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).
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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 attitudes gay 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” since her 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 the Moon presents the in the observer’s gaze” (Twigg, 1992, p. . 308) complexities of friendships betweenIn Teo’s Behind the Moon, the operations these migrant teenagers with multi-ethnicof borders and surveillance are constructed backgrounds. These friendships, between withinthe diasporic Asian culture — brought teenagers and their families, enable Teo to about by first generation migrants — and also address her idea that gated communities, as by Australian society. In this way, because represented by Asian and Australian cultures, of his Asian-Australian background, Justin’s provide these young characters with a limited sense of identity is patrolled “through both space to negotiate their identities across an external and internal surveillance of the ethnicities. In the interview excerpt at the startself” (Morris, 2008b, p. 149). Teo uses of this chapter, Teo uses the notion of passing metaphors of confinement and exclusion through a gate, into a “gated community”, in throughout the novel to demonstrate how a metaphorical way. Gated communities are Justin is excluded from both his Asian commonly understood as physical private cultural heritage, because of his sexuality, areas with strictly controlled access restricted and from acceptance by Australian society, to residents and their guests, surrounded by because of his Asian appearance. He is thus a closed perimeter of high walls and fences. doubly excluded from the ‘Aussie male’ Teo remarks that the walls may refer to stereotype by his sexuality and ethnicity. identity boundaries of similar cultures which As the title of Teo’s novel, Behind “form safe communities and communities of the Moon, is taken from the 1939 film the like-minded” (Broinowski, 2009, p. 195). The Wizard of Oz, it implies an idea of an As Teo has argued, the gate is not completely idealised, but strange or foreign, place. Teo sealed off as there is access for the insiders uses the lines from the film, in which the and outsiders to get through the cultural character Dorothy tells her dog Toto about boundaries and an opportunity for the two her dream place where she can live without groups to have contact and exchanges with her callous relatives: each other. Some place where there isn’t any trouble,’ she said. ‘Do you suppose there is such a place, DISCUSSION Toto? There must be. It’s not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It’s far, far away. Teo’s idea of a wall or gated community Behind the moon. Beyond the rain. Somewhere over the rainbow (Teo, 2005, p. 24). can be productively related to Morris’s “politics of surveillance” to metaphorise The place ‘behind the moon’ serves how a community may exercise power in as a metaphor for a dark, unknown, and
94 Amelberga Vita N. P. Astuti. Representation of an Asian... hidden place relating to Justin’s search for Justin suffers from a confused identity: “He belonging in terms of his sexual identity. wanted to be himself, but he didn’t know As an Asian gay, Justin dreams of an who he was either” (Teo, 2005, p. 141). idealised place where his homosexuality is His identity marks him with “symptoms of accepted both by his Singaporean parents abnormality” both sexually and ethnically and by the Australian gay community. (Morris, 2006, p. 160). Justin is aware that This place is unknown, metaphorically the realisation of his sexuality should have ‘behind the moon’, as he is confinedbeen liberating for him but, because of his both within the customs of Singaporean Asianness, it happens otherwise: culture, which despises homosexuals, and Being gay was a complicated affair. Gayness was an identity and, if you got it right, it was a within Australian society, which is often means of belonging. If you didn’t, if you were discriminatory against Asians. This double an Asian gay, it was practically an oxymoron (Teo, 2005, p. 141). marginalisation is a burden for Justin: “He did not want to be Asian and he did not These sentences mark Justin’s want to be gay” (Teo, 2005, p. 88). Thus, awareness of the critical ambivalence of his he dreams of a place where he is free from own identity. Through Justin’s narrative, “any trouble”, and from being condemned, Teo demonstrates that the place of hurt and excluded. acceptance seems always out of reach, “far, Justin’s “Normality” far away” in his struggle for “normality”. Teo complicates the idea of the In the depiction of Justin’s parents, possibility of “normality” for Justin as Teohe presents a stereotypical first generation struggles to conform to stereotypes in terms of Asian migrants. Although holding of both a national and a sexual identity. As Australian citizenship, Justin’s