BLING BANQUET
When we were in Singapore, I was too young to be asked the question, “Where are you from?” It was when we moved to Australia when I was a little older that I was confronted with it for the first time. My sister and I were enrolled at a very white, very affluent private school in the inner-southeastern suburbs of Melbourne. There were six Asian girls in the whole school – all Chinese and all born in Australia. Thankfully my sister and I were fluent in English, (we dropped the Singlish quick-smart) and with Singapore being as advanced as it was, we had already been exposed to the western world, so we had little difficulty fitting in.
It was clear, however, that my sister and I weren’t simply Chinese, the most well-known Asian ethnicity in Australia at the time. Our features were more Eurasian, with our large eyes, long eyelashes and skin tones leaning cooler than warmer. “Where are you from?” started being asked more frequently, and I was never able to give a satisfactory answer. Where, indeed?
As I’ve grown older, more confident, and prouder of the cultures that make who I am, I now make it a point to
