Selected for Best Australian Essays 2010

MY PARENTS ARE known as members of the ‘first generation’ of Vietnamese refugees, who came to Australia after the Vietnam War. I, however, am known as part of the ‘1.5 generation’. Born in Vietnam, made in Australia. We are the children of defeated warriors who have tried to come to terms with the present life, and the act of negotiating the past with all its rules and traditions, in the hope that the two very different cultures could blend into one well-adjusted whole. This always seemed better in theory than in practice.