father and he hides his homosexuality from his family mother, Tek and Annabelle Cheong, with and friends, he feels forced to act in a way their Chinese-Singaporean background, that is considered ‘normal’, such as his continue to retain Asian traditions while attempt to be sexually attracted to Tien at also trying to assimilate with Australian the Year 12 formal. He goes to the party with culture. When Justin is expelled from a Tien in an effort to maintain the appearance private school for “mysterious reasons”, of normality. He ruins Tien’s plan to “lose Tek feels unable to defend him or to protest her virginity” with him after the party as the decision because of his Singaporean he is unable to act as a ‘normal’ young upbringing “by birth and education” (Teo, man is expected to (Teo, 2005, p. 74). Teo 2005, p. 11). Since, in Asian culture, emphasises Justin’s confusion by suggesting conformity to social and family norms is that “he didn’t know what normality was” important, Tek’s family avoids any conduct (Teo, 2005, p. 141). The idea of ‘normality’ that might bring shame to the family. Thus, is constructed as conformity to society’s Tek avoids “[drawing] attention to himself” expectations and stereotypes, whereas by not protesting against the school’s
95 Jurnal ILMU KOMUNIKASI VOLUME 15, NOMOR 1, Juni 2018: 91-106 obscure reason for Justin’s “dropping most Singaporeans demand the opportunity out” (Teo, 2005, p. 11). In contrast, when of “the negotiation of their Singaporean Justin attaches posters of Mel Gibson and identity” that leads to the unstable and Mark Lee from the filmGallipoli on his unsustainable construction of the national bedroom wall, Tek expresses his approval. identity (Ortmann, 2009, p. 23). Liu He believes that it is a positive sign that (2014, p. 1225) adds that the new Chinese “Justin was growing up an Australian”, immigrants (the 2010s) help shape the unaware that the posters are part of Singaporeans’ view of the new diaspora that Justin’s gay infatuation with the movie “prioritize the nation above the ethnicity”. stars (Teo, 2005, p. 6). Here, Teo shows Thus, these arguments provide the contexts that Tek continues to identify himself as that Annabelle still keeps her old-dated a Singaporean but, on the other hand, he views of Singaporean values when she expects his son to become an Australian. moves to Australia. Teo demonstrates the level of surveillance Teo’s fiction contends that Annabelle’s which operates within Singaporean culture double (Asian-Australian) surveillance through her representation of Justin’s is symbolically represented in the way parents. They exercise control over Justin Annabelle, Justin’s mother, teaches him through their conservative Singaporean toilet etiquette. Annabelle’s ideas of public attitudes, particularly with regard to hisand private acts reflect aspects of Singapore’s sexual identity formation. On the other collectivist society in her constant attempts hand, Justin’s parents are also being policed to conform to social norms and the need by Australian society in their avoidance of to control individual behaviour in public bringing shame to the family because of spaces. Like her husband, Tek, Annabelle any perception of wrong conduct. believes that it would be embarrassing to Annabelle’s Singaporean Obsession attract attention from people in public. Her The novel is set between the 1980s attitudes to toilet training can be seen as and the 1990s, in the time of the changing symbolic of teaching Justin the culture of her values of Singapore’s identity politics. “motherland” rather than those of Australia According to Ortmann (2009), before (Madsen, 2009, p. 181). the 1980s, the Singaporean government During Justin’s childhood, Annabelle focused on the economic development. teaches him how to use public toilets When “the widespread materialism within ‘properly’ in ways that conform to the idea the society” became a concern, starting of not bringing shame to the family; that in the 1990s, the government promoted is, leaving the toilet clean auditorily and “so-called Asian values” to provide a visually. Thus, when Justin’s mother made new basis for the city-state’s “stronger him stand on the rim of the toilet, “[s]he national identity” (Ortmann, 2009, p. 23). flushed the toilet once so that no-one would However, Ortmann’s finding shows that hear the happy tinkle of his urine hitting
