Japan while at high school. "I will always try to go for races in Japan and also Korea. I find the way you are treated in both of these countries a great experience. The Japanese very helpful and really look after the athletes".

Michelle was also 3rd recently in an ITU Asian Cup race in Korea.

Ironman 70.3 is Michelle's preference now. She focused on ITU last year and has broadened her outlook this year. Because swim is not her strength the draft legal races can be a long and lonely day if you miss the bunch.

Michelle took delivery of a TT bike in April. A Felt DA. She has been riding Felt for 4-5 years now. She started through local bike shop TLC Cycles in Canberra and now is directly sponsored by Felt. "I have been very fortunate with sponsors since being an age grouper. I have been with all of them for several years. All have stuck by me through good and bad times. I never went out to chase the sponsors in a big way but they seemed to fall in to place. I did chase some by placing expressions of interest on some of their websites".

Wu is really excited about the Gold Coast Half Ironman. Judging from previous results Michelle is looking forward to a podium result but she is going there to win. "There is a pretty good field of girls racing this weekend. I will need to use my bike and run to my maximum potential if I am going to win. There are a couple of really good swimmers racing so I need to be on my best game in the water. I possibly might be the strongest runner out of the girls".
For the rest of the year her race calendar consists of Nepean triathlon, a Hong Kong ITU race towards the end of October and she will race the  Taiwan Ironman 70.3 on last the weekend in October. "I haven't raced in Taiwan before and I am really looking forward to it. I am also really excited about the Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship in Laguna, Phuket http://ironmanphuket.com/. I haven't really planned past Christmas though. I will most likely do the Huskisson long course triathlon though".

Michelle is very excited about future long distance races in Australia. She cites the attractive overseas prize money as one of the main reason she chooses these races." Australia is definitely looking good though for the future. I would rather race locally"
Trizone wishes Michelle all the best for the Gold Coast Half Ironman this weekend.

Michelle Wu's website
Michelle's Blog


Recent Results
2010

19th Sept Japan 70.3 1st
22nd Aug Incheon ITU Asian Cup, Korea 3rd
15th Aug Yeppoon Half IM 2nd
8th May Byron Bay Triathlon 2nd

2009

20th Dec TACT Race 2 5th
28th Nov TACT All Stars Race 3rd
17th Oct ITU Asian Cup, Hong Kong 3rd
9th Aug ITU World Cup, Tiszaujvaros, Hungary 38th
25th July ITU Asian Cup, Beijing, China 12th
14h June ITU Asian Long Course Champs, Korea 4th
24th May ITU Asian Cup, Amakusa, Japan 16th
16th May ITU Asian Cup, Subic Bay, Phillippines 3rd
5th April ITU Oceania Cup, New Plymouth, NZ 10th
29th Mar Mooloolaba Aria Open Elite 1st
15th Mar Australian Olympic distance Champs, Perth 9th
21st Feb NSW Pro Tour, Huskisson 2nd
15th Feb Australian Sprint Champs, Hobart 6th
18th Jan NSW Pro Tour, Kurnell 1st
11th Jan ACT Sprint Champs 1st
Source

LTLPrints Interview with YiYing Lu

There is a massive interview with Yiying Lu at LTLPrints and in addition to the interview, there are samples of most of the big projects she has been involved with.  I really like the new designs she's done.  I won't bother copying the whole thing here so click the link to the right to get redirected to the interview... More details>>>

Chinese urged to give politics a go

RYDE City councillor Justin Li, 28, believes more Australian Chinese should enter politics.

He said in the past, most first generation Chinese community leaders and politicians in Sydney were based in Chinatown and were mainly business people.

The Chinese community, however, had dispersed, settling in other parts of the city, including Hurstville, Chatswood, Ashfield, Burwood and Eastwood, he said.

“We are seeing more second generation Chinese Australians in politics. These are people who have grown up and have been educated here.”

He said Senator Penny Wong, the first cabinet minister of Malaysian Chinese descent was an example.

Cr Li will share his own experience of becoming involved in local government in a Chinese in Australian politics seminar at UTS on Wednesday, September 8.

The panel members will comprise both first and second generation Chinese Australians.

“The panel will discuss the importance of participating in politics and addressing the current low levels of representation of Chinese Australians, especially at state and federal levels,” Cr Li said.

