MOD A - Asian Australian Poets

Mother by Vuong Pham

Theses:

1. Demonstrates that the sharing of memories shaped by our culture informes our values and identity

2. Through the sharing of memories from mother to son, the persona can connect to his culture and derive his sense of identity

ETA:

Uses the motif of plants to demonstrate the persona’s growth and maturity as he learns more about his mother’s past.

• Symbolism: “Gardening is the reply I expect” → initial naivety and lack of knowledge about his mother’s past

• Repetition: “I know now as I did in my childhood wonder” → reveals that his understanding of culture and identity through his mother is ever-evolving

• Symbol of yellow: “her driving as yellow scooter… to school” → mother’s memories are tied to her identity as a teacher in Vietnam, and highlights the significance of education in her life

• Allusion to wordsworth": “I taught my students wordsworth, saw thousands of daffodils and thought of you” → mother’s culture and value for education have become a part of his own identity as a teacher

• listing of sacrifices: “When she stitched floral pyjamas, table cloths… to pay for my tution” → reveals mother’s determination to improve her son’s life thorugh education and hihlighting its importance in both of their identities

• Metaphor: “my mother… fled with nothing but me” → memories shaped by mother’s heritage and sacrifice shape her son’s values and identity,

Translucent Jade by Maureen Ten

Theses:

1. Conveys the complexity of trying to reclaim one’s cultural identity

2. Difficult and ongoing process of trying to reconnect with one’s cultural identity

ETA:

Through the symbol of sound to reflect her relationship with her culture changing overtime.

• Metaphor: “My grandfather gave me a gift when I was born” → passing down of culture through names and language

• Personification: ‘my mother’s gift… sparked and sang” → appeal of new ENG name and represents the start of her rejection of Chinese heritage

• Metaphor: “Today I retrieved his gift from its silence” → starting to rediscover her Chinese identity after abandoning her name

• Low modality: “It was a little strange, as if from a world I… had heard stories about” → she feels detached from her culture, so trying to reconnect is uncomfortable and foreign

• Rhetorical q: “what vibrations are these?” → persona feels uncertain about whether to continue her journey to reclaiming her cultural identity due to the unfamiliarity of her name and her culture, but despite that it is slowly becoming more appealing

• Symbol of music: “slowly-yielding music / Chinese name” → process of reclamation is ongoing and difficult due to the tension between her desire for self-acceptance and the cultural disconnect from her youth.

Circular Breathing by Jaya Savige

Theses:

1. Displacement allows us to reconsider our connection to indigenous culture and Australian identity, and appreciate its true richness.

2. Displacement creates a longing for a national identity, which is derived from our connection to Indigenous Australians and their culture.

ETA:

• Juxtaposition of indigenous symbol “didgeridoo” with the italian setitng of “piazza di santa maria” → conveys anachronistic situation

• Listing of tourist activities: “tourists like gelati [passing] belts, handbags” → commercial and consumerist nature of tourism in Italiy and the lack of cultural enrichment form the experience

• Rhe q: “from where could this music have come from” → highlights the distance between where the scene is unfolding and where the didgeridoo comes from to reinforce the sense of displacement.

• As deep as excavated ruins → richness of culture

However, from this displacement, the persona reflects on his own attitudes towards indigenous Australian culture, evident in the tone shift from third to first person.

• The strong verb of movement: "I want to bolt up the stairs" -> reflects how he feels passionate and proud of Australia's indigenous cultur

• Reflective tone: "I recall how rarely I slow to hear / the truer player" → then feels guilty for how he rarely appreciates it in Australia

• Metaphor: "memory kinks my measured walk into a lurch" → reinforces his guilt as he realises how his own ignorance and passivity towards indigenous culture prevented him from connecting to it and experiencing its richness.

This is Where it Begins by Merlinda Bobis

Theses:

1. Explores the complex nature of understanding the nuanced origins of one’s identity

2. Through ancestral stories (and language), our cultural identity is affirmed and our familial bonds are enriched and strengthened.

ETA:

Through the motif of stories

• The incorporation of Bikol, Tagalog, English and spanish → language is an intrinsic part of our identity since it allows us to communicate and pass down culture

• Repetition: “this is where it begins” → continuation of identity and family connection through storytelling

• Low modality: “But perhaps” → uncertainty of one’s origins due to how it is influenced by many aspects

• Allusion to Filipino myth: “crab stealer” and “the lady in the hills”

  • Stories influence her understanding of culture and identity, and due to its intergenerational nature, she is expected to continue it.