96 Amelberga Vita N. P. Astuti. Representation of an Asian... water” (Teo, 2005, p. 2). She considers this portrays Annabelle as rejecting assimilation activity as a private matter that should be by using the toilet in her own way. For his left unheard by others. As she tells Justin, parents, Justin becomes “a good boy” if “Aim properly and don’t make a mess for he is “obedient” to his parents’ rules (Teo, other people to clean up” (Teo, 2005, p. 2). 2005, p. 3). Annabelle and Tek are always The depiction of toilets may concerned with what society thinks of them, also be read as addressing the “fear as indicated in Annabelle’s apprehension: of contamination” by another culture “She could not endure the shame of (Madsen, 2009, p. 182). Apart from strangers thinking she had fouled the toilet. reminding Justin of Singapore’s policies She and her husband Tek lived their lives to on cleanliness and hygiene, Annabelle also one mantra: what would people say?” (Teo, teaches him fear of contamination from 2005, p. 2). Getting approval in public previous users. As he finishes urinating, or from society is their main concern; his mother “tore off a couple of sheets of otherwise, they would breach the social toilet paper and threw them down the loo” norms and this would be shameful for them.before taking more sheets to dry him (Teo, This double surveillance is constructed 2005, p. 2). Annabelle’s obsession with from the Singaporean cultural concept of cleanliness in toilets serves as a metaphor ‘losing face’ and from their belief that, as for teaching Singaporean ‘hygienic’ culture migrants, they are constantly being policed to Justin as well as her fear of infection by Australian public society. as she comments, “Who knew what had The toilet training regime also contaminated them?” (Teo, 2005, p. 2). symbolises the complexities of Singaporean This cultural fear resulting from the use cultural encounters with Australian culture. of the public toilet symbolises the fear of Despite Australia being Justin’s birthplace, being contaminated by other ‘public or Annabelle’s obsession with cleanliness, global’ cultures and of losing the old culture a result of her Singaporean upbringing, in their encounter with the new culture. continues to impose on his engagement Annabelle’s fear addresses her concern for with Australian culture. This is obvious cultural purification and protecting her own in her instructions to him to transform “a culture from that of the new one. western flush toilet into an eastern squat These toilet encounters also indicate toilet” (Madsen, 2009, p. 182). Annabelle that Justin’s parents’ perception of warns Justin when he enters the public toilet sexuality remains “Asian”: private, taboo without her, “Jay-Jay. Don’t touch anything and conforming to social (family) norms. you don’t have to, you hear me? And don’t With his parents’ ambivalent attitudes, and sit on the toilet seat! … You crouch, okay? their determination to keep Asian traditions … You listen to Mummy like a good boy.” while living in Australian urban society, (Teo, 2005, p. 3). It is apparent that Teo Justin tries to find his own way of defining
97 Jurnal ILMU KOMUNIKASI VOLUME 15, NOMOR 1, Juni 2018: 91-106 his sexual identity. These intimate yet public because it is a “dirty” issue for his family. spaces represent a metaphor of dirtiness on Thus, when he becomes aware of his own two levels, cultural and sexual. The toilet sexuality, he suffers from “regrets” for his in Strathfield Plaza is the place of Justin’s own identity as it is in opposition to these first gay sexual encounter. Ironically, as conservative norms and is considered he is engaged in this sexual activity at the “unclean” by his family and friends (Teo, same time as a multiple shooting occurs in 2005, p. 8). Justin’s conservative parents the shopping centre (which is discussed in manipulate the way he sees himself and his more detail later), he survives the shooting. sexual identity, playing on his feelings of For Justin, “survival [brings] its own guilt” guilt and contamination so that he is even in the two ways: his first forbidden gay more confused about his sexuality. sexual experience (Teo, 2005, p. 21) and Sydney as a Site of Sexual Identity his own lucky survival. Teo deploys sexuality as a crucial The fear of contamination in terms of mechanism in exploring Australianness sexuality is reiterated in the depiction of which is constructed within the confines Annabelle’s censoring of Justin’s television of normality and masculinist stereotypes. watching. She considers that an exposure to Justin’s narrative in Behind the Moon ‘adult themes’ could contaminate Justin’s addresses the idea that Asian gay identity sexual purity. When there is a sex scene continues to be peripheral in a masculinist on television, she covers his eyes with her Australian national identity, even in the hand and says, “Dirty things going on” cosmopolitan city of Sydney. (Teo, 2005, p. 7). The television snippet of Teo’s subversive use of depictions of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Australian masculinities in film is associated emphasises Justin’s parents’ opinions of with Justin’s recognition of his gay identity homosexuality, as his mother screams in and attraction to homoeroticism. Peter horror, “Ai-yoh, look at all those hum sup Weir’s 1981 filmGallipoli is deployed for lohs!”, and chases Justin away from the its display of war representing Australian television (Teo, 2005, p. 