“My view is that it’s important for there to be a greater diversity of people in government representing our very diverse Australian community.

“A lot of my work involves helping people solve their day-to-day problems. They may have issues, such as overgrown trees, uncollected rubbish, parking fines, problems with their development applications.

“While some of the issues may seem to be mundane matters, they are important to my residents and affect their everyday lives. Sometimes I’m contacted by people from outside the Ryde Council area, simply because there are no other Asian councillors in the North Shore area.

“I try to help them where I can,” he said.

Cr Li gave some tips for young Chinese people entering politics.

“It’s important to have patience and to spend time listening to the community. You need the attitude that no problem is too small for your attention,” he said.

“You also need the courage to speak out for the community on the things you believe in. At the same time, you need to be realistic and pragmatic, knowing that you will not always get 100 per cent of what you want for the community,” he said. “Finally I think it’s important to give things a go. If you don’t try, you’ll never know.”

Source

Know Your Asian Australians: Annette Shun Wah

This week I caught up with media personality Annete Shun Wah.  She has been in movies such as Floating Life and The Home Song Stories, and numerous television and radio shows.  Annette also shared with us a part of her life in Growing Up Asian in Australia.  Her family has been in Australia since the late 1800s and you can read more about the history of the Shun Wahs here.


Who are you?

An optimistic woman with a short attention span.

What do you do?

I'm a writer, broadcaster, actor and sometime theatre producer based in Sydney.

I'm involved in a variety of projects, currently ranging from programming and hosting a music show called “Global Beat” on Qantas inflight radio, to MC at big events such as WOMADelaide, Sydney Writers’Festival and OzAsia Festival which is coming up in Adelaide in September. I'm also writing and researching a project with the Powerhouse Museum and dLux Media Arts.

I also run Performance 4a, a non-profit organisation dedicated to inspiring Asian-Australian performance, and am developing a festival of performance for Sydney early in 2011.

I serve on the board of the Sydney Writers’ Festival and on the Performing Arts and Arts Management Committee of Asialink.

What made you go on this path?

Given my short attention span, I don’t really travel one “path” but many. A “profusion” one might say, or a “diffusion”, or more accurately, a “confusion”. My love of music scored me a job in radio before I'd even finished my Uni degree, and led to a career in the media (commercial radio, Triple J, SBS-TV, ABC-TV). My work has usually been about media, arts and identity.

Political/social issues: just the usual – equality, justice, freedom.

I guess the thing I'm most vocal about is a recognition and embrace of Australia's culturally diverse society. I think we all have much to gain by being more curious and open to difference, rather than fearing it. A more inclusive society will be fairer, more harmonious, more imaginative and.. produce much more entertaining TV, music and film!

What's your background?

I talked about my family's story as part of the Centenary of Federation Ceremony in Sydney's Centennial park.  My paternal great-grandfather came to Darwin from Canton, China in 1878, and set up a bakery.  His daughter, my grandma, was born in Darwin, married and moved to central Queensland where my father was born, the second youngest of 7.  The family went to China in 1932, and my father grew up there, marrying my mother and having my eldest brother, before returning to Australia in 1950.  My second brother and I were born in Cairns, north Qld.  I grew up just north of Brisbane on a chook farm!

What makes you laugh?

My puppy. My partner. My friends. Ahn Do. Jon Stewart. Simon Pegg. Stephen Fry. Bill Bailey. Spinal Tap. And Barnaby Joyce.

What’s one thing you couldn’t live without?

Memories.

What was the last book/movie that you read/saw?

Last books: The Master by Colm Toibin and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Both highly recommended and better than any movie I’ve seen in ages.

What’s one thing about yourself most people wouldn’t know?

I am NOT, and never have been, Lee Lin Chin. Stop confusing us, people!

I read some of your comments regarding The Legend of Billy Sing casting controversy, can you restate what you wrote?

I was very angry that this could happen in this day and age. Here was a great opportunity to tell the story of an Australian war figure, who happened to be half-Chinese and half-English, yet the director chose to cast non-Chinese actors in the lead (the director’s son, by the by) and as the father, who was in fact, Shanghainese. This lazy casting is a betrayal of history, eliminates the extraordinary circumstances that make this such an interesting and complex story, dishonours Billy Sing and his family, and whitewashes the telling of Australian stories. Again.

