Book Club - Shirley Le's Funny Ethnics

Final Draft - Great Conversations

Today I’ve got a terrific Sydney novel…

Shirley Le is a Vietnamese-Australian writer from Yagoona. She is a Creative Producer at Sweatshop: Western Sydney Literacy Movement. Shirley’s writing has been published in Kill Your Darlings, The Griffith Review, Meanjin and several Sweatshop anthologies. My old bio used to say (Shirley is currently working on her debut novel with Affirm Press.) but now it’s out and we are talking about Funny Ethnics

Funny Ethnics opens with Sylvia Nguyen dropping a bombshell on her parents; she’s dropping out of law school to focus on her writing. It’s a blow few parents are equipped to take and Sylvia’s parents are no exception. Sylvia has prepared a speech in English and Vietnamese to reassure them she is not turning her back on her culture, but they are prepared to point out her mistakes bilingually.

Sylvia’s dilemma is one faced by many second generation children of migrants. Somehow though, knowing that she is well supported amongst the diaspora populations of Western Sydney is small consolation as Sylvia tries to live with her feet in both worlds.

When I spoke with Shirley about Funny Ethnics she described Sylvia’s story as occupying the hyphen between Vietnamese and Australian.

While Sylvia’s parents are only too quick to remind her of their struggles fleeing Vietnam for a better life in Australia, Sylvia can only fight against her own struggles. And that means facing the stifling boredom that comes with academic excellence whilst leaning towards her creative impulses.

Sylvia’s father is quick to point out the perilous future awaiting artists and Le shows us a world where a creative young person might win literary awards or stand on stage performing self loathing comedy.

The novel shifts us back and forth throughout Sylvia’s young life. We travel from public school to private high school. From bizarre tutoring experiences to the kaleidoscopic reality of university cliques.

Through Sylvia, Le shows us the wildly discordant reality of Sydney with its Fried Chicken Line seemingly splitting the city. While Sylvia knows where she comes from she also understands that everyone she meets will see that place with different eyes.

The racism that isn’t supposed to exist dogs Sylvia’s growth as she struggles with location, body image and culture. All are battlegrounds between the identity her family has raised her in and the world where she is growing up. This is a world of bricks wrapped in PAuline Hanson headlines hurled through windows and people nominally paying lip service to cultural diversity as they window shop at the buffet of cultural appropriation.

Through all this we see Sylvia finding her voice and noting that amongst the fraught is the bizarre, and the injustice sometimes comes with a side of the sardonic.

I got a lot out of Funny Ethnics because it showed me the familiar through new eyes and allowed me to rediscover Sydney in ways I probably should have been paying attention to before now

Funny Ethnics - Event Launch

09 Mar, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm (with Benjamin Law)

Better Read Than Dead, 265 King St, Newtown NSW 2042, Australia

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