7). It is significant masculine stereotypes of mateship and that she uses a Cantonese term here, one sacrifice. Watching this film at the age that is unglossed in the text, as it expresses of twelve, Justin is “mesmerised” at the her deeply-held traditional cultural values. sight of the actors’ male bodies, at which His father adds to this censorship of ‘adult point he discovers his own homosexuality themes’ as he comments, “They shouldn’t (Teo, 2005, p. 6). His focus is not on how show it on prime time television when ANZAC soldiers represent Australian children might be watching” (Teo, 2005, p. nationhood, as expected when he watches 7). With this restrictive sexual upbringing, the film in a history class. Teo denotes Justin develops an understanding that Justin’s homoeroticism in the way that talking about sexuality is forbidden Justin stares at the scenes of the soldiers
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“swimming naked” and “those lithe white 2009, p. 194). Teo uses a local event in male bodies rippling in the sea” (Teo, 2005, Strathfield, an inner suburb in Sydney p. 5-6). Teo emphasises Justin’s longing — the 1991 shooting at Strathfield Plaza to be submerged in Australian culture, as — and an international event — Princess shown by the film’s characters that represent Diana’s 1997 funeral — to convey the idea young Australian manhood, Archy, a young of collective moments that may also affect bushman from the outback and Frank, a individual lives. The Strathfield shooting larrikin from the city. Subversively, Teo takes place in the café where the three also offers a different interpretation of the best friends, Tien, Justin and Gibbo, are Australian myth of mateship, shown in the supposed to meet for their lunch. Further, film, in the form of Justin’s response — hisin the chapter entitled “Dead Diana fantasy of having a male partner. Dinner”, Teo uses the dinner as a collective By depicting Sydney as the site of moment of shared mourning and fear of Justin’s coming to terms with his gay loss, both for Princess Diana’s death and identity, Teo’s novel colludes with a for the friends’ impending separation. Both popular conception that Sydney is “a gay events, the shooting and Diana’s funeral mecca”, typified by the annual Mardi Gras. procession, relate to the process of Justin’s The Mardi Gras signifies Justin’s parents’ embracing his homosexuality. During the difficult struggle against the fact that shooting, Justin experiences his first sexual sexuality, particularly homosexuality, is part encounter in the public toilet at the Plaza, of Sydney society, and especially later, as as previously discussed, while during “the part of their son’s life. In this sense, Sydney Diana dinner”, Justin’s homosexuality is serves as a gateway for Justin to learn “the incidentally revealed to his family and accoutrements” of how to be an Australian friends. gay (Teo, 2005, p. 141). However, in Teo’s Teo’s subversive use of the city is subversive narrative, Sydney is a site of explored in the novel’s representation of some ambivalence in this regard, an index Strathfield, which is an exemplary site of of Justin’s social and cultural difficulties in normality in a cosmopolitan space. While entering his new sexual identity. on the surface Strathfield seems like a Teo uses two incidents in the narrative ‘normal’ suburb, the shooting reveals a that use the metaphor of exposure relating violent underside to its façade. Strathfield is to Justin’s ‘coming out’. Teo’s refers to portrayed as an uneventful and “staid” place specific historical events in the narrative to with a multicultural society, incorporating address transformative moments in Justin’s Anglo and Eastern European houses, Indian sexual identity. As a historian, Teo has spice shops, Chinese restaurants and Korean deliberate reasons for deploying history, “cute shops” and karaoke clubs (Teo, 2005, one of which is “to look at the way historyp. 15). The suburb’s multicultural school affects ordinary people” (Broinowski, children are described as having amiable
99 Jurnal ILMU KOMUNIKASI VOLUME 15, NOMOR 1, Juni 2018: 91-106 manners rather than as the stereotypical exterior of a calm multicultural suburb, there Australian “fearsome crowd” of teenagers are hidden tensions. The incident also evokes (Teo, 2005, p. 16): Justin’s anxiety about his sexual orientation They did not menace the middle-aged with and conveys the idea that he is not what he the sight of basketball boots, baseball caps seems. twisted backwards and baggy tracksuit tops over school trousers. Nor did the girls offend ‘Normality’ is also depicted in the intolerant with the Muslim modesty of elegantly arranged headscarves. Justin’s effort to fit in and to be ‘like a real Australian’. Like the suburb of The description of the children’s Strathfield, he is also described as having clothing is representative of an orderly a multicultural background as he