What would you say to someone who told you that there are a lack of Asian or talented Asian actors in Australia?

That they are mistaken. There are currently 73 Asian-Australian actors on the Performance 4a directory alone. There are many others who have not yet signed to the directory. Acting institutions churn out a new batch every year.

Who do you think perpetuates this myth? Are we partly to blame?
What are the issues/obstacles facing Asian actors?

Let me answer these two questions as one.

Actors of Asian ethnicity are not given the casting opportunities afforded other actors. They are called only when a character is specifically described by ethnicity. Otherwise, when casting the majority of roles that might call for “a mother” or “a lawyer” or “a neighbour”, Asian-Australian actors aren't offered the opportunity to audition.

Because they so rarely get the parts, their work is not seen (hence the assumption that there is a lack of talent ) and they do not get the same opportunities to develop their craft. Many end up working overseas.

If you think about it, few Asian-Australian roles means few Asian-Australian stories, or perspectives, in our canon. So it’s not just the actors who are excluded, but our stories, our experiences, and our points of view. That’s the real concern.

Who is to blame? Anyone who doesn’t see how important this is.
What’s the solution? Devise your own work. Let’s stop relying on others.

Do you think the response from our community was adequate? How could we be more organised?

Do you mean the response to the Billy Sing casting? I don’t want to give it any more oxygen. I would think it’ll never see the light of day. But if it does, we should watch it – so as to be informed - then give ‘em hell! This deserves as much attention as the Hey Hey black face incident, and is in many ways far worse. Networks such as blogs, Facebook pages and groups such as Performance 4a should spread the word and organise high profile artists, writers, etc to voice well-conceived arguments.

Who’s one of your favourite Asian Australians and why?

So many – it’s hard to choose – especially those who are my personal friends. Historically, Quong Tart achieved so much for both Chinese and Australians in his day. A just and honourable man. I also admire filmmaker Khoa Do – incredibly talented, inspiring, smart, funny and generous of spirit.

What’s your favourite memory about growing up Asian in Australia?

My parents and older brothers spending half a day in the kitchen making our very own spring rolls, as a way of persuading me that they’d be better than store-bought Chiko rolls! I was too little to help with the cooking (but not the eating). Feeding us something special was the closest my parents ever came to expressing affection.

What advice would you give to young Asian Australians thinking of entering the media/acting industry?

Go for it! We need your talent and your passion. But be prepared for a tough time, and most importantly, look after yourself by making sure you have an alternative way of earning a living, so you’re never in a position where you’re forced to do something you’re not comfortable with.

Thanks for your time Annette and thanks for speaking up!  The OZAsia festival is looking really good this year.  You can find out more on Performance 4a here and some of those in the directory include Chris Pang and Andy Minh Trieu (both in Tomorrow, When the War Began, which comes out next month)

Click here to read other interviews in the Know Your Asian Australians series

The Legend of Billy Sing - Trailer

Well the trailer to The Legend of Billy Sing has been released and I must say I am very dissapointed.  I knew that they had cast a white actor for the role of Billy Sing and that the mini-series would be roughly based on Billy's life.  I had a suspicion that they would not mention his Chinese heritage.  And after watching the trailer, I can safely say the only thing Chinese about the Billy in this series is his last name, which is not a name immediately recognisable as being Chinese anyway.  In the trailer there is a scene where the whole family are at the table, they are all white, including the father.

Face it people, it seems one of our heroes has been white-washed.  This series is no Band of Brothers, a lot of the plot has been pulled out of nowhere.  I know it's for entertainment but the producers seem to have gone too far.  Too much bs for my liking.  Desecration is a word that comes to mind.

What's the matter, you want to make a series about his achievements and exploits but can't stand the fact that he has Chinese heritage?  So to overcome this you whitewash him and his family?

I can see a situation reminiscent of the movie Gallipoli.  Remember the scene where the British officers send the Australian troops to attack?  They were actually Australian officers.  Thing is, many Australians now take the movie version as fact.

Now the same thing will happen to the story of Billy Sing, many will take the mini-series as fact.

Gallipoli myth indeed.

See My detailed response to The Legend of Billy Sing casting controversy

Join the Asian ANZACs page. 


