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Representation of an Asian-Australian Gay in Hsu-Ming Teo’S Behind the Moon

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Representation of an Asian-Australian Gay in Hsu-Ming Teo’S Behind the Moon Representation of an Asian-Australian Gay in Hsu-Ming Teo’s Behind the Moon Amelberga Vita N. P. Astuti Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta Jl. Babarsari No. 6, Yogyakarta 55281 Email: [email protected] Abstract: This paper examines how a novel Behind the Moon (2005) provides literary representations of an Asian migrant’s transforming sexual identities in Australia. Applying Morris’s concept of a “politics of surveillance”, it argues that approaches of strict control leads to an initial clash of cultures, and ultimately either to mutual transformation or a reinforcement of lack of agency/sexual difference. The analysis shows that the novel displays aspects of the cultural complexities of sexual identity formation regarding the character’s identity as an Asian homosexual in Australia. As to transformation setting, the city is a spatial metaphor for cultural confinement and surveillance. Keywords: Asian-Australian, homosexual, migrant, surveillance, transformation Abstrak: Artikel ini membahas representasi tentang transformasi identitas seksual seorang pria migrant asal Asia di Australia dalam novel Behind the Moon (2005). Menerapkan konsep Morris tentang “politics of surveillance”, artikel ini berpendapat bahwa pendekatan dengan kontrol yang ketat mengarah pada awal benturan budaya, dan akhirnya mengarah pada transformasi timbal balik atau penegasan kurangnya perbedaan seksual. Analisis menunjukkan bahwa novel tersebut menampilkan aspek kompleksitas budaya pembentukan identitas seksual mengenai identitas karakter sebagai seorang homoseksual Asia di Australia. Lokasi transformasi ini menunjukkan bahwa kota merupakan metafora spasial untuk pengurungan dan pengawasan budaya. Kata kunci: Asia-Australia, homoseksual, migran, pengawasan, transformasi In most Asian cultures, sexuality is rarely changed when it was published in Asia openly discussed. Therefore, any discourse because of this sensitive issue. As Ng stated on sexuality in Asia is complex. The concept in an interview, “there is a law in South- of sexuality and sexual expression in Asian East Asia banning erotica” (Yu, 2001, p. culture is “a private matter” to the point 113). Sexuality is understood to be a taboo that any direct discussion of this topic in topic so that, even in a book-marketing public is unusual (Chan, 1995, p. 95). This strategy, any promotion associated with attitude is so prevalent that it even affects sex is avoided. When Asians migrate to how fictional narratives can be advertised. Western countries, such as Australia, they To illustrate the point, the cover blurb deal with a social construction of sexuality of an Asian-Australian writer Lillian Ng’s which is open, or more “liberal and free” erotic tale Swallowing Clouds had to be (Ng, 2013). 91 Jurnal ILMU KOMUNIKASI VOLUME 15, NOMOR 1, Juni 2018: 91-106 Thus, as an Asian-Australian writer (Astuti, 2015, p. 75). This second novel was Hsu-Ming Teo states in an interview: shortlisted in the 2006 New South Wales With regard to race, there’s a considerable Premier’s Literary Awards – Community shifting of migrants, particularly middle- Relations Commission Award. She has also class ones, with regard to how they position themselves through ethnicity and later on published a book of literary criticism entitled through class and socio-economic mobility; Desert Passions (2012). that allows them to get through the gates to where they want to be (Broinowski, 2009). In taking this text as examples for analysis, I examine how the transformation In their encounter with Western culture, of migrants’ sexual identity is framed in migrants may need to “position themselves Asian-Australian literature within the context through ethnicity” in order to adjust to of cross-cultural encounters in urban spaces. “get[ting] through the gates”, that is, to the This paper argues that the contrasting cultural new culture. In light of this, Asian migrants’ approaches — of strict control as opposed concept of sexuality is necessarily transformed to greater freedom — within postcolonial in their encounters with Western culture. cosmopolitanism, particularly in relation This article examines Hsu-Ming Teo’s to sexual identities and sexual identity- second novel, Behind the Moon (2005) as formations, lead to an initial clash of cultures she provides literary representations of the and ultimately either to mutual transformations construction of sexuality in Asia and the or a reinforcement of lack of agency/sexual transformation of this concept as experienced difference. Drawing on Robyn Morris’s by an Asian migrant in Australia. Teo uses “politics of surveillance”, which encapsulates Sydney as a setting for their