What would it be like to leave your own country, for the better? But what if it wasn’t worth it, giving up your family’s trust into hoping that this foreign place is a second chance to live a new life? Why does it bother you if they come from another country? Are we really the true blue Australian or are we putting everyone into a ‘multicultral sleep’? Good Morning/ Good Afternoon teachers and members of the poetry club. You have just seen just a glimpse of what a common immigrant experiences in this surreal lifestyle, being challenged within their racial and cultural identities from the changed environment, sentiments and perceptions about Australian diversity. The poem ‘Moon over Melbourne’ written by Chinese-Australian Ouyang Yu in 1995, …show more content…
explores his unpleasant life experiences as an immigrant ... trapped, homesick, alienated and culturally displaced. Influenced by the longing history between China and Australia and how this cultural and social frustration provokes a negative atmosphere on Australian diversity for the poet. Ouyang Yu migrated into Melbourne in 1991 and composed the poem ‘Moon over Melbourne’ during 1995.
Within these four years, Yu has worked typically by enforcing his critical writing style within the cultural and linguistic traditions of both Australia and China. He explores and questions the relationship between the two as a new generation of post-colonial writing and how this influences his distressing experiences on life and work. The former events between Australia and China provide a heavy leverage towards the poet’s fault-finding attitude. Australian-Chinese are known to be the single largest minority with significant immigration during the End of the White Australian Policy by 1965 and the Victorian Gold Rush in the mid-19 century. The Chinese were independently hard workers, sending money back to their motherland. Yet these ‘differences' between the two including language barriers, religion/beliefs and lifestyle choices lead to obvious xenophobia. Even though the poem itself is written years after and being a well-established ethnic group, these influences of casual racism and unjust have accumulated the poets bleak and homesick …show more content…
attitude. ‘You make me sick home sick for sure’ the wistful poet contemplates as a ‘confined’ migrant to the Anglo-Saxon cultural hegemony. Due to this predominating time and place, Yu’s attitude and values impact immensely toward’s his view on society. “You are long colonised by us”, but “You put everybody to a multicultural sleep”, the poet is crestfallen and frustrated owing to the fact that even after being the one of the most deeply ingrained ethnic groups within Australia there is ignorance and powerful anathema for other cultures. The poem unfolds his value for traditional Chinese poetry writers in his homesick mood, “Du Fu”, “Li Bai”, these famous poets are known to write about being away from home hence poet also follows well into the tradition. Ouyang Yu illustrates a plethora of layered meanings hidden under aesthetic features.
As a matter of fact, the poem title is a metaphor which translates to ‘get over Melbourne’. This metaphor is used to express the poet’s message to Australian society to break out of this nationalistic, lazy and self-centred lifestyle. The “Moon” in the title can also be seen as a symbol of a figurative person, whom poet talks to and argues with as the poet is isolated himself. Even so the poet does not describe the physical characteristics of the ‘Moon’ or society, the poet’s pessimistic descriptions create an image of a Chinese migrant with a particular reminiscence for his home. The repetition of the “Moon over Melbourne” phrase, emphasises the importance of the message to society. This attention given to the phrase creates a dominating sense that the poet’s experiences within Melbourne are disapproving of the new foreign values’. “A young one just 200 seconds old, with a man-made light that is not only cold”, with a twist of rhyme the poet relates to a child being raised from this man-made or this cold artificial society, the in poet’s perspective this is Australia which mimic’s the natural light in the place of China, the poet’s
home. The poet forms a resistant reading challenging the dominance of the multicultural beliefs and diversity within Australia, evoking his hypocritical attitude. Yu points out that Australia has become a greedy, soulless country and laments that the sacrifices made to live in the country in pursuit of his desires. The binary opposition between poet himself and the ‘moon through the patterns of enjambment display the subject matter of resentment and homesickness. His bitter tone within the use of caesuras displays no value for Australian culture to readers whilst his volatile mood and restlessness elucidate his feelings of an isolated atmosphere. These consequences impose the poet to view Australian society as a ‘Plastic Society’, “dreading the slightest suggestion of a memory”, the poet quotes through the literal language expressed. However due to the harsh and offensive colloquial content, it can be said the contemporary reader may ‘focus on the trees instead of the forest’ hence creating a misunderstanding of the poem as a nit-picking ‘report’ of Australian society. The poet creates instead a freedom of speech, through harsh tones the poet fosters the reader to question “What would it be like to be in my shoes?”. As an immigrant the awe of a foreign country is an overwhelming feeling, dealing with a racial blanket of stereotypes, the battle for defending your culture whilst accepting these foreign orders and not knowing where “home” is anymore. It is an obvious understatement that there will be feelings of remoteness and antagonism. In the poet’s shoes, these very feelings are evident due to the longing history within his homeland and Australia. Whilst the controversial and layered poem display the poets dissatisfaction of Australian society, it questions the reader ... Is racism still alive?