was born society. The cosmopolitanism of the as an ABC, an “Australian-born Chinese” city is not only marked by the culturally (Teo, 2005, p. 13). He represents a group diverse buildings but also identified by the of Asian-Australians, a generation called inhabitants’ tolerance to religious practices. a banana, “yellow on the outside, white This seeming ‘normality’ in a multicultural on the inside”(Khoo, 2003, p. 1). In his suburb is subverted by the shooting, during childhood, he is ashamed of his mother’s which, at the same time, Justin subverts calling out to him in a public space to ask the ‘normality’ of his sexuality. Exposure whether he wants to urinate, “to shee-shee” is therefore a strong theme underlying this (Teo, 2005, p. 1). Justin has already learned incident in the narrative. to adopt an attitude like a “non-Asian” The narrative demonstrates that beneath by “censoring his mother in his head; the calmness and orderliness of the suburb eavesdropping on their conversation from are hidden problematic issues. Teo re-enacts an imaginary non-Asian point of view and in exact details the real event of the 1991 marking out her oddness” as if he is not part Strathfield massacre, “one of Australia’s of his mother’s being different in Australia worst and most violent crimes”, in which a (Teo, 2005, p. 2). He plays in the school gunman went on a shooting rampage and, basketball, cricket and tennis teams like a before being caught by the police, committed real Australian boy with sports skills and a suicide (Jones, 2011, p. 1). The man was shelf of ribbons and trophies, but he is only suspected of suffering from depression considered as a “B-grade” player because because of family and financial difficulties. of his Asianness which never makes him In the novel, the advertisement above the a complete Australian (Teo, 2005, p. 12). train station platform, which says: “If you’ve However, he does not dare to “menace” got time to kill, relax at Strathfield Plaza”,nor “offend” Singaporean culture, becomes unintentionally ironic as the gunman demonstrating his ‘normal’ character as a starts shooting people randomly at the Coffee good Singaporean boy who is obedient to Pot café inside the Plaza (Teo, 2005, p. 16). his parents’ rules. Gibbo and Tien find him In this respect, Toe indicates that behind the able to “take a joke”, having an “easygoing
100 Amelberga Vita N. P. Astuti. Representation of an Asian... smile” and a “good natured” personality, different, he recognises that his clothing which hides his confusion about his sexual and appearance will always mark him as orientation (Teo, 2005, p. 12, 13, 14). For being from the wrong place. He is not even them, Justin is a “nice” friend to be with acceptable as a ‘normal’ gay. (Teo, 2005, p. 13, original emphasis). Thus, By mentioning names of places and Teo portrays Justin as a “good” and “nice” streets, Teo highlights the sexual geography Asian-Australian boy who covers up the of Sydney. By focussing on Justin’s feelings, complications of his sexual identity. she also underlines the exclusionary Justin’s struggle with his sexuality atmosphere of the city for Asian gay men. suggests that being an Asian gay is not Other Asian gay men, like him, are less culturally acceptable, as he believes that, as likely to be open for exactly the same a “first-generation Singaporean Australian reasons he has. Oxford Street, the Cross in the western suburbs of Sydney”, he has and Darlinghurst are representative places to learn about gay society by himself (Teo, of a gay community where Justin feels 2005, p. 141). His Asianness generates his uncertain of the welcome he might receive. caution in entering this new society or sub- Despite the places being described as culture, the gay scene: public spaces, in words such as “street” and He assumed that he would have to “cafés”, they address a sense of exclusion gravitate to Oxford Street or the Cross for strangers, like Justin. This is captured to explore his gayness, but he didn’t feelin Teo’s description of Justin challenging confident enough to do it. A couplehimself of to be there. He particularly prevents times he’d ventured timidly to cafés inhimself from attracting attention, as Darlinghurst and sat outside, slowly stirring illustrated in the word “timidly”. His choice his cappuccino, keeping an eye out for of sitting “outside” also shows his fear of overtly gay men so that he could see whatentering the ‘inside’ of the community. The he was supposed to look and act like. All morehe he observes, the more he feels the knew was that he didn’t look right because hesense of unbelonging as he calls himself a was Asian. He did not have the right clothes“B-grade gay” (Teo, 2005, p. 142). Apart or hair or the right body type. […] On top of from his ignorance of gay fashions and his being Asian, he wore the wrong clothes, had ‘incorrect’ body type, his Asianness is the the wrong hairstyle and was altogether too most significant feature which excludes much of a westie (Teo, 2005, p. 141-142). him from this group of Australian gay men. Justin’s observation of the city not Yet the narrative suggests that it is in only shows racial exclusion but also class realising his gay identity that Justin is able, discrimination. This description demonstrates too, to realise his Australian identity. Justin’s the way Justin constructs his own idea of a ambivalent feeling about his Asian-Australian gay identity and how he identifies himself in identity is illustrated when he finally finds “a that construction. Apart from being racially subterranean intervarsity Asian gay club”,
