cultural — Stories

When planning a party, my go-to is to mix things up. I’ve found that including a flavorful assortment of people has always guaranteed my most memorable events...

Letting Go of Family (Dis)honour

How lonely my life could’ve been had I stuck to my culture which tells me to value the thick ties of family above all else...

Of Bread And Salt

Vegetables and fruits defy all 150m2 of the backyard and nudge across the neighbourly fence. Life can not be contained…

Making Americans Great Again

Are white, American men going to keep steamrolling over our cultures with their incorrect ideas about who we are and how our differences could harm them?

Dear Chook-Chook (A Letter To My Daughter)

You once said to your father: “Papa, you are brown.” He gently took you to mirror, “Yes Chook-Chook, so are you”…

I Will Carry That Rice Cooker Out Like a Purse

My “real” boyfriend has his family coming from Brazil. He politely tells me to “move out” for the duration of the trip. I pay half the rent…

Nonna’s Lunch

Living half your life in the West and the other half in the East would render one ripe for an identity crisis...

Awash With Anger

You pour your heart out. List your every reason, incident and rebuke. And still my little boat has not swamped and floundered. But now my shoes are wet and my socks are falling down in water weight…

Blood And Water

Declarations such as “shame on them”, “I’d rather my daughter died than bring dishonour to the family”, “she must’ve dabbled in black magic to brainwash that poor boy”, and “I hope they’re found and shamed publicly” were made with great gusto, and to my adolescent brain, conjured up horrific visions which nearly made me throw up my dinner...

Staying True As A Javanese Woman

I was afraid that by identifying as a Javanese woman, I would be mistaken for being submissive, accepting and feminine. I would be misunderstood as being passive, when there is power in subtlety, courtesy, initiative, emotional mastery and consciousness...

Micronesian Chinese Money in Alaska

My family lived abroad. The arts embraced in Micronesia were very different from those in British Hong Kong. There was little chance to delve into interpretive or classical art. When you weren’t taking the aspects you liked, discarding what you didn't and establishing your own local spin on painting, dance and music, you had to go microcosmic...

Sunny Side Down

I find it hard to reach out to my colleagues. In my Australian culture, grief is largely seen as a private affair, punctuated by long and absent silences. Needing a national ‘Are you OK’ day says a lot about us, and how hard it is to have conversations outside socially acceptable boundaries...

8 Wellness Practices from Melbourne, Sri Lanka & Tokyo

New environments help you gain new perspectives, I'd visit temples with dense foliage to block out the busyness of Tokyo, or huge gardens, where you can only see the tops of neighbouring buildings…

Cultural R-evolution

You tell me, eyes clouded by the heaviness, of a culture that has long moved away from your history, yet you cling to so stubbornly...

I Like It Breaded, Fried and Crispy

Spare me the cake and candles and let me celebrate how I like it best...

We’re Living On Borrowed Time

Seeing the birthday boy or girl so happy, feeling so fulfilled, you couldn’t help but know it was temporary. Perhaps the year after, that very same birthday boy or girl would be in a new country, with new friends, doing it all over again...

My Unicorn and I

I can choose how Japanese I am: I never leave my chopsticks standing up in a bowl of rice because that is a funeral practice here and I avoid the number 4 like the plague in food service...