This book explored the ways in which Vietnamese women broke away from the traditional roles of womanhood to play an active role in the war and society.  This was a revelation, as I have never conceived the notion that Vietnamese women could defy and breakaway from the yoke of the patriarchal dictates of conservative Vietnamese society.

When I was a kid, I remember watching a Vietnamese opera that told the story of a cruel mother-in-law who could sold off her daughter-in-law for making the simple mistake of adding the wrong ingredient to her favourite dish.  In this operatic piece of social commentary, women were beaten and shaped into subservient slaves by men and fashioned by domineering mothers-in-laws. But the opera was hard to understand for a kid. Besides people crying, and the eye-catching colourful costumes, which I thought was great, I could make no sense of it. Yet, these operas constituted the few instances in my childhood that provided a window into understanding the psyche of the Vietnamese. The fact that these earlier stories of my childhood might have been intended to be political or feminist critiques has never occurred to me for I was a child then and no adult had explained those themes to me.

At any rate, these memories passed into temporary oblivion as I went to school and found myself absorbing and learning about Australian aesthetics and culture.  From then on, my whole world changed from being a wholly Asian one to a wholly white Australian one.

What was wonderful about this book was that I felt as if I had stepped into a whole new world. Here, I came to witness and experience Asian people taking control of their own collective consciousness on a massive scale. This realisation that Asians are capable of agency and initiative gave me an exhilarating feeling of increased self-confidence and allowed me to dare to dream beyond any limits that I may have placed on my goals. 

Because I live in Australia, almost every thing that I see in mainstream media is saturated with ‘whiteness’, whether its focus is domestic or international. This lack of adequate minority-race representation in the media subconsciously perpetuates the linkage of twin qualities of ‘humanness’ and ‘civilisation’ to the represented majority in the media - the white race. On the flip side of the coin, the rest that do not belong to this majority, by default, bear the cross of being the less-‘human’, less-intelligent and less-important Other. This imbalance in media representation and the attendant implications of being constructed as the Other can have a tremendous impact on how we Asian Australians perceive ourselves. After all, if the mainstream seems to think so little of us that we virtually disappear from the media, how can we find assurances of a viable Asian presence within Australia without role models in the media? 

Not being able to understand one’s language, or gradually losing touch with one’s own culture or ‘roots’ can create a disturbing void in one’s life. Conversely, keeping in touch with one’s culture can provide a sense of pride and thus, self-empowerment, which can have a positive effect on one’s self esteem. 

Having positive representations and  positive role models in the mainstream media is, I argue, almost essential for a healthy self-esteem in the average Asian Australian. Yet, the Australian media still portrays negative and grim pictures of Asians and even if they are present in the media, they are often seen in the form of grotesque caricatures and cliched stereotypes.

Onscreen, we far too often see the Asian in the crowd that never speaks; instead he is portrayed as Mr Wong, Bruce Lee or worst still, Jacky Chan.  If you are an Asian and female, you are the ultimate postcolonial dream.  Skinny as a stake, a whiz in the kitchen, fantastic in bed and always obedient.  On the other extreme, there is the aggressive Asian woman - controlling, sexually starved and power hungry. A good example is the character of Ling in Alley McBeal and that Thai woman that spits ping pong balls out of her genitals in Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert (yep, I feel completely okay about it…not!). Enough with the cliches and racist sexual innuendoes already.  Just treat Asian people onscreen like every one else. 

The Other Australians’ magazine is essentially about obtaining an in-depth insight into understanding the figure of the Asian-Australian and hopefully, through this, a feeling of pride and belonging can be fostered in all Asian-Australians. 
 

J.Lam