101 Jurnal ILMU KOMUNIKASI VOLUME 15, NOMOR 1, Juni 2018: 91-106 which shows that Asian gays are not public, Asianness” and to move forward into “an unlike Anglo gays (Teo, 2005, p. 142). empowering white multiculturalism” (Teo, The “subterranean” place is significantly2005, p. 327-328). Teo portrays Justin as positioned below the surface of the city.transforming into becoming part of an As the club consists of foreign students, he Australian gay community through the becomes aware of his Australianness. He new strategies he undertakes in the city of develops his “feeling of superiority” to them, Sydney in order to find white gay men who as he is not a part of the temporary Australian are attracted to Asians (Teo, 2005, p. 153). resident culture like them (Teo, 2005, p. 142). Justin’s Sexual Identity Transformation The problems of being different manifest in The identity politics in Australia has his ‘un’-belonging again. been understood as a masculinised nation, in a Although he finally builds a close way that the idea of mateship has shaped how relationship with a Malaysian student, Australia has been constructed. Simmonds, Jordie Kok, it only lasts less than a year Rees, and Clark (2017, p. 8) contend that as Jodie is a reminder of Asian cultural in a transnational analysis in the context of attitudes towards gayness. In Australia, Australia, “place is imagined and inscribed their relationship is hidden from Jordie’s locally as well as utilised as a transnational Malaysian flatmates and Justin’s parents. concept”. Boucher and Reynolds (2017, p. Justin’s short visit to Malaysia reveals 152) supports this idea through his research Jordie’s view of their relationship: as a on the history of migration in Australia, “the conservative Buddhist, he chooses to sexual cultures have been shaped by different become a “filial son” to his parentsnational by contexts”. The political identity preserving his virginity until marriage (Teo, has remade “the relationship between the 2005, p. 145). This visit emphasises Justin’s nation-state and its citizens” (Boucher & newfound Australianness as he is criticised Reynolds, 2017, p. 151). As mateship is by Jordie’s father as being “Aussified” part of Australian national identities, there and as becoming “westernised Chinese” has been an argumentative concept “which by Jordie, which in turn makes him angry mateship could easily become eroticised and that “this Malaysian man had the gall to sexualised” – a point made in many a Sydney criticise an Australian” (Teo, 2005, p. 147- Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras float (Boucher 148). Teo highlights Justin’s decision to & Reynolds, 2017, p. 153). Since in late relinquish his desire for “traditional Asian twentieth-century Australia, Sydney, along roots via Malaysian students” (Teo, 2005, with Melbourne, have been “crucial sites p. 328). In this sense, his gay identity helps of contact” with developments of historical to formulate his Australianness. Justin’s dynamism of ideas about homosexual life and failed relationship with Jordie and the identity in Australia (Boucher & Reynolds, homophobic attitude of his extended family 2017, p. 155-156). In his geographic research in Singapore encourage him to “despise on queer Asian men in Sydney in the 2010s,
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Ruez (2016, p. 4) argues that the particular Here, Teo suggests that for Justin, being experiences of queer migrants in Sydney are unidentified means belonging, being part of “racialized and inflected with hegemonic the community. masculinities”. Sydney is proven to provide Justin’s coming to terms with his “a complicated geography of welcoming sexuality enables him to reveal his hidden and unwelcoming spaces” (Ruez, 2016, sexual identity. His attempts to be part of p. 9). The complications are shown in the an Australian gay community are illustrated ideas of Sydney, to the centres and margins metaphorically in the transformation of of queer urban life, as “sites of exclusion his appearance. The “silk shirts” which he or violence”; or, seen as “comfortable or wears during his relationship with Jordie are pleasurable sites, yet as places to avoid”; now replaced by Australian and European along with “the mobile and shifting