The 2014 Walkley Award winning documentary, "Cronulla Riots: the day that shocked the nation" reveals to us a whole new side of Aussie culture. No more she’ll be right, no more fair go and sadly no more fair dinkum. The doco proved to all of us (or is it just me?) that the Australian identity isn’t really what we believe it to be. After viewing this documentary
Judy Fong-Bates’ “The Gold Mountain Coat” discusses the childhood of the narrator who is a Chinese immigrant living in Canada. The narrator, even at a young age, possesses such admirable keen observation as she is able to notice the environment and even the situation of people around her. Living in a small town that is “typical of many small towns in Ontario” with only one Chinese family neighbor, the narrator is the only Chinese child. With the nearing day of arrival of John’s family, the narrator feels uneasy of her new responsibilities.
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The lines, “As I said, it might help if we … we can imagine it’s opposite” use perspective to put the non-indigenous Australians into the shoes of indigenous Australians, to help them explore and understand the possibilities of not belonging.
This poem expresses Mackellar’s deep passion and love for “her” country without touching on racial issues, rights or custodianship of the land. Australian born and resisting the identification of her British heritage, Mackellar patriotically declares Australia her own by rejecting the beauty of the British landscape through contrasting it with the romantic ideal of her "sunburnt" country. Mackellar presents to the readers the values and attitudes of a newly federated white Australia with her romanticisation of the Australian landscape.
The notions of the Australian voice as multifaceted and diverse, is insightfully expressed in Tim Winton's short story anthology The turning and the Drover's wife by Henry Lawson. Australian voice in literature often explores the quality inherent to the Australian identity of overcoming hardships. The stories Fog, On her knees, and The Drover's wife explore these hardships through the notions of mateship,and the importance of family in facing these challenges.
With a war against the Japanese was the trigger for racism in Australia. All throughout the novel elements of separation are presented. The Japanese are somewhat divided from white Australians. First of all Broome has a “Register of Aliens”, this was a register or list that kept track of foreign people. This implied that foreigners were seen as aliens and that they didn’t really belong in Australia. The Sennosukes’ names had to be changed because their original names seemed “…too foreign to our ears.” The Japanese living area is Chinatown shows the reader that perhaps whites have put the Japanese into their own little area. Chinatown contains houses that are far smaller and in general with little fortunes unlike the white Australians. It is the broad attitude towards the Japanese that creates a war and endlessly kills Alice.
