Alice Pung signing copies of her book, Unpolished Gem, yesterday. (Photo: Justin McManus, The Age)Peter Weekes
The Age (Australia)
September 3, 2006
FOR those who don't live in Footscray, the suburb usually evokes images of drugs and crime, but for those who found sanctuary there after escaping Pol Pot's killing fields, it is a wonderland. So says author Alice Pung.
"You see traffic lights for the first time. If you come from Cambodia, you have never seen such things in your life," she says. "In Australia, cars stop for people, but if you own a car in Cambodia it means you have lots of money and people stop for you, so (Footscray) is the epitome of democracy."
The 25-year-old solicitor, born a month after her parents migrated, yesterday launched her first novel, Unpolished Gem, at The Age Melbourne Writers' Festival. It is the story of her Chinese-Cambodian family as they pursue the Australian dream, with a subversive twist.
"Migrant literature usually starts with people suffering a lot and then they come to Australia or America or Canada and they make it big. That is supposed to be the end of their suffering. My book doesn't tell it like that; it tells it as it is for me and my family," Pung says.
Her father, who survived Cambodia's Year Zero while his friends "disappeared", embraced the Western concept of franchising, opening an electrical appliance shop, and her grandmother still regularly blesses the Government for giving elderly people money.
"When we came here, my family were in awe of everything, every little thing was incredible, like a wonderland, but the more you aspire towards being white middle class, the more you suffer internally."
She says that while she had many friends growing up, cultural differences made it impossible to be truly open with them. For the past 20 years, Pung kept the family's "shameful" secret — her mother was an outworker taking in sewing.
"I was very worried about that aspect of the book and I researched the law to see if she would get into trouble.
"She told us never to tell a soul," says Pung, who confessed to her non-English-speaking mother only last week that she had included it in the book.
Her proud mother replied: "That's OK, but did you say I started working at 13?" Pung says.
"You see traffic lights for the first time. If you come from Cambodia, you have never seen such things in your life," she says. "In Australia, cars stop for people, but if you own a car in Cambodia it means you have lots of money and people stop for you, so (Footscray) is the epitome of democracy."
The 25-year-old solicitor, born a month after her parents migrated, yesterday launched her first novel, Unpolished Gem, at The Age Melbourne Writers' Festival. It is the story of her Chinese-Cambodian family as they pursue the Australian dream, with a subversive twist.
"Migrant literature usually starts with people suffering a lot and then they come to Australia or America or Canada and they make it big. That is supposed to be the end of their suffering. My book doesn't tell it like that; it tells it as it is for me and my family," Pung says.
Her father, who survived Cambodia's Year Zero while his friends "disappeared", embraced the Western concept of franchising, opening an electrical appliance shop, and her grandmother still regularly blesses the Government for giving elderly people money.
"When we came here, my family were in awe of everything, every little thing was incredible, like a wonderland, but the more you aspire towards being white middle class, the more you suffer internally."
She says that while she had many friends growing up, cultural differences made it impossible to be truly open with them. For the past 20 years, Pung kept the family's "shameful" secret — her mother was an outworker taking in sewing.
"I was very worried about that aspect of the book and I researched the law to see if she would get into trouble.
"She told us never to tell a soul," says Pung, who confessed to her non-English-speaking mother only last week that she had included it in the book.
Her proud mother replied: "That's OK, but did you say I started working at 13?" Pung says.
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