Unit 1, Outcome 2 – Creating and Presenting

Growing up Asian in Australia edited by Alice Pung

Overview

Growing up Asian in Australia presents the experiences of more than fifty writers, but their stories often return to common themes that run throughout the anthology. The Context in Unit 1 that we will be studying is Understanding Self and Place and we will be using this text as the springboard for our writing.

You are strongly advised to read the whole text so that you develop a strong understanding of the issues surrounding the Context of Understanding Self and Place. This will provide you with a broad range of ideas and arguments to draw upon when writing for this Outcome.

As we have limited time in class, we will be focussing on a selection of the stories. Below is the list of stories that we will be choosing from to study in depth:

‘The Relative Advantages of Learning My Language’ (pp.7-9)

‘Chinese Lessons’ (pp.16-21)

‘The Beat of a Different Drum’ (pp.42-50)

‘Spiderbait’ (pp.57–64)

‘Take Me Away, Please’ (pp.64-7)

‘Wei-Lei and Me’ (pp.75-81)

‘Perfect Chinese children’ (pp.103-11)

‘Are You Different?’ (pp.140-3)

‘Tourism’ (pp.147-52)

‘Family Life’ (pp.155-9)

‘Quarrel’ (pp.159-66)

‘Dancing Lessons’ (pp.179-83)

‘Toward Manhood’ (pp.195–203)

‘A Big Life’ (pp.220-2)

‘Be Good, Little Migrants’ (pp.225–6) 

‘How to be Japanese’ (pp.227-34)

‘Silence’ (pp.234-8)

‘Chinese Dancing, Bendigo Style’ (pp.246-50)

‘Five Ways to Disappoint Your Vietnamese Mother’ (pp.287–91)

‘The Courage of Soldiers’ (pp.291–6)

‘You Can’t Choose Your Memories’ (pp.296-30)

‘My China’ (pp.319-23)

‘The Face in the Mirror’ (pp.323-9)

‘Baked Beans and Burnt Toast’ (pp.329-37)

Happy reading.