My parents came to Australia in early 1989 and was granted residency by the Hawke government due to the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. At the time my parents left my brother and myself (aged 5 and 7 at the time) in the care of relatives in poverty stricken countryside, Southern China.
As we were not born a hospital and did not live in the city, the one child policy did not apply and we had no birth documents so we technically did not exist. My uncle spent three years bribing officials in China to get us passports and we landed in Australia exactly 3 years after my parents.
During the three years it took to get our passports, my uncle did not enrol us into school as we had never imagined it would take that long.
Having grown up in a small village and uneducated, I remember arriving in Brisbane airport and being absolutely fascinated by people with hair colour either than pure black.
Having grown up in a small village and uneducated, I remember arriving in Brisbane airport and being absolutely fascinated by people with hair colour either than pure black. From that day, I fell in love with blonde hair. I could have never imagined that one day I would have a son with blonde hair.
At the age of 10 I was enrolled into small state school in Targina where the classes had mixed grades (i.e. grade one to three was in one classroom). As we needed to learn how to speak English and the alphabet, they put both my brother and I into grade one. Having performed so poorly during primary and secondary school and only learning how to read property at 17, I had never imagined that I would be able to make it to uni. My parents are the typical Chinese who pushed to us to study hard so that we did not have to go through what they went through. My brother and I are now both accountants.
As we were also born into extreme poverty, for many years when I use to see the World Vision ads on television, they would make me cry. As I got older, I became more and more thankful each day to be here. We are extremely blessed and I can truly agree with every part of me when people say that we live in a lucky country.
I still live in Brisbane and whenever I travel overseas, I am so proud to tell people that I'm Australian. These days it's no longer a shock to people when they meet an Asian who speaks fluent English and sound very Aussie.
ALSO: Were the events in Tiananmen Square Beijing, 1989 a “massacre” or a “riot” and why should we remember “6/4” twenty-five years on? Click to view interactive documentary.
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