Novel Alice Pung

It is true to say that all of us must question our own identity and sense of belonging at some point in our lives. There are some important questions that many people ask themselves throughout their lives. Who are we? What is our identity? Where do we belong? In Alice Pung’s novel “Growing up Asian in Australia” we read about the challenges and struggles Australia-Asians had in belonging in Australian society and culture due to having a sense of being different, we read about many examples of Asian-Australian questioning their own identity and sense of belonging in their lives. Also if we look at the movie “Skin” we see examples of a girl named Sandra questioning her identity and questioning where she really belongs in society.

To begin with we see how in one of the texts in Growing up Asian Australia, The story “A Call to Arms”, Michelle Law is a girl lost between identities as she was born in Australia but constantly is bullied at school, can’t speak her native language and when she goes to Hong Kong she’s embarrassed as she can’t even order food in a country where she thought she would fit in because of her colour. Due to her being different in both worlds she feels a sense of difference that makes it difficult for her to belong in both societies which leads her questioning who she really is: “To this day I am to come extent confused… am I more Asian or Australia?” This led her to questioning who she really is and wether or not she’s more Asian or Australia.

Moreover another example that proves to us that everyone does question their identity and belonging is the story written in Growing up Asian in Australia called “Anzac Day”, James Chong is a high school student, his heritage was Asian, but was born in Australia and every Anzac day James would march in the city parade with his school playing the bagpipes. He was very proud to March commemorating the people who died for his country, until the year 1992 when he went over to a mates house and his father put in a tape of the ABC show Lateline. When the tape started to play he realised it was him that the cameras where zoomed on him during the Anzac Day parade. This got him excited until the words “TRUE BLUE?” came on the screen. He left and didn’t finish watching it. This made him question his identity and belonging, he felt: “confused and a little hurt” and he also felt “A lonely feeling of exclusion”. This made him question his identity and question his sense of belonging and where does he really belong, he felt excluded and different due to his race. In the story James also mentions how; “I felt at times, though, that because of my heritage and the colour of my skin, I was not allowed to be part of the Anzac tradition, which too many people defines what it is to be Australian.” This is another clear example that proves that each person questions their identity and belonging due to their certain circumstance.

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