You may also like to read about Caleb Shang.

Banana Split - Portable Film Festival

I stumbled upon this short film on one of my forays into the internet world.

It's called Banana Split and is about growing up Asian in Australia and also Malaysian-Chinese-Australian in Australia.  Written by Sharon Chung and directed by Clinton Tan in 2005,  it was entered into the Portable Film Festival in 2006.

Synopsis

Grab a taste of Malaysian-Australasian life! The culture, the family, friends and bananas lah! An authentic recipe for what it takes to grow up as a foreigner in your own kampong (backyard).

If the video does not come up you can access it directly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF9VF1toZTg

Festival video site here.

RIP Jack Wong Sue

 Jack with three of his seven children

It is with great sadness that I make this post. Jack Wong Sue OAM DCM, WW2 ANZAC, has passed away at the age of 84.

It was over a year ago on ANZAC day when I first noticed Jack while channel surfing. He was in the ANZAC day march in Perth and my first reaction was "wtf". I was confused. The commentator said something along the lines of "...WW2 veteran Jack Wong Sue..." I made a mental note to chase this up. This is something I never expected to see.

ANZAC day for me has always been a day when the whites grandstand over the rest of us. That we were just 'japs' and we were a threat to them in WWII, conveniently forgetting that the other menace during WWII were the Germans, aka whites. Or that I wasn't even a 'jap'.

So to see someone with Asian features in the ANZAC parade was truly mystifying. In my full twelve years of Australian education, not one teacher had even hinted that there may be Australians of non-white race, apart from indigenous Australians, fighting for Australia. No one ever told me about Chinese Diggers. You can see why they would omit those details.

Anyway, it wasn't until this year that I started to do a bit more research and boy was I surprised. There seemed to be so many: John Joseph Shying, Billy Sing, Jack Wong Sue, Kate Quan and many more.  There are also many who had fully anglicised names who we may never track down, and many mixed children of Chinese fathers and white mothers who took on their mother's maiden name when enlisting in the hope that they would not be discriminated against by the army/government.

In addition to these, there were also many who were denied the opportunity to fight for their country due to discrimination and many whose efforts were not recognised. The Australian Government had betrayed them.

Jack himself suffered a lot of racial discrimination and abuse before, during and after the war. Yet despite all of this he was a determined man who achieved everything with steely resolve. He took crap from nobody, not even higher ranked officers. A larger than life character who was skilled in many things, he enjoyed scuba diving and playing music with his band. I don't think my descriptions or his wiki do him justice. I really recommend reading his book "Blood on Borneo".

I had been in discussions with his son Barry on Friday about making a documentary on Jack's life, especially before and after the war. Barry had told me his father was really sick and it had gotten worse. So this afternoon when I came across a story about his passing away, I was shocked but not surprised.

We've lost one of our greatest.

Lest we forget.


Hear Barry Sue talk about his father

World War II hero Jack Sue has died in Perth at the age of 84.

Mr Sue was a member of Z Special Unit, a special forces reconnaissance unit which operated behind enemy lines in South-East Asia during World War II.

Z Special Unit was the predecessor to the Special Air Service Regiment.

Mr Sue spent months behind enemy lines in Borneo and in his memoirs claimed Z Special Unit commandos in Borneo killed 1,700 Japanese and trained 6,000 guerrillas.

Allied forces later invaded Borneo.

Mr Sue was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and rose to the rank of Sergeant during his army career.

He was awarded the Order of Australia in 2006.

His son Barry Sue confirmed he died today.

In 2006, The West Australians' Rod Moran wrote of Mr Sue's war-time exploits.

Head-hunting Dyaks, murderous Japanese infantry and the tragedy of the Sandakan Death Marches in the fetid jungle of what was then British North Borneo provided the grim backdrop to teenage warrior Jack Wong Sue's experience of World War II in the South-West Pacific, Moran wrote.

His award of the Order of Australia Medal was partly for his recording of those experiences in Blood on Borneo, a remarkable memoir of his nine months behind enemy lines in 1944-45. Published in 2001, more than 17,000 copies of the book have been sold in WA alone.

But Mr Sue's trajectory to war began when he was merely 16 years old. After receiving a white feather in the mail - a symbol of cowardice - he joined the merchant navy, sailing the submarine-infested high seas on a Norwegian oil tanker.

