This year's Boyer Lecture series explores the opportunities and challenges of Australia's engagement with Asia in the 21st century.
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series → explore → century
Dr Louisa Lim, Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, reported from China for a decade for NPR and the BBC.
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Lim → report → NPR
This is an edited extract of her lecture, Tell it Slant.
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it → edit → lecture
When I was asked to reflect on Australia's role as part of Asia, I sat on a flat, white beach under a grey winter sky and thought about what that meant.
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that → ask → what
I suspected I was meant to address the logic of political realignment; potential economic markets; durable bridges between Australia and Asia.
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I → suspect → Australia
Tidy bullet points, bolstered by neat statistics, tessellating into a clear argument.
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points → bolster → argument
(Preferably one that would fit on an Instagram tile.)
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that → fit → tile
Instead, I'm going to talk about a dancing white lion… but not quite yet.
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I → go → lion
As the sky darkened over that beach, I felt the weight of being the first Asian Boyer lecturer.
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I → darken → weight
I'm a new Australian, one of just three years standing.
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I → stand → years
I have a Singapore Chinese father, a white British mother.
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I → have → father
I've written two books about the Chinese Communist Party's erasure and rewriting of its own history.
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I → write → history
What do I know of Asia and Australia?
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I → know → Asia
The topic needed research.
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topic → need → research
At the counter, a harried man was punching at the till.
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man → punch → till
When I asked if they had any books on Australia's Asian history, he seemed surprised.
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he → ask → history
He said they used to have one.
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they → say → one
We went over to the Australian Studies section together.
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We → go → section
He ran his hand over the spines.
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He → run → spines
"It's not there, I'm afraid," he said, crestfallen.
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he → say → ?
"What was it?" I asked.
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I → ask → ?
"A biography," he said.
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he → say → biography
I can't remember who.
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I → remember → who
After that, I asked the same question at every bookshop I went to.
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I → ask → bookshop
Though my writing explores forgotten and hidden histories, I was surprised to glimpse that invisibility here in Australia.
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I → explore → Australia
To be fair, these books do exist; more than 40 titles on the history of Chinese in Australia have been published in the past decade, but none were on the shelves of the shops I visited.
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I → exist → shops
You would only find the canon of work if you know where to look (in work done by scholars like Mei-fen Kuo and Juanita Kwok).
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you → find → Kuo
And that continuing invisibility has deep consequences for Australia's Chinese population.
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invisibility → continue → population
The costs we pay
"When I was six years old, one of the kids at school called me 'Ching Chong Chinaman, born in a jar, christened in a teapot'.
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one → pay → teapot
He was born in Dimbulah in Queensland in 1943.
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He → bear → 1943
"I had no idea what he was talking about, although I knew from his expression he was being horrible to me.
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he → have → me
So I went home to my mother and I said to her, 'Mum, I'm not Chinese, am I?'
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I → go → her
And she said, 'Yes, you are.'
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you → say → ?
Her tone was hard, and it shocked me.
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it → shock → me
And I knew in that moment, that being Chinese was like a terrible curse."
I heard this story last year at William's show, named Milestone.
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I → know → show
It took me straight back to 2016.
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It → take → 2016
I was sitting in the principal's office of a state primary school.
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I → sit → school
We'd just arrived in Melbourne.
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We → arrive → Melbourne
My eight-year-old had complained they'd been teased by a boy, backed up by his mates.
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they → complain → mates
He'd been taunting them with "ching chang chong", pulling back his eyes.
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He → taunt → eyes
…and 122 more, not listed.
The Aporia