live with no regrets
aussie rules ok!!!
My family emigrated to Australia officially in 1985. I went to Perth and never looked back. Perth brings the happiest memories, and I still call Australia home, and always will. freedom Before I go any further -
any dog that's worth it's weight in fleas should see this...
god is the light I first enrolled myself into Canning College, just next to Curtin University (then called WAIT, Western Australia Institute of Technology), because I didn't make enrolment. Those few months at Canning was a chance to make a lot of new friends, and also to basically explore what's available. Funny how we adapt to changes. Australia was just a remote country and was as exotic to me then as China, Africa, and India - never knew what it looked like nor what it had to offer. The only earlier connection was through my sister Mary lived in Perth for many years. Mary would bring interesting things back to Singapore like Miss Maude's Princess Cake, although a little flattened by a mercenary traveller and KFC (yes Aussie KFC tasted better than Singapore's). But the warmth and fair dinkum lifestyle of the Australians brought me great relief, comfort and inspiration. The colours of the sky, the sea and the land were so uplifting, that zest for that great Australian culture that embraces all members of society - the friendliness, the fun and the togetherness.
Canning College gave me a first taste of Media Studies. I remembered my project real well - I did an analysis of "Silkwood" - the movie about Karen Silkwood starring Meryl Streep and Cher. My tutor Eloise was inspiration enough to start me on the journey to Communications Studies.
Perth is a small city of about 1 million metropolitan dwellers, with the state of Western Australia taking 1/3 of Australia. WA had a total population of only 1.3 million. Living in a small cosmopolitan city had it's advantages - everything and everyone was accessible, yet, there is room for personal space and time.
One of the best decisions I ever made was to enrol in Murdoch University.
Aussie MTV "Soldier of Love" premier Murdoch was a small university with a population of about 4,000 students. We gained notoriety predominantly for the number of fringe activities. I recall an incident related to me by a fellow student when she boarded a taxi to uni. When she stated the destination, the cab driver proclaimed unassumably that she was either a feminist or a lesbian.
What Murdoch had was an intimate environment where the student-teacher gap was narrowed as one big community of people with common interests and goals. I was in my candy store tasting the goods although I knew deep in my heart what I wanted...when I see it...
The first year was interesting - I was mainly shell shocked, but also inspired. All the boundaries holding me back was removed and I took on a journey of discovery. Things I read and observed in the past now have real applications. Popular Culture, Introduction to Communications Studies were a breeze.
Found my voice in Principles of Radio. Although it was college radio, we broadcasted to the city of Perth on 92.1FM and I was terrified. My tutor, Dave Lee was either very confident in me, or was being reckless when he made me interview Joe Camillieri of the Black Sorrows. Problem was I was told about the interview like 10 minutes earlier and I was already live on air - worst still was that having come from Singapore, I didn't know who the Black Sorrows were, although they were the most recognisable groups in Australia. Sink or swim...I floated...only barely though. Subsequent interviews were much easier then. Most fun were the group Weddings Parties and Anything and Dave Steel.
Radio played a huge part in my university life. I co-produced and presented Asia Focus - a current affairs programme on Asia weekly, and also, a cultural magazine programme called AKKESS. I met most of my best friends through Radio - Geraldine Williams, Usha Jeyaraja, Kyoko Treen, Irma Whitford, Kim Le Souef and many more...
The other half of my university life comprised of Media Production - i.e. film and television production. I had a very interesting lecturer in the form of Josko Petkovic. Josko was in his human insight phase then, and he encouraged us to dig deep into ourselves and then tell our stories through film. I dug deep but only to find a black hole. I had to produce a short for the first semester, then refine it for second semester which will make or break my grades. First semester was a disaster, I worked with Mark, Jo and Tamara and although we were productive and experimenting, I couldn't find my voice.