En route, he rubbed shoulders with nazi sailors on shore leave in pro-German neutral ports, and witnessed the fiery death by torpedo of an Allied merchantman at night.

On returning to Fremantle he attempted to enlist in the Royal Australian Navy, but was rejected because of his Chinese background. The fact that he was Australian-born and that China was a wartime ally made no difference.

Ironically, it was precisely his oriental appearance and connections - as well as his fluency in Chinese and Malay - that led to Mr Sue's recruitment into Z Special Unit, an ultra-secret organisation that infiltrated agents behind Japanese lines throughout the South-West Pacific for sabotage, guerilla warfare, and intelligence gathering.

After extensive training in the ruthless methods and technologies of clandestine warfare, Mr Sue was sent into the field as agent AKR 13. Leaving Fremantle on the USS Tuna, he was inserted into Borneo to conduct operation Agas 1. He had been issued with “L-tablets”, lethal capsules to be ingested if captured. At the time, Borneo was occupied by 37,000 troops of the Japanese Imperial Army.

The aim was to gather intelligence on Japanese troop movements as a prelude to the Australian invasion of Borneo. It was during this operation that Mr Sue won the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions in securing intelligence at Bongawan railway station.

Mr Sue was also involved in Operation Kingfisher, a plan to rescue the PoWs at the brutal Sandakan prison camp in northern Borneo. With nearly 2000 Japanese troops in the area, Mr Sue had to reconnoitre the camp and its hinterland.

All but six of the 2400 prisoners at the camp died on the subsequent Sandakan Death Marches, or were murdered at the camp itself. Mr Sue is the last living witness to the third and final march.

Historian Lynette Silver, author of Sandakan: A Conspiracy of Silence, describes his predicament: “Into their line of vision came a contingent of Japanese guards, followed by four skeletal creatures, so starved and emaciated they looked more like mummified corpses than human beings.” They were Australian PoWs.

Mr Sue's instincts told him to kill the guards and free the prisoners. But his training told him to stay under cover. The image of his countrymen as the living dead haunted Mr Sue.

In 1945, at the age of just 19, Mr Sue emerged from the jungle emaciated, psychologically haunted and a decorated war hero. With great fortitude, he began the process of building a new life in civvy street.

Jack Sue, a quiet hero and a brave man
World War II RAAF Officer and Z Special Unit hero Jack Sue remembered
PerthNow
ABC
Yahoo

Join the Asian ANZACs page.

Australian‐Chinese War Memorial Design Competition

 
What would be a better way to contribute to the Chinese-Australian community than to design a monument dedicated to those before us who fought and died for this country, whilst encountering lots of discrimination from their country and fellow countrymen.  Oh yeah, and you get $1000 for your winning entry.

Slowly, Chinese-Australian servicemen and women are being recognised for their contribution to this country.  Earlier this decade, a monument was installed close to the Sydney Chinatown (which I can't seem to find a lot of information on).  Even though this new monument will be built in Brisbane, entry is open to everyone across Australia.

To be eligible you must be between 18 and 25 as of the 1st of November, which unfortunately rules me out.  But hey that means less competition for you guys :) 

Entries close at 5:00pm Friday 26 March, 2010. Spread the word and get designing!

Graham Perrett and the Sunnybank RSL are working with the Chinese community on Brisbane's southside to establish an Australian-Chinese War Memorial to honour the service and sacrifice of Australian-Chinese who have served in the Australian Defence Forces.

The memorial will be erected in the Veterans Memorial Garden at the Sunnybank Sub Branch RSL in Gager Street, Sunnybank.

The Competition Organising Committee is seeking designs from 16 to 25 year-olds. The winning designer will be awarded $1,000.

Read the full conditions of entry here.

Join the Asian ANZACs page.

Asian Australian Host on New ABC3 Channel

Just found out that there will be another ABC channel, ABC3, which will be a dedicated channel for kids shows.  ABC held a comp to find six new funky hosts and one of them will be Hannah Wang.  Hannah beat over 5000 other entries to get the gig.  She will co-host Rush-TV which is supposed to be an action sports show.

Check out her profile on the ABC3 site (scroll down midway).  ABC3 will officially launch on December 4.