narratives and an idea “of ordering and categorising displays several aspects of the complexities otherness”, this paper centres on the novel’s of sexual identity-formation regarding their exploration of a transforming cosmopolitan characters’ particular backgrounds of cultural city and society which exercise surveillance confinement. of the main protagonists’ own behaviour as This paper focuses on the cultural well as that of others’(Morris, 2008b, p. 123). and social challenges facing the main Focussing on concepts of cultural and sexual character, Justin, in coming to terms withsurveillance his and metaphors of confinement, homosexuality. Sydney’s sexual geography this research suggests that in her novel, Teo affects Justin’s sexual identity transformationdemonstrates the process of transforming and his own Singaporean family’s practicessexual identities which negotiate restrictive of surveillance influence how he comesAsian to and — seemingly free — Australian terms with the double exclusion of his attitudesgay towards sexuality. Asianness (Astuti, 2015, p. 82). A “theme of family history” is depicted in Teo’s Behind METHOD the Moon (2005), which “centres on three In order to investigate how an Asian- teenagers from different backgrounds” Australian novel addresses the representation 92 Amelberga Vita N. P. Astuti. Representation of an Asian... of transformation of a migrant’s sexuality, FINDINGS this paper explores Teo’s novel Behind the Behind the Moon is a novel about Moon in which tells of three Asian-Australian conforming to cultural and sexual norms. teenage migrants who share the experience of As Madsen (2009, p. 17) states, she being outsiders in urban Sydney. The novel categorises Hsu-Ming Teo’s second novel as is analysed in terms of the sexual identity Chinese writing which centres on national transformation of a young Australian-born fear and racial loathing in “unAustralia”. gay, Justin, with Singaporean heritage, and In this novel, Teo depicts young migrants’ whose sexual identity is pretty complicated experiences in Australia, which in some (Astuti, 2015, p. 76). way may reflect her own experiences of Hsu-Ming Teo is a Malaysian-born migrating to Australia from Malaysia when writer who has written two novels:Love she was seven. This novel is a story of three and Vertigo (2000) and Behind the Moon school ‘misfits’: Justin ‘Jay-Jay’ Cheong, (2005). She moved to Australia when she Tien Ho and Nigel ‘Gibbo’ Gibson. Told was 7 years old in 1977. Now she resides in the voice of a third-person omniscient in Sydney as a novelist and an academic narrator, the narrative demonstrates that historian at Macquarie University. Her “[t]he trauma of shared humiliation was as Asian and Australian background is good a basis for friendship as any at that a significant rationale to includeage” her since they are all social rejects (Teo, interviews on her challenging experiences2005, p. 8). with Asian cultural heritage and Australian Tien is a dark-skinned girl with cultural education and nationality. These Vietnamese and African-American heritage, interviews are useful for the analysis for who is separated from her mother when they also contain discussions on her novel. she is a child; Justin is an Australian-born This paper begins with an analysis of Chinese boy with Singaporean heritage, Behind the Moon, focusing on the cultural who later comes out as gay; and Gibbo is and social challenges facing the main an Australian boy plagued with “physical character, Justin, in coming to terms with hisand social inaptitude” (Teo, 2005, p. 27). homosexuality. The analysis examines how Becoming adolescents in Australia, these Sydney’s sexual geography affects Justin’schildren experience the pressure to be sexual identity transformation and how “normal, everyday Australian[s]” as Tien his own family’s practices of surveillancestruggles with her double-non-white-ethnic influence how he comes to terms with identity;the Justin with his Asian homosexuality; double exclusion of his gay Asianness. The and Gibbo with his lack of sporting skills contrast between attitudes in Asian and (Teo, 2005, p. 33). Tien, for example, finds Australian cultures towards stereotypes of that her mixed-blood background fails to (Asian) sexuality is narrativised through provides “a basis for belonging”(Teo, 2005, metaphors of surveillance and confinement. p. 128) in Australian culture. Apart from 93 Jurnal ILMU KOMUNIKASI VOLUME 15, NOMOR 1, Juni 2018: 91-106 her dark appearance, the failure to belong is the act of observing and classifying. This particularly attributed to the absence of her performative surveillance constructs “the Vietnamese mother and African-American observer as subject and the observed as father during the important years of her object” so that the latter is transformed into teenage life. “a thing and subjected to the power implied Behind
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