ranga Chinese Association

Finally some proof that it exists!

Well not really, just a photo from the Pakuranga Chinese Association's Christmas Party.

Anyway this will be my last post for this year.  Hope you all have a safe and merry Christmas and New Year.

Bus station killer jailed for 10 years

From The West

Convicted killer Patrick McMahon has been jailed for life with a minimum of 12 years for the murder of a complete stranger at Perth’s Wellington Street bus station two years ago.

McMahon, 24, was originally charged with wilful murder but was convicted last month by a Supreme Court jury of the lesser crime of murder.

The jury rejected his defence that he was insane at the time.

McMahon, homeless and suffering a mental illness was asking people for a cigarette as he wandered through the bus station on the night of December 27, 2007.

Suddenly he lunged at Japanese chef Junichi Uchiyama stabbing him twice in the neck.

In court today Justice Nicholas Hasluck described it as a brutal and unforgivable attack on an innocent bystander without any provocation or warning.

The judge added that while McMahon’s judgement may have been clouded he still had the mental capacity to know what he was doing.

The 12 year minimum was back dated to McMahon’s arrest in 2007 which means he could be freed in 10 years.

Asian Australian Blogs

They are divided into two sections.

The blogs in the first section deal with racial/cultural/identity issues on a regular basis:

Ed's Rant
Eurasian Sensation (half-Asian)
Hoa Pham
IceTea
Into Dawn's Forest
Maria Tran
Mellow Yellow (kiwi)
No Added MSG
paper planes
stephiepenguin (half-Asian)
The Banana Lounge
Thuy Linh Nguyen
Tom Cho


The second section is the full list and also includes blogs written by Asian Australians about general hobbies/topics like food, fashion and technology. There are a lot of these now, a lot more than I thought but they are harder to find as they don't stick out as being distinctly AA. They don't cover any racial/cultural/identity issues, or they don't post enough about them. Ideally it would be great for some of these bloggers to post more about identity, culture and race from an Asian Australian perspective, because sometimes it just seems oh so very quite in this part of the world.

A
A Thousand Miles
Ad astra, ad infinitum
Adam in ()
A Few of My Favourite Things   (food)
A Literati
all things d 
Amour. Devour. Embrace
Aussie Asians Pop Blog!

B
Babyminnieee 
Banana Tikka Masala (Food)
Boy Meets Book (Books)
Business Chic

C
Carla, Darling!
Caveat Lector
Chris lives here
Clarity - You had me at hello(Home-made jewellery, fashion, food)

Colour It In
Cross a Black Cat
Crunchy Tiger (Food)

D
Darren Ng #8 (for the Adelaide 36ers)(Sport)
Derrick Siu

E
Ed's Rant (Sketches, Personal)
Emily J Sun
emmakins888 
Escaping Emerald City (Acting)
Eurasian Sensation (half-Asian)

F
Finding Myself
flatnoseinchina

G
GenerallyJen
Grab Your Fork  (Food)

H
Hoa Pham

I
IceTea
immortali.se
Into Dawn's Forest

J
Jane Lee. Journalist
Jenius (Food)
Jingwen

K
Kapooka Baby
Kiwi's Spot
knowledge is crazy 

L
Lee's Korea Blog
Lemtek
Life of F Bi (Entrepreneur stuff)
Lone Female Photographer (Photography)

M
Maria Tran (Acting)
mayu kanamori: philosopher's photos
Mel: Hot or Not (Dining)
Mellow Yellow (kiwi) (Feminism)
Michael Aulia (Tech)
Mooiness
Mr Gadget (Tech)
My MND Journey 

N
Names Will Never Hurt Me
Night Time Brothers Present
Noodlies - Thang Ngo
NZ Born Chinese

O
Ooh, Look...
Oh My Soul

P
paper planes
Pink Winks

S
SakuraRyu
Sarah Cooks
sardonicsmile
SilverKottage 
Simplicity Me
Snippets of Life
Stay Tuned with Heidi Han 
stephiepenguin (half-Asian)

Steve-ism
Strong Coffee Please
Style Wilderness

T
tamingthewild
Tell Me.
The Banana Lounge
The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua
The Dorm Farm 
The Double Pump
The Koh Koh Nut
The Very Very Hungry Caterpillar
thecattylife
thorfinn
Through the Looking Glass
Thuy Linh Nguyen
Tom Cho

U
UCFOAD(A)L
Unique Schmuck
unwound floors

V
vegan about town
Viet-My Bui

W
weiwei says hello
words.

Y
yewenyi (half-Asian)
YongDDee
YU

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.

Brave soul honoured

A TEENAGE boy who died saving two friends has been recognised with a bravery award.

Darren Chhuon, 16, swam to the rescue of his friends at Edithvale beach in dangerous conditions on January 14.