In his poem, “Notes from the City of the Sun”, Bei Dao utilizes obscure imagery consistent with the Misty Poets and veiled political references to illustrate the struggles in Chinese society during the Cultural Revolution. The poem is sectioned into fourteen short stanzas containing imagery that are symbolic of the cultural hegemony in China under the rule of Mao Zedong. Bei Dao, born Zhao Zhen-kai, is an anti-revolutionary poet and one of the founders of a group known as the Misty Poets. The Misty Poets wrote poems that protested the Cultural Revolution led by Mao Zedong. Therefore, a lot of Bei Dao’s poems speak out against the Cultural Revolution and the restrictions that it placed on any form of art. Bei Dao’s poetry is categorized as “misty” because of the ambiguity in its references to Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. An obscure imagery that occurs twice in “Notes” is the sun imagery. Another imagery that depicts the injustice of the Cultural Revolution is the description of freedom as scraps of paper. In the poem, Bei Dao also equates faith to sheep falling into a ditch; this is a depiction blind faith during the Cultural Revolution. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how Bei Dao’s use of the Misty Poet’s ambiguous imagery and implicit political context in the poem “Notes from the City of the Sun” to illustrate the cultural hegemony in China under Mao.
Reynolds, H. (2005). Nowhere People: How international race thinking shaped Australia’s identity. Australia: Penguin Group
The poem uses many literary devices to enhance the meaning the words provide. The poem starts at the beginning of the story as the moon comes to visit the forge. The moon is said to be wearing “her skirt of white, fragrant flowers” (Lorca 2) as its bright light penetrates the scene. The poem states “the young boy watches her, watches. / The young boy is watching her” (3-4). The repetition of the phrase emphasizes the young boy’s infatuation with the moon. The scene is set with intensity by the phrase “electrified air” (5) and a tense feeling is brought into the poem. As “the moon moves her arms” (6), she is given traits of being alive and having her own human qualities. Personification of the moon into a woman exemplifies the desire that the child would have for the woman, and creates a more appealing form for the moon to appear as. The child cries, “flee, moon, moon, moon” (9) with urgency, showing his concern for her. He warns her “they would make with your heart / white necklaces and rings” (11-12). This refers back to the metaphor that the moon is made of hard tin, but still personifies her by giving her a heart. The moon is additionally personified when she says “ young boy, leave me to dance”(13). She has now taken the form of a sensual and erotic gypsy dancer furthering the desire of the young boy. This brings Spanish culture to the poem because gypsies are known to travel throughout Spain. The mo...
In “Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home” written by Madeline Y. Hsu she discusses transnationalism among immigrants from Taishan. Transnationalism is a key part of globalization and it shows us how other people operate across national boundaries. Hsu wrote this book to shed light to the Chinese American culture and to help better understand the history of their people and culture. By doing this, the author hopes to show how immigrants from Taishan, a populous coastal county in south China, are responsible, at least until 1965, for the majority of Chinese immigrants coming to the United States. She is amazed at how that single county of Taishan is now representing well over half of the Chinese in America.
Thus, this creates connotations to patriotism and pride towards the country the reader lives in. Coupled with the large image of Australia filled with smaller images of people of all ages, and race, sporting the Australian flag, influences the reader to enter the article with a positive attitude towards Australia Day, as it seems to put this day in high esteem, which consequently convinces the audience, before even commencing to read, that the day is about ‘unity’ and not division. The smaller images of a non-traditional and traditional stereotypical Australian prove that race play no part in this celebratory day, creating the sense of Australia being an accepting
The voices of individuals in shaping the perspective on Australian issues are presented in Bruce Dawe’s poetry. Dawe's ability to express the drama and beauty of everyday life has made his work readily accessible to the general public. Bruce Dawe’s primary purpose in his poetry was to depict the unspoken social issues, concerning the typical Australian suburban residents. His concern for these matters is evident through his mocking approach to the issues he presents in his poems. The poem “___” and the related text help shape our perspective on Australian issues through Dawe's use of techniques and context.
Through numerous poetic techniques Paterson has shown that the Australian diversity is as diverse as the country itself. The Australian identity concerns the way Australia is viewed by other people. There are a variety of different aspects that contribute to this identity of Australia which include historical icons. Paterson recognizes how lucky we are to live on a land notorious for its diverse landscape. He is signaling that we are missing out and we need to cherish the great land we were given.
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