Word: australia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...started searching for his lost Chinese ancestry by researching his immediate family and the history of the Chinese in Australia, and in 1983 he changed his surname from Young to Yang in a symbolic reclamation of his identity. "I described it as a kind of coming out as Chinese," he says. "It was a big thing for me to embrace." His first trip to China was in 1989. "The people welcomed me - they said, 'You've come back, you've come back home.' It was incredibly meaningful and moving...
...best-known work - 1992's critically acclaimed Sadness, one of seven dramatic monologues featuring photographic slide shows. His work strikes a chord with the wider Australian community because "Australians wonder about [displacement] a lot. For so many here, there's a homeland across the seas." His images of Australia's long Chinese history - its shrines, graves and old gold-mining settlements - are also eye-opening for many viewers. "Most people had not heard a Chinese-Australian story told from the Chinese point of view. I think my stories were some of the first to be told in the mainstream...
...These days, Yang has become part of Australia's artistic mainstream himself, witnessing along the way an evolution in the country's attitude toward its minorities, particularly gays and Asians. He also notices more tolerance and diversity. "It's a slow process," he says. "There's always some resistance to change, but if the new attitudes hang around for long enough, then people start to accept them...
...Read "Australia: Glimpses of the Past...
...Read "The Real Australia...