  • Symbolises continuation of cultural identity and family connection through stories

• Symbolism of the dress: “each time a different colour of dress… I am bereft of constancy” → her understanding of her cultural identity is fluid and changes with the knowledge available

• Metaphor: “under my skin” → family connection is strengthened through ancestral stories and cannot be removed from one’s identity

• Metaphor of “ghosts… how they cannot be silent” → omnipresence of ancestral stories in her life

• Assertive tone: “no storytelling is not lonely” → people’s identities are an accumulation of ancestral stories which pass on beliefs and culture to shape the identities of future generations

• Symbol of light: “a lamp or late computer glow” → persona’s idneity as a storyteller and her connection to ancestors is affimed through continuing the storytelling tradition

• Metaphor: “the umbilical cord restored'“ → strengthening of familial bonds through storytelling and uniting indiivudals to their cultural heritage

Home by Miriam Wei Wei Lo

Thesis:

1. Only through accepting our present reality and family can we feel belonging and thus reconcile our sense of identity

ETA:

The first part of the poem, “one day I will find it” explores the different parts of her identity

• Listing of foods from different cultures: Friend ikan bilis, roast lamb, mangoes

  • Reveals how her experience of Singapore and migrating to western countries like Canada and Australia influences her life and identity.

• Metaphor: The entry will be in braille

  • Shows how spirituality guides her connection to her identity

  • Shows how one’s identity is difficult to find and navigate

• Paradox/irony: I will live there alone and with everyone I love

  • Reflects the importance of family in her life, and how all her memories make up her identity

  • Reflects how she truly doesn't know what her identity is

The second part, “without warning”, highlights her inner conflict.

• Metaphor: It can only be seen with eyes shut tight

  • Reveals how she is uncertain of her identity due to how it consists of many different parts

• Metaphor: Translating this corrupt language of my body… into the pure language of that other place

  • Emphasises the tension and inner conflict she experiences when trying to understand herself

The third part, “a place to return to”, explores her acceptance of her reality and identity.

• Accepting tone: If there must be a place, a tent for the body on earth, I'll take this one

  • Emphasises her sense of reconciliation between her complex identities and her appreciation of her reality

• Symbolism of exotic plant: The blue plumbago… that foreigner so completely at home, growing taller each year

  • Reveals how her surroundings allow her to grow and thrive, thus giving her a sense of belonging in her community and her identity

New Accents by Ouyang Yu

Theses:

1. Language barriers created by cultural differences (can be used to exclude migrants / prevents migrants from communicating and forming relationships) leading to a fractured identity

2. The lack of belonging to a community due to different cultures and accents results in a fractured sense of identity

ETA:

He explores this through the fragmentation of lines, words and stanzas.

Yu highlights how language can (be used to exclude migrants / prevents them from communicating with native english speakers)

• The use of enjambment → mimics the accent of non-native english speakers, suggesting they sound foreign and fragmented

• Phonetic spelling of Nicholas Street as “neechosen street” → language is a barrier that makes it more difficult for migrants to communicate

• Oxymoron: “Wonderful anguish” → the suffering of migrants learning a new language due to how they are excluded by native speakers

Yu then explores how the dislocation from not being able to connect and speak the language with others leads to a fractured identity.

• The syballificaiton of criminal: “crime-mi-nal” → conveys the isolating experience of not knowing how to speak English with a native accent, symbolic of how migrants find it difficult to fit into Australian culture

• Metaphor: "C from Canton" being "[fooled] around" → reveals how the discrimination of not being able to speak the language leads to a loss of power and sense of self

• The exclusive language of "they, the professors" → conveys the alienation of migrants due to their accent and the authority of those who can speak the language over those who cannot

• Hyperbolic statement: "lost a genius in me" → the discrimination due to the language barrier causes a fractured identity and feelings of doubt

Thesis statements

Macrotechniques (poetic devices)

• form

• enjambent

• poetic voice → unique poetic voice, sarcastic voice, etc…

• Shift in voice / tone

• Stanzas

Start of Thesis
Moral / lesson of this unit

Thesis

• Through studying Asian-Australian poetry, we learn that….

• Asian-Australian poets explores / conveys / blah blah….

Lesson

Ultimately, through studing unique poetic voices, readers can broaden their understanding of the diverse experiences of Asian-Australians and view the world through a more empathetic and multicultural lens.