The Springvale South teen was able to get his friends to safety but the conditions and exhaustion proved too much and he died at the scene.

Darren’s mother Dany Dy accepted the posthumous Royal Humane Society Bravery Award on his behalf at last week’s ceremony at Government House. “I’m very, very proud of him, but I always say I wish he was still alive.”

Darren’s best friend Kosing Tchong said: “I feel pleased Darren is being remembered here today as a hero, because that’s what he is”.

Darren Chhuon's mother Dany Dy (second from left) with Ausi Thai, Michael le, Susan Hong and Kosing Tchong.

 MordiallocChelseaLeader

Westpac botches runaway millionaire hunt

Westpac's runaway millionaires are a step closer to keeping the cash after the bank bungled an attempt to recover its losses through the Hong Kong courts.

Leo Gao fled New Zealand in May with partner Kara Hurring and her daughter Leena, after a banking error gave his business a $10 million overdraft.

They transferred about $6.7m before the mistake was discovered and Westpac clawed back less than half.

The failed legal action means Westpac's chances of recovering the remaining $3.8m appear to rest on New Zealand police convincing Chinese authorities to extradite the runaways.

Even then, Gao would probably have to agree to hand over the money as part of a deal to escape greater punishment, according to one insider.

The revelations emerged during a Herald on Sunday investigation into Westpac's efforts to recover the money.

In New Zealand, the bank has seized and sold Gao's property investments for below-market value to help recoup its losses and settled an employment dispute with the worker responsible for the banking error.

In Hong Kong, it took a pummelling in the courts after trying to recover money Gao passed through a casino in nearby Macau.

The bank lost the case and had to pay the casino's legal bills before one of its lawyers moved to distance themselves from courtroom manoeuvres.

Details of the case are contained in a legal judgment from the Hong Kong Court of First Instance.

The ruling, by Deputy High Court Judge Ian Carlson, described how Gao was "quick to take advantage" of the error.

Carlson said, according to reports he had read, Gao had transferred "ill-gotten funds" to "various accounts in Mainland China and Hong Kong".

His ruling revealed that Gao had help transferring the money from his brother Lei Gao and mother and business partner Huang Di Zhang.

Kara's sister Aroha joined them for the first leg of their exploits, telling friends she was drinking beer and loving the heat of Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China, before returning to New Zealand three weeks after the banking error.

Carlson said one of the accounts into which Gao deposited money was with Wynn International Marketing, a casino and resort operator with a casino in Macau.

The ruling reveals that Gao transferred only part of the missing millions to the casino - $658,643 - but is the only other party named in legal action by Westpac in the Hong Kong courts. That suggests the bank has no idea where to look for the rest.

Westpac's action against Wynn International Marketing was an attempt to extend High Court orders in New Zealand to freeze the assets of Gao's family.

Carlson initially granted Westpac permission and papers were served on the casino's account with the Dah Sing Bank, one of Asia's largest.

But the lack of detail in the order meant the bank froze the casino's entire account, not the $660,000 sought by Westpac.

Carlson said the casino claimed the move had caused "considerable losses" and "damaged its reputation".

He said the casino intended seeking compensation from Westpac and its lawyers - although the Herald on Sunday understands the matter was dropped after Westpac paid the casino's legal bills.

It also emerged the freezing order made in Hong Kong should not have been granted.

Carlson said a legal error had been made - Westpac had come to court with a freezing order from a New Zealand court when only a full court judgment would have been recognised.

He cancelled any authority the bank believed it had in Hong Kong, and warned Westpac's lawyers about trying to get the court to rule on matters on which it had no jurisdiction.

That prompted one of Westpac's lawyers to seek a special court memo stating he had nothing to do with the botched application.

A Hong Kong legal source said Westpac went after the first, and only, target it could find.

"The fraudsters, having got so lucky, decided they would go and have a little flutter in the casinos in Macau," said the insider.

"Money was then transferred to ... give them lines of credit with the casino.

"But Wynn had no notice they were doing this with money they had stolen until much later. If you turn up tomorrow at the casino with US$1m, they aren't going to ask you where you got it from. They'll just let you gamble.

"When Westpac discovered what had happened they saw these sums of money going into the casino's bank account. They then charged off and got all these injunctions and sought to enforce these orders in Hong Kong without standing back to think 'have I got any claim against the casino'."

The mistake had blunted Westpac's attempts to recover the cash. The source said it was telling there were no details of further attempts to recover the cash on any Hong Kong legal database.

 NZHerald

Victor Chang street name suggested

A submission has been made by a developer to rename the section of the street where pioneer cardiac surgeon Dr Victor Chang was slain.  The proposed rename is "Heart St", to recognise the legacy of Chang.  Currently the only tribute to Chang is a stone memorial at Clontarf, near his home.

There are hurdles as renaming only a section of the street may confuse emergency services.

The Mosman Daily