Alice Pung: Shapes and Sounds Interview #9
Sep 27, 2020
If you know me, you'll probably know that I don't really fangirl over anyone... yet for some reason, Alice Pung stole my heart the moment I came across an article of hers in The Guardian a few years ago.
Alice Pung is an author who has continually taught me so much about the intersection of race and class through her beautiful writing (which I have linked below). Her conversations are intelligent and nuanced and it's hard not to be drawn in by her storytelling.
Alice's writing has been pivotal in providing me with the perspective and push to create Shapes and Sounds so when she agreed to be interviewed for the platform, I was beside myself. It is an honour to share her words with you this month.
Enjoy!
1. Could you please tell us your name, age and what it is that you do?
My name is Alice Pung, I am 39 years old, and I am a writer, educator and legal researcher. My books are about growing up Asian in Australia. I have also written for children and young adults, and my books all have Asian protagonists.
I live at Janet Clarke Hall, a college at the University of Melbourne with my young family, and used to be a pastoral care advisor there, but am now the Artist in Residence. I also work part time as a legal researcher into minimum wages.
2. What do you do to take care of your mental health and wellbeing?
I make sure I get enough sleep, and that I don't take on too much work that I can't manage. I also make sure that besides my art (writing) I have another job that gives me a steady income and an 'outward'-facing sense of purpose, one that is not centred on being alone with my thoughts most of the time. I think my steady day job, where I am often part of a great team doing fulfilling work, answers this need.
I read somewhere once that to feel satisfied in life one has to have something to do, someone to love and something to look forward to.
3. Can you think of one example that demonstrates how growing up Asian in Australia has impacted you?
My parents are refugees from Cambodia. In the hierarchy of Asianness, we are what comedian Ali Wong would call Jungle Asians (as opposed to posh Asians!). I grew up during the height of the 'Asian Gang crisis', in a suburb rife with drugs, pre-internet days. Before Pauline Hanson, the Equal Opportunity Discriminator, had it in for Muslims and Africans, we got a go tanning under the heat of her wrath.
I remember, as the oldest daughter, taking my sisters to the local shopping centre (my mum was an outworker at home), one in a pram, another a toddler. How the clerks glared at me because I looked like such a teenage breeder. Like, we were here to bum off the dole and populate the nation in the same way as a refugee camp. Even my best friend's father, upon seeing me one day with my sister balanced on my hip, muttered, "What? Another one?", exasperated by the busy-ness of my parents. I think I was around 13 then, but I knew that my siblings and I were seen like rabbits - one or two a novelty, more than that an infestation on our nation, leeches of taxpayer funds. This is what poverty does to people - it makes them fearful, and it makes them resentful of sharing.
Eventually my siblings became 'useful' people to society. In our professional roles, we are appreciated and people suddenly become 'colour-blind' when we provide them free legal, medical or educational advice. But I think the earlier racism has always inculcated me with this need to contribute to society, as someone who renders a 'service', so I think I still have the 'grateful little immigrant' requirement drilled into me.
In October I will have three children (one currently on the way!) and I hope my children will not feel this way - forever indebted to your country of birth simply because people think that the colour of your skin and your parent's third-world-country-of-origin means that you are there to rip off the poor and compete with 'scarce' resources.
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We created our "Essential Guide for Asian Australian Mental Health"Ā by surveying over 350Ā Asian Australians during Covid-19 lockdowns.
Download our guide and learn about the three most pertinent areas of concern for the Asian community, with tips and strategies to support you through.