My on line journal idea is growing legs and I’m meeting with Tom Cho and Tseen Khoo on Sunday with my partner who is doing the IT work. It’s now called “peril” and it’s motif the tsunami wave. Why the wave? Because of the mometum and build up I feel that is out there in Asian Australia networks and artists. Soon we will have an impact of our own accord. I like bouncing my ideas off Tom and Tseen they …

Last night had feedback from a forum about the Children of the Dragon script we’ve been working on. Again there was pressure to be representative this time that the project reflect all the issues that face generation 2 of Vietnamese-Australians. Almost impossible I say. There was some very good feedback about through lines and what the 2nd generation wants to say to the 1st generation. But I’m very aware that we are again being asked to sugar coat it a …

this is going to be a mild rant about a review I saw about the “Grave of Thu Le” by Catherine Cole. The review started by saying that there were only a few Vietnamese writers that were not known outside their communities and that Vietnam had not captured the “literary imagination” the way Indonesia had after “Turtle Beach”. Well the first claim is erroneous people have studied my work and David Chiem’s at secondary and tertiary levels. The second claim …

I’ve been discussing the on line journal idea with Tom and Tseen and both of them mentioned that there may be artists that would not label their work or see their work fitting in to the Asian-Australian niche/category or whatever you would call it. I guess I think about Quan Yeomans who is Vietnamese-Australian and Regurgitator is a mainstream band. I’m so used to being labelled a Vietnamese-Australian writer that I’ve internalised it somewhat. Also in my work it often …

Today i’m thinking of starting up an on line journal for us Asian Australians. Suzie Lee has already started a site for multimedia and arts where people can post up stuff which I’m looking forward to looking at. I’m looking at I guess a bit more conventional literary journal so we don’t have to wait for the special issues of journals to post our work up there. I’d also like to add to the sense of community that the meet …

I have decided to take an early redundancy from my work thanks to the Voluntary Student Union legislation and apply for a scholarship to try and write and study full time. Also thinking of applying for fellowships overseas with the support of my lovely partner. It’s exciting and terrifying at the same time I have always had a day job or a respectable study path (in psychology) and now it feels like a bit of a gamble. Yesterday I went …

I’ve just come back from Varuna Writers Centre where I spent a week reflecting and writing. I also started the interviews for my Phd. I interviewed Binh Duy Ta who wrote the play Monkey Mother about identity, community and home. He emphasised the importance of language for him in establishing identity, as his English gets better he feels his Australian side becomes more pronounced. He also mentioned that a friend of his with better English found it hard to integrate …

Today I saw a Visible Ink reading- the compilation put together by RMIT writing students. I was at RMIT in 1996 and from my classes a handful have had novels published. Margaret Bearman and Maria Hyland were in my classes with excellent novels with second ones to come.Today it was poetry and I saw Angela Costi and Tom Cho read. Angela Costi was lyrical, with arresting images, and Tom was his usual sardonic humourous self.Today I’d thought I’d write a …

Maybe banana split is a better description than banana, it allows for extra fillings with a cherry on top!To explain my identity a little more, I see myself as Vietnamese Australian, or Australian of Vietnamese origin which is sort of clunky. I don’t speak Vietnamese and I was born in Australia so would be counted as generation 2.Some of my acquaintances have argued that I’m not Asian at all- but these are people who don’t know me very well. It …

This is my first blog. I was inspired by Tom Cho’s blog on his transition to being a man.I have yet to define the purpose of this blog. A public memory space for people to hear my thoughts on – writing process – being Vietnamese-Australian and a banana identity- and so people can read my thoughts without having to load it all on my website hoapham.net So to start off today- I had an interesting conversation with a researcher who …