It'll be great to see another Asian face on TV, even though she'll be the token Asian chick paired with a white dude.  They'll also be showing Heartbreak High!  I remember this show from the 90's, really diverse and not that bad to watch.

NT matriarch opens office

THE matriarch of the Fong Lim family has opened the newest NT electoral office named in honour of her family.

Norma Fong Lim was surrounded by four of her daughters as she cut the ribbon for the newest parliamentary electoral office at the Winnellie shops for inaugural member of the electorate, Dave Tollner.

Mrs Fong Lim, 80, the widow of the late Darwin Lord Mayor Alec Fong Lim told the Northern Territory News it was a great honour to have the electorate named after the family.

"My dearest wish was that Alec would be alive," she said. "It means (the Territory) has come a long way. (Alec) would be gobsmacked - he would be laughing and joking with everyone."

Federal Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Tony Abbott, climbed on an Esky to MC the opening.

"What makes Australia special is that we are a great cosmopolitan country," he said, "The Fong Lims are a model of the Australian dream."

Mr Tollner paid homage to the Fong Lim family and added that it was a great honour to be the inaugural member for the electorate.
NT News

Wow this is amazing, I learn something new.. most days anyway.  Alec Fong Lim was the first Chinese Australian Lord Mayor of Darwin and was awarded the Order of Australia medal in 1986 for services to the community and local government.  A man-made lake was named in his honour, Lake Alexander. See plaque below.

The Fong Lim electorate "is located in the suburban corridor between Darwin and Palmerston. It takes in the suburbs of Bayview, Woolner and The Narrows, and parts of Coconut Grove and Ludmilla. The district also includes Darwin Airport."  It was first contested in the 2008 election.

The Yang Principle -Time Magazine

As a gay Australian of chinese descent, William Yang is intimately acquainted with the world of the outsider. Over the past 30 years, the award-winning photographer and performance artist has been quietly telling an alternate story of Australia, one inhabited by the displaced and marginalized — from AIDS victims to Aboriginal Outback tribes to the little-known Chinese settler communities dotting remote rural areas.

Yang, whose work has featured at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, has also told a more joyful, hedonistic tale of the country, capturing its gay and party scenes, and its key cultural figures, from the late Nobel Prize – winning author Patrick White to actress Cate Blanchett. From Sept. 19-25, he will showcase 16 prints of Sydney gay life at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in northern China's Shanxi province, while next February a major new work, My Generation, commissioned by Australia's National Portrait Gallery and based on the Sydney art scene of the 1970s and '80s, will be unveiled as part of Sydney's Mardi Gras. (See pictures of the gay rights movement.)

Yang is excited about his Pingyao debut, if a little uncertain about how some of the raunchier images — of naked bodies and nude men embracing — will be received by the country's conservative art establishment. The photos, he says, are "all kind of vaguely erotic, without being in-your-face. What I wanted to do was open up a discussion about homosexuality, which is something that's not talked about much [in China]."

Born William Young in northern Queensland in 1943, Yang grew up in Dimbulah, a tiny tobacco-farming town, with no connection to his Chinese heritage. His grandparents emigrated from China in the 1880s, and his family was completely assimilated — he and his siblings spoke only English. At 6, after a white schoolmate called him "Ching Chong Chinaman," Yang went home upset and asked his mother if he was Chinese. She gravely told him yes. "I knew in that instant," Yang writes on his website, "that being Chinese was a terrible curse."

He was very much a cultural misfit at high school in Cairns — he describes his time there as the worst years of his life. "I desperately wanted to fit in but there was no way that I could, not with the way I looked. Also, I knew I was gay but didn't understand what that was." He went on to study architecture at the University of Queensland, where a love for theater was sparked, and moved to Sydney in 1969. Yang tried to make a living as a playwright but found it too difficult, so he switched to photography, holding his first solo exhibition, Sydneyphiles, at the Australian Centre for Photography in 1977. "It was very successful and that one exhibition established me as a photographer of the scene, both the glamorous celebrity set and the darker, underground gay scene which was becoming visible."

