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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows scenes from filmmaker Lisa Wang’s home movie of her parents and herself, and her brothers and sister growing up in Melbourne in the 1950s. The clip opens with Lisa discussing how her parents never kissed or hugged her, or her siblings, when they were growing up. Lisa’s brother Chris and mother Mabel are also interviewed. They reflect on cultural aspects of expressions of love and affection and share some of their early experiences. The film is accompanied by music and there are still images as well as home movie scenes of the family.

Educational value points

• David Wang (1920–78) and wife Mabel established a successful business shortly after coming to Melbourne in 1948. They were pioneers in importing from Asian countries, thus anticipating a taste for Asian goods in Australia. The Wangs achieved success, owning a house in Toorak, sending their four children to leading private schools and gaining acceptance from so-called 'Establishment Melbourne’.

• The clip infers the presence of Confucian values in child-rearing practices in Australian-Chinese families in the 1950s. Confucian parenting principles are based on obedience, strict discipline, emphasis on education, filial piety, having respect for elders, family obligations, cultivation of the self and reverence for tradition.

• The lack of emotional display in the Confucian Chinese family tradition and its effect on Australian-Chinese children growing up in the largely Anglo-Celtic Australia of the 1950s are described in the clip. When she went to live in China in later life, Lisa Wang grew to understand the cultural basis for what she had once perceived to be a lack of affection from her parents. Her brother Chris still perceives a lack of affection from his father, perhaps illustrating how children living between cultures respond to the social expectations of both their culture of origin and their culture of relocation.

• Relationships within traditional Chinese families, as illustrated in the clip by the description of the Wang family, can seem very formal to those accustomed to Australian families of other backgrounds. They are based on clearly defined roles and duties. Younger members of a family are expected to know their place. They are to show respect for their elders, work hard and bring honour to themselves and the family. Parents demonstrate their love for their children by providing for them and teaching them discipline.

• The clip is part of a bio-documentary of filmmaker Lisa Wang and reveals her growing awareness of her 'Chinese-ness’ in 1950s Australia. Being physically different led to her being called names and regarded as 'a side-show’. Her discomfort at this treatment was compounded by the fact that she did not feel Chinese. Being made to feel different and 'other’ may have been experienced particularly intensely by Australian-Chinese people in the 1950s because they were so clearly physically different from the Caucasian majority.

• An intimate perspective is provided on the life of a notable Australian-Chinese businessman and community leader of the 1960s and 70s. The son of a peasant farmer, David Wang started his career in the Nationalist Chinese army. He first came to Australia in 1942 with the Chinese military mission and subsequently left China permanently for Australia with his Australian-born wife in 1948. His spectacular success in business and in public life led to speculation in 1976 that he would become Melbourne’s mayor. He died in 1978 of a heart attack.

This clip starts approximately 47 minutes into the documentary.

Filmmaker Lisa Wang is interviewed. Lisa’s brother Chris and mother Mabel are also interviewed. The film is accompanied by music and there are still images as well as home movie scenes of the family.

Lisa Wang My parents never kissed us. They never hugged us. And I didn’t realise when I was a child that this was actually a culturally-based thing. I thought that in the back of my mind, I thought, well, maybe – you know, I was rather sensitive and thought, well, maybe my parent don’t love me, because they don’t kiss me. I would go to a friend’s house to stay the night, an Australian friend’s house to stay the night, and the mother would come in to kiss her daughter goodnight and then she’d come and kiss me, and I’d go, my goodness, you know, here’s my friend’s mother kissing me goodnight, and my own mother doesn’t. And it wasn’t till I was much older that I realised – you know, when I became steeped in the culture after living in China, that I realised it was totally cultural. It wasn’t anything personal.

Chris Wang From very small, we basically – sent us to what he expected the best schools in Melbourne. Because he realised that if his children went to the right schools, they’d be able to do much better for themselves. But he never really took part in anything we did at school. He never came to anything. He never really asked about anything. He just expected you to go to school and do as best as you can, and him providing you all that, you were supposed to come out a better person. And he provided very well for us, but he didn’t provide that other part that he should have.

Lisa When I listen to my family, I feel relieved. It seems over all these years, we’ve shared the same feelings. But this is the first time we’ve ever talked about it.

Mabel Wang Although he loved them, he never showed them that he loved them that way. They were probably too small to understand the way he loved them was by looking after them and providing for them well. To him, to go to school was the most fantastic thing in his life. So he would have wanted his children to have a good education, to prepare them for their future. He died young. I think he would have mellowed, because he was very intense, you know, in the beginning. I think he was gradually becoming more comfortable, and, uh, relaxed.

Lisa I’ve started to see Dad not just as my father, but a man who worked hard for acceptance into the community. The family business that Dad built was dissolved in 1989. These days, Mum’s retired. Chris remains an importer of Asian merchandise. Gabrielle is a lecturer in Chinese language. And Mike publishes an arts and heritage magazine. We’ve all found our way.