OzAsia. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 6 Nov 2025
The new Australian dream is never moving out
Asian Aussies grow up in an environment of cross-cultural, bi-cultural domesticity wherein the question of when one leaves home has higher degrees of ambivalence than for this true-blue Aussie's counterparts.
When said dilemma is parsed by their peers of the comedy persuasion, oh, it is of bittersweet hilarity - especially when delivered with barbs and exposes of fierce opposition.
OzAsia’s idea of pitting Aussie-born Asians, AKA Asian Australians, into this fearless challenge is nothing less than brilliant.
For us old Aussies, it is a cultural education with laughing bells on.
These six debaters, bravely moderated by the ABC’s Jason Chong, were of differing Asian stock, but would seem to agree that the racial identification requested on official forms makes the identification of “European ancestry” suggest something “extra white”. And listening to the six debaters pit themselves and each other against racial stereotypes makes one sit and ponder one’s own position in the gene pool. How white are we “Europeans”?
Europeans descend from a mixture of four West-Eurasian ancestral components, of which only the Nords and Celts are truly white. I, for one, am not “white”. I am “olive”, no doubt due to admixtures of other ethnic groups from Persia and the Levant.
Yes, Mr Chong et al, there’s a quirky racial debate subject for next OzAsia.
By then, we may have stopped chuckling at this one.
Michael Hing on the affirmative team was a treat. He’s had a varied career on television and radio, and even politics as the one member of the One Asian Party. Teammate Kushi Ventkatesh is only 20, a student and TikTokker. She insisted her youth made her the only genuine “New Australian" and, after giving diabolical advice as how to stop your Asian parents stalking you via electronic media, announced that her parents were in the house. Oops. Funny girl.
Lawrence Leung completed the affirmatives. He’s a Melbourne magician and Rubik’s-cube nerd as well as a comedian and the senior of the onstage teams.
On the negative side, Perth lawyer turned Melbourne comedian and memoir-writer, Sashi Perera, of Sri Lankan descent, noted the Aussie quest for individuality versus Asian community. Most everyone found that notable, except perhaps mixed-race comedian and drag artiste and TikTokker, Sydney-based Londoner CJ Lamarque, who had a lovely line on xenophobia. Alex Lee, captain of the negative team, is a journalist, actress and comedian - a triple threat with Asian genes.
The moderator “paid” everyone in bubble tea which he drank if they ran over their time allocations.
And, through a QR code onscreen, he accepted questions from the audience.
We learned a lot about Asian parenting: hot water is the cure for everything; mother can never collect too many plastic containers; homes must be near Aldis and private schools. Complex home lives are good for comic content, happy people are boring, Asian families never suffer loneliness syndrome and moving back with the parents is worth it for the babysitting. In the end of the day, after a madness of point-making and finger-pointing and some really naughty jokes, the audience was asked to vote and it did so very rowdily for the negative. Which means the dream of the yellow picket fence is alive, but for the cost. Or something like that.
Samela Harris
a
When: 6 Nov
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: Closed