At 35, he started searching for his lost Chinese ancestry by researching his immediate family and the history of the Chinese in Australia, and in 1983 he changed his surname from Young to Yang in a symbolic reclamation of his identity. "I described it as a kind of coming out as Chinese," he says. "It was a big thing for me to embrace." His first trip to China was in 1989. "The people welcomed me — they said, 'You've come back, you've come back home.' It was incredibly meaningful and moving."

Much of his art since has explored this cultural heritage, and it is among the key themes of perhaps his best-known work — 1992's critically acclaimed Sadness, one of seven dramatic monologues featuring photographic slide shows. His work strikes a chord with the wider Australian community because "Australians wonder about [displacement] a lot. For so many here, there's a homeland across the seas." His images of Australia's long Chinese history — its shrines, graves and old gold-mining settlements — are also eye-opening for many viewers. "Most people had not heard a Chinese-Australian story told from the Chinese point of view. I think my stories were some of the first to be told in the mainstream."

These days, Yang has become part of Australia's artistic mainstream himself, witnessing along the way an evolution in the country's attitude toward its minorities, particularly gays and Asians. He also notices more tolerance and diversity. "It's a slow process," he says. "There's always some resistance to change, but if the new attitudes hang around for long enough, then people start to accept them."

Time Magazine

William's official site is William Yang

Ah Xian wins $50K Clemenger for "Concrete Forest"

Ai Xian first came to Australia in 1989 and after 'discovering porcelain' has worked largely on busts and full-body sculptures that have been decorated with traditional Chinese elements often realised under his meticulous directionon his sculptured forms by highly skilled Chinese artisans, most often from Jingdezhen, a centre for ceramic production since the Ming period. His work was soon exhibited in important groups shows and he came to particular prominence when he won the inaugural National Sculpture Prize at NGA 2001. Last year he had his first one man show in Europe in 2008 at the Gemeente Museum, Den Haag, Netherlands.

As well as his porcelains he has also made carved lacquer and elaborate whole body cloisonné enamels on beaten copper underforms. Commentators on his work, noting the internal oppositions between form and content, and between traditional Chinese and western practices, in his work and the resemblance of the decoration to tattoos, have evoked the hand of indelible cultural imprints viewed afresh from a western art-production context. Xian himself has stated “when you’re away from China, you have a clearer picture of the country and its culture.” Collectors, both State and private have been keen to acquire his work (A bust, "Human Human (Bust 5)" sold for a record $A150,000 this August).

Read the rest at Arts Hub
The Age

This guy makes some really creative and amazing moulds.  Here's some of his other work

 

They ain't Asian...Are they? Fuzzy (Faustina Agolley)

Host of Vid Hits. 1/2 Chinese 1/2 Ghanaian

Crime writer breaks into major league with winning tale

Another white Australian, this time writing books with a Chinese-Australian as the central character.

Along with his first novel, Dead Set, it features the Chinese-Australian AFP Detective Inspector Brad Chen, who is investigating the double murder of a Whitlam government minister and a book editor working on the former minister's tell-all memoirs.

Canberra Times

Huh?  Haven't read it so no comment.  It has won an award so it must be 'good'.

Poh to get her own TV show

Poh, the Aussie look-alike of Lucy Liu is set to get her own TV show "Poh's Kitchen" based in her hometown of Adelaide and it will be aired on the ABC (ABC1 please, can't be stuffed upgrading to digital yet!). She will travel from Adelaide and around Australia trying new recipes.

She tells us a lot about herself in this article.

“[But] I always grew up wanting to be tall and blond – bit weird looking the way I did. I just wanted to be an all-Aussie kid.”

 Lol, hope you've grown up and discovered your real self now.

Read the article at SMH

Also read Why Poh's Kitchen makes me mad

Happy Birthday Jack

Jack is a WW2 veteran who fought for Australia against the Japanese in British North Borneo.  Jack turns 84 on the 12th of September.  I'm currently reading his book Blood on Borneo and wow has this guy had an amazing life.  Happy Birthday.

A lot more on Jack's life can be found  at
www.jackwongsue.com
I am currently in discussion with his son Barry on some form of interview so stay tuned.

