Posted: October 7, 2021
For a lot of my life, I’ve felt embarrassed and ashamed about my culture. My parents told me I’m Chinese but primary-school me would argue “but you came from Vietnam and we eat heaps of Vietnamese food”. High-school me would criticise Asians in general and...
Posted: August 15, 2021
Author: Anonymous My Mum, who’s in her 60’s, has asked for help with a number of things during this lockdown. Sometimes the requests seem reasonable to me but the last thing that bugged me was when she asked me to help her come up with...
Posted: August 12, 2021
Author: Anonymous Let me start with a story. I had just moved out of home for the first time in my adult life and my parents came over to visit unannounced. I was happy to see them and excitedly poured them a cup of tea...
Posted: August 5, 2021
Author: Anonymous As children of immigrants, we’re trained to feel ashamed of all of our opportunities. I say trained because, for me, this has stemmed from a lifetime of being reminded by my parents of the things I have that they never had: an education,...
Posted: July 13, 2021
Author: Anonymous My husband asked me this question without any malicious intent but I could feel the insecurity within myself leading to me wanting to respond defensively. I was drawing a complete blank. In a way that only family can get under your skin, I...
Posted: June 19, 2021
Guilt, anxiety, difficulty connecting with others. When you come from an immigrant background, these are some of the things you might end up dealing with more intensely than others. Growing up as an Asian Australian, I’ve spent a lot of my life figuring out how...