Second semester moved on and I still couldn't find something to say. Out of sheer desperation, I decided to just try something on my own, with things that were familiar to me - magazine images, video, personal photographs, music and a story about a dear friend of mine. I immersed myself into the mind of the protagonist and in a free flowing monologue, did the narrative for "Alternating Currents" unscripted. I filmed the images early one morning when nobody was in the studio and finished it in no time. I threw the finished tape into Josko's hands and buried my head in shame. Before I knew it, Josko was running around the campus showing it to everyone and I ran home thinking that the whole university is laughing at me right then.
"Alternating Currents" was entered into the Western Australia Young Filmmakers Competition at the annual WA Film and Television Festival, just to give a Murdoch presence. I was so embarrassed by my product that although I had promised every one that I would attend the screening and awards ceremony, I couldn't find the guts to go.
Well, that very night - late, Mark called to tell me I had won the Encouragement Award for Scriptwriting for "Alternating Currents".
Winning the award was a good pat on the back, but it left one legacy..."Alternating Currents"... outed me. Doesn't matter if "Alternating Currents" was not my story - not that I had anything to hide about my sexuality- but with my photographs, voice in the film, I had unwittingly outed myself with a 7 minute short dealing with homosexuality.
Incidentally, Josko taught me a valuable lesson here - human insights. I learnt to dig out human motivators that make people what they are. What interests them? What scares them? What makes them do things the way they do? Valuable lessons in human insights that would be applicable to many fields of interests such as Advertising.
Digging into our personal dramas brought out a host of problems...we wore our hearts on our sleeves and felt extremely vulnerable. Some people handled their insecurities very well, others didn't. Towards the end of my university life, tensons raptured and Josko was put on a leash...a move I sympathise but regretted because the process did strengthen me...maybe my age had a lot to do with it...I was quite a few years older than most other students.
I was set to breeze through my final year in 1989 because I only had a 50% load on second semester to graduate, (I had overloaded my second year.)
Throughout my life, China was very remote to me. My attachments to the Chinese culture were forged through Taiwan and Hong Kong's popular culture. Singaporeans then were quite Eurocentric and we cared not too much about our neighbours. When I started my foray into Current Affairs broadcasting on Asian issues, I found difficulty in comprehending a host of issues related to China such as the Daiyu Islands, or about the East Timor, or even Indonesian politics. The whole broadcasting process initially was just like gossipping - talking about other people and their politics and had actually little to do with me personally.
Then it happened - June 4th 1989. The world watched as tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and the reaction was overwhelming. The attention I drew, as a descendant from China, from people around me was tremendous. People were hugging me in the streets, some were crying and others were truly apologetic for what had happened. A detached event had become personal, and I was reminded that I am Chinese no matter what. The boundaries between Race, Culture and Nationality suddenly collapsed and my gut reaction was to do what I can to understand the significance of the Tiananmen incident. All I got and what I felt at that moment were mainly gut reactions. The act was indeed passionate, but what caused it? Answers I never knew nor fully understand - even 'till today
Jill, and myself went out and recorded the protest march against the Tiananmen incident in the city centre. The march started out in Chinatown and moved along Hay street and up to the Parliament House. Tammy would interview David Goodman, Beverly Hooper and Tim Wright in our campus studio during that time, and we would rush into the editing suite to edit about 4 hours of material into an hour long programme and be some fluke, managed to air it at 3pm that very day.
Reaction to the show was strong, and one kind listener was badly shaken by the incident. She called me at the studios, choking back her tears and at a complete loss for words. I comforted her and assured her that things will work out for the better with all the attention from the rest of the world.
From then on, I was convinced that Australians are people who really cared about the wellbeing of the world. Some might have gone to extreme measures to show their concerns, e.g. East Timor, Animal Rights, Aboriginal Rights etc. But their passion was testament to how much they do care about us and it was a comforting thought. This was what made me proud to say that I belong.
China was also closer to me. The Hong Kong 1997 handover became somewhat a personal issue.
continued
aussie rules ok!!!
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