Jack is one of the hundreds (possibly thousands) of Australians of Asian heritage who fought for Australia at a time when the White Australia Policy was active and discrimination was prevalent.  Asian Australians have fought in every war (including the Boer War) and yet we are always seen as foreign or not up to the task  The Defence force didn't record details of race back then so a lot of us would only be able to find the veterans of asian descent by name, if their name hadn't been anglicised too much that is.  Many many eurasian kids of Asian fathers and white mothers also elected to use their mother's maiden name (to seem more European) to get past the discriminatory recruitment practises.

If you read up on Simpson's life (John Simpson Kirkpatrick - the guy with the donkey(s)), you'll realise Simpson wasn't born here and definitely didn't spend much of his life here, he only had lived in Australia for four years and had only joined the war for a free passage to England.  And yet we get taught in class how much of an Aussie hero Simpson was.  What the?  Why don't they tell the truth, oh yeah it'll probably shatter the "Anzac Legend" myth that they have worked so hard to cultivate.  Don't get me wrong, Simpson was some sort of a hero, but there are so many homegrown Aussies and 1.5 generation Aussies who fought in the wars we should be reading about in class and appreciating.  Simpson is definitely not one of them, not as an Aussie anyway.

Australian Olympians - Beijing 2008

When I went to the Olympics last year I only had tickets to two events. Handball and Athletics. I wanted tickets to other events, you could buy them off scalpers - who were mostly everyday people who had subscribed to tickets but then wanted to sell them to make a bit of cash. Scalping was banned officially, which was funny because there were literally hundreds of scalpers a few metres away from the entrance to the main stadiums, well in view of police. I remember seeing a report on Melissa Wu on CCTV so I thought that would be interesting to watch, I'll get a ticket for diving. I had also heard there were a few Australians playing table tennis so I went to look for those tickets as well. These are really popular sports in China and I couldn't find many tickets, those I did find were priced way out of my range so I didn't get to see those Olympians in action.

Here is a list I made up after scanning through the list of Australian Olympians (I may have missed some)

• 
  
  ARCHERY Sky Kim
• 
  
  BADMINTON Eugenia Tanaka
• 
  
  DIVING Melissa Wu
• 
  
  TABLE TENNIS Jian Fang Lay, Miao Miao, Stephanie Sang
• 
  
  WRESTLINGFREESTYLE Sandeep Kumar

Most of these are imports, that is they grew up elsewhere and represented other countries before representing Australia. That's 7 out of a total 435 Australian Olympians, a very low number. From the 7, Melissa is the only one that is fully Australian. I'm not sure whether I should be happy (that there are asians representing) or sad (most of them are imports with very little Aussie culture and I don't identify with these people).

Hopefully at the next Olympics we'll see some more Australian born and 1.5 generation Australians representing.

Are we over-representing at the Maths Olympiad? Probably.

I also tried to find out details of coaches but could you believe it, there is no list of Olympic Coaches. Anyway, I know there are quite a few Asians in the non-existent Coaches list.

They ain't Asian...Are they? Jessica Gomes

Ok a corny segment to bring the mixed AAs into the fold. Some we can claim, some we can't but there's no harm in trying.

Starting with my favourite - Jessica Gomes

"Jessica was born in Perth, the baby of a family that includes two older sisters, an older brother, a Portuguese father, and a Singaporean mother."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Gomes

Is Stern Hu in Trouble?

I didn't want to post anything until I was sure this guy was Australian. It seems Stern has alledgedly been getting around and bribing ppl from Chinese Steel mills for a bit information to use in the iron ore price negotiations. The Chinese government is naturally peed off and arrested Stern and three other Rio workers in China on charges of spying, bribery and theft of state secrets. Wait a minute, I thought bribery was crucial when doing business with China, it's how they do their business and when in Rome..... China has a habit of arresting and detaining ppl it's not happy with and accusing them of breaking laws, laws that are very vague.

Rudd has finally grown some balls: "Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned that China has big economic interests at stake in the case of a mining executive accused of spying.
He said the matter was being watched closely from abroad.
Mr Rudd has been under pressure at home to be more assertive with China, to better protect the detained Australian citizen, Stern Hu. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8150985.stm


I hope he told them in English only, his mandarin tone is laughable and makes him sound like a nancyboy. If he can keep the pressure on the Chinese government and ensure that Stern gets access to all the consular asssistance required then that would be good.


No doubt Schapelle Corby will be doing something new to get the attention focused back onto her again. She got a haircut last week, I wonder what she'll try next....