urban brands, “tight white Bonds T-shirts and geographies of queer life in Sydney more Armani jeans” (Teo, 2005, p. 149). The silk broadly” (Ruez, 2016, p. 9). The viability of shirts represent Justin’s encounters with a ‘‘politics of visibility’’ seeking to reassert a Asian cultures, specifically Singaporean and masculine Asian identity within the confines Malaysian, which are restrictive of his sexual of valorising national identity politics (Ruez, identity. The tight T-shirts which expose 2016, p. 11). Thus, the idea of Australia’s the “satisfactory contours” of his “gym-fit notion of sexuality is a broader one, as Ruez swimmer’s body” that has resulted from his concludes, “incorporating both sex itself and fourteen-month hard training are symbolic its politics at the intersection of gender, race, of the exposure of his self-acceptance of his and class” (Ruez, 2016, p. 13). sexuality (Teo, 2005, p. 150). He adopts a In Teo’s representation, Sydney is new hairstyle that he believes as a typical described as a populated and multicultural of a gay hair-cut, “short”, and even plans city, and Teo presents Justin’s way of entering “to shave his head” (Teo, 2005, p. 150). He the gay community as operating in the changes himself to become a “Europhile”, “anonymity” of large cities. As in Strathfielddying “his hair blond” and cooking perfect his friends and family might recognise pasta (Teo, 2005, p. 324). He has his skin him, he turns to the inner-city suburb of “artificially tanned” transforming his skin Darlinghurst. He abandons open spaces, like colour to “a beautiful golden brown” (Teo, streets and cafés, and searches for shadowy 2005, p. 150). This skin choice is a revelation places, such as nightclubs in order to obscure of his understanding that he is able to use his Asianness. As he recounts, “In the pulsing his “exotic oriental … dark looks” to attract press of anonymous bodies gyrating in a white gay men (Teo, 2005, p. 158). Thus, nightclub he could pretend that he actually Teo delineates Justin’s Asian-Australian belonged to this community” (Teo, 2005, transformation as he wears Western fashions p. 149). The crowdedness and the dimness and embraces a Western lifestyle but of the nightclub make him unidentifiable. continues to maintain his exotic Asianness.
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However, Teo has incorporated, anyone who is not judged as belonging is throughout the narrative, examples of stereotyped as a “commie bastard boatie”. underlying racism and discrimination that The reaction of other tram passengers Justin faces as a result of his ethnicity and indicates “covert racism” in their refusal his sexuality, problematising this sense of to notice or react to this overt display of new belonging. The depiction early in the racial abuse. As they are “looking out the narrative of an incident on a tram, when window or just looking away” (Teo, 2005, Justin is the target of verbal racial abuse by p. 64), their responses demonstrate urban a drunken man, exposes Justin’s ethnicity as Australians’ passive attitudes towards this constantly under surveillance by the white obvious racism in a city known for its gaze. Teo’s figuration of the drunken man in cosmopolitanism, Sydney. They are either the tram is significant because he functions reluctant to be identified with Justin, or as a representation of urban Australian afraid of being involved in the conflict society. The man insults Justin by using between the racial majority, the drunken a litany of derogatory words for people of Australian man, and the racial minority, the Asian descent, calling him “chink”, “slope”, Asian-looking Justin. “slanty-eyed boatie”, “fish-breath gook”, Justin continues to be pursued by this and telling him: “We don’t want youse double marginalisation and discrimination, here. Go back to where you came from, youas Teo shows the verbal racial abuse commie bastard boatie” (Teo, 2005, p. 64). escalating to become physical abuse The man’s string of insults and his demand towards the end of the novel. Taking a that Justin goes “back” to where he “came lonely walk on the beach after the revelation from” illustrates the gate-keeping mentality of his sexuality to his family and friends, often encountered by migrants in their and after breaking up with his boyfriend engagement with the host culture. Dirk, Justin is bashed into a coma by “three This incident demonstrates that bullish men” due to his Asian gayness (Teo, Justin’s Chinese appearance continues2005, p. 333). These abusers are described to make him a target of racist abuse and as drunk with “the stale stench of beer on that, to the drunken racist, all Asians are their breath”, similar to the abuser on the indistinguishable, conflating Chinese, tram (Teo, 2005, p. 333). The deployment Vietnamese and Korean people, in an of drunken men abusing Justin is significant ignorant attack on all Asian people. Though as they are representative of those who Justin was born in Australia, he retains the may lose control and express their deepest mark of his ethnic identity as ‘Other’ in thoughts that may be otherwise “censored” his own birthplace. This incident portrays in a multicultural society. Thus, the the conditional hospitality and policing drunken men expose hidden judgements, of borders that is exercised by ordinary fears and prejudices, as indicated in their people, not just the authorities, wherein violent verbal exchanges with Justin. While
