Growing Up Asian In Australia 'And Foreign Soil' By Alice Pung

The collective autobiography edited by Alice Pung “Growing Up Asian in Australia” and the short story collection written by Maxine Beneba Clarke, “Foreign Soil” both illustrate the impact of family and cultural expectations on one’s identity. Both authors emphasise how the personal desires and beliefs of individuals brought about by the expectations imposed by their family, their culture and the society on them can serve as a motivation to change and establish their identity. The desire for acceptance and love can motivate an individual to satisfy a certain expectation. Similarly, pressure brought by individuals around a character may bring them to feel obligated to meet standards. Furthermore, jealousy and feelings of self-inadequacy may

In the story ‘David’, the unknown narrator is burdened by the cultural expectations of others imposed on her. This is illustrated when Asha approaches the narrator, and the narrator is forced to be polite despite her rude inner monologue in order to conform to the cultural beliefs and manners her mother-in-law and Asha expects of her. This is because she is pressured by the flashbacks to the past statements made by her mother-in-law about the young Sudanese generation’s failure to abide by their elders’ cultural expectations, with statements such as, “They have no idea about tradition and respect…You should be show us some respect, like real African children…” These flashbacks illustrate how an action in the past can directly affect what is happening in the future. However, the narrator’s rebellious attitude towards her family and her culture is perhaps because of the heavy burden of these cultural expectations, leading her to change her identity. On the other hand, Vanessa from “Perfect Chinese Children” is directly pressured to meet family expectations in contrast to the passive pressure that the unnamed narrator in David experienced, and this is illustrated in the incident where Yee Mah blames Vanessa’s mother’s poor fortune on her by saying, “Do you know why your

Also, Clarke and Woods convey the texts as flashbacks to their childhood, serving as a reflection for characters and the audience. Envy is illustrated when Ava meets Shu Yi for the first time and being amazed of her physical features. Ava exaggerates and describes Shu Yi as ‘other-worldly’, giving the impression to readers that she is astounded and amazed by Shu Yi’s appearance. Clarke uses the term ‘a little less like me’ repeatedly throughout the text to describe Ava’s strong desires for physical appearances, and “Shu Yi was exactly what I [Ava] would have been like, if I were a little less like me.”, meaning that to be like Shu Yi was her desire, her dream. Perhaps the envious nature of Ava towards Shu Yi for her desired appearance was a motivation for her to abandon and ignore the abuse being done to Shu Yi, conforming to Kellyville Village’s population’s expectation of excluding the minority, even though Ava is also a part of minority. Conversely, unlike Ava, Vanessa did not conform to her mother’s expectations and this is emphasised when Vanessa’s mother brags about David’s HSC score while insulting Vanessa’s 96% math test result by saying, “What happened to the four per cent?”, to attempt to get Vanessa to try harder and achieve perfection in her studies.