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Summary Of The Book 'Growing Up Asian In Australia'

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In the book Growing Up Asian in Australia, author Alice Pung and her fellow authors suggest that through identity and belonging through a sense of death and loss, the generational gap in family and discrimination can cause one's identity through hardship can change significantly in their life as they have had to try and push through the hardship by the people around them to find a sense of identity. However, there are exceptions to this as some characters have already found their identity regardless of the difficulty from others they receive. In the book Growing Asian in Australia by Alice Pung, it is seen that one’s identity is shaped through diverse types of discrimination, and this makes it difficult for one to express themselves. In the …show more content…

In the short story in GUAIA, “Sticks and stones and such like” by Sunil Badami, Sunil writes how he changes his name because he feels it is hard to belong in his community because of his culture and discrimination, thus changes his name. “If I couldn’t be less black, surely I could get a name that made me feel less black? why couldn’t I be well- Neil?” (his name is Sunil). Badami uses this sentence as imagery to make the audience picture him black and wanting to change this as he does not fit into his community in anyway as everyone else discriminates him and is white, thus he wants to change his name to fit in. Editor Alice Pung reveals through this passage in this small text that when people feel as though they do not fit into a specific group, whether that be a racial majority group or anything else, they try to change their identity to fit in. Next story, author Amy Choi, through the story “The relative advantages to learning my language” writes about how when she was younger she lost her identity to her culture because she did not care to do it or her grandfather who wanted to have a relationship until he passed she started to put more effort in. “I am simply trying to …show more content…

In the short story “5 Ways to Disappoint Your Vietnamese Mother” by the author Diana Nygren, she reveals that she loved to act on stage and continued her success after high school until her mum stopped supporting her because it was not a successful enough career. “For the past 2 years, I have been a working actor in Melbourne, and not once has she come to see me perform. I do not invite her anymore.” Nygen symbolises by writing this piece of text that her mother simply does not support her as this career is not successful enough for her daughter and she is embarrassed of her. The cause of the generational gap between the mother’s belief and her daughters in their ideas of success are different therefore the mother stops supporting Nygen, although regardless of this Diana still seems to continue doing what she loves regardless of her mum’s beliefs. Through this example, Choi expresses that sometimes family’s disapproval because of lofty expectations can alter who you want to be, but you can push past this and find your own identity. Another example of this may be when author Diana Nygen expresses that she has always had a communication gap between her mother and herself and is not interested in

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