Introduction Post (Yan)

The fact that I hate introductions seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life.

Wednesday night, I was at the Welfare Union House sleep-in, and as an ice breaker one of the things that the organisers wanted us to do was the ‘two truths one lie’ thing.

For a crowd as small as we were, the groan of dissent was loud. And my voice was one of them.

I’m not sure why other people don’t like it – it’s overdone, it’s stupid, whatever – but personally I hate that game because you’re saying these things to complete strangers who have no idea who you are, so anything they judge is going to be according to what strategy you employ: you list one fact that sounds so outlandish it should be a lie that’s actually a truth, and something that could be totally true as a lie. You say three things that sound equally outlandish. You say three things that sound equally plausible (but then, what’s the fun in that?).

So, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this? I have a tendency to overthink things.

Here’s something for you. One of these is a lie:

1. I was born in China.
2. I’m studying commerce.
3. I’m a domestic student.

It’s probably not the one you think.

I’m not sure how effective these kinds of thing is for challenging assumptions about places of origin and stereotypes about ethnicity. I don’t even know whether it’s necessary to make everything about race, as I have a tendency to do.

But all too recently, Clive Palmer referred to Chinese people as ‘mongrels’ who ‘shoot their own people’. And just the other day, Tony Abbot named white settlement as Australia’s ‘defining moment’, literally ignoring over 60, 000 years of Indigenous history.

So, I mean, when the most visible people in Australia are going around spouting nonsense like that, yeah, I think this stuff is pretty important.

Here’s another one:

1. I’m an Australian citizen.
2. I’m living away from home.
3. I went to high school in China.

To be honest, all of these things could be true. I could be all of these things at once. I know people who are all of these things at once. And the fact that I am not all of these at once, that I do not tick all the boxes of what Chinese people should be, does not make me any more or less of a person.

I’ll give you a break now. All of these are true:

1. I started this post trying to challenge stereotypes about Chinese people but to be honest, I’m not sure what I’m trying to achieve anymore.
2. I’m too tired to care right now.
3. As you might be able to tell, this blog is gonna get pretty political. All of the views stated within my posts are my own opinion and are in no way endorsed by the university, blah blah blah. You know the drill.
4. It’s 2am and I really need to go to sleep, so I’m gonna do that now.