104 Amelberga Vita N. P. Astuti. Representation of an Asian... bashing him, they keep asking him the changes the perceptions of his family question, “What are you?” (Teo, 2005, p. and friends about his sexuality. His coma 333) to which they demand the response reunites them, so that they even welcome the they have already given him, “fucking Asian hospital visits of Justin’s ex-boyfriend, Dirk. faggot”. The men’s policing of “normality” As the bashing happens after the revelation serves as a means of controlling and of his sexuality, his coma enables his surveilling Australian masculine identity. family and friends to show their acceptance They attempt to enforce a stereotypical of his homosexuality. For example, Gibbo, doubly marginalised identity onto Justin who has maintained distance in their — a positionality that Justin refuses to be friendship after being passionately kissed confined to, even though this results in his by Justin during a camping trip after their being left in a coma. He refuses to repeat high school exams and reacting violently to the words that would have saved him from it, comes to understand Justin’s suffering. further beating, words that merely reinforce Visiting Justin at the hospital, Gibbo regrets this exclusion, “fucking Asian faggot”. his “explosion of fists” at that time (Teo, Ironically, the bashing releases Justin 2005, p. 92). He only wishes “he’d had from his own attachments to his confining the maturity, the compassion and courage cultural and sexual identities, and even to kiss Justin back, hug him tightly, [and] encourages in him an assertion of agency. then ease away” (Teo, 2005, p. 337). Thus, Teo highlights the irony of the incident as, Justin’s coma marks a transformative during the beating, Justin is liberated from moment for everyone in terms of collective this marked identity in an assertion of his moments of shared love, understanding individuality, when he replies, instead of and mourning for Justin. Thus Teo portrays the men’s imposed phrase, the words, “I am Sydney not only as having reputation for me” (Teo, 2005, p. 333). He is aware of the being a gay-tolerant city that hosts the liberation, as he recounts: “He no longer Mardi Gras but also as having its dark side needed the external markers of identity, the in its attitudes towards Asian gay men. first thing people saw or learned about him CONCLUSION and judged him by. He was not reducible to his ethnicity or his sexuality or his This paper’s analysis of Teo’s fiction occupation or geographical location or even shows how Asian sexuality is represented to his family” (Teo, 2005, p. 334). In light in the contexts of cultural surveillance and of this, Justin emancipates himself from his confinement in an Australian city. Asian own cultural and sexual confinement based cultures are depicted as imposing strict on the outward markers of both his ethnic control over sexuality, a control that is either and sexual identity. loosened or maintained in the new culture. The city, in this case, Sydney, becomes a Yet another irony ensues from this metaphor for the assertion of transformed violent incident, as Justin’s comatose body
105 Jurnal ILMU KOMUNIKASI VOLUME 15, NOMOR 1, Juni 2018: 91-106 sexual identities. In this way, Justin has the Madsen, D. L. (2009). Travels in the body: Technologies courage to assert his individual sexual and of waste in Chinese diaspora. In E. Y. L. Ho & J. Kuehn (eds), China abroad: Travels, subjects, cultural identity despite the pressure from spaces (pp. 173-191). Hong Kong: Hong Kong both his inherited Singaporean culture and University Press. the new “host” culture. Morris, R. (2006). ‘Growing up an Australian’: Renegotiating mateship, masculinity and REFERENCES ‘Australianness’ in Hsu-Ming Teo’sBehind the Astuti, A. V. (2015). Asian-Australian writers: Moon. Journal of intercultural studies, 27(1- Bridging the gap. Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi, 2), 151-166. 12(1), 69-86. Morris, R. (2008b). Looking through the twin Boucher, L., & Reynolds, R. (2017). Thinking lens of race and gender: a new politics of transnationally about sexuality: Homosexuality surveillance in Asian Australian and Asian in Australia or Australian homosexualities? In Canadian women’s writing.School of English Anna Clark, Anne Rees, & Alecia Simmonds literatures, philosophy and languages.
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