POH LING YEOW Part 2

POH LING YEOW  Part 2

South Australia Chinese Weekly Reporter:Jo Phan/ 專欄記者: 潘在恩

I asked with all of her success in her art and paintings, along with her cooking television show and recipe book does she ever think about how different her life would have been in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Adelaide, Australia.

She replied whole heartedly yes.

She explained in Kuala Lumpur education was very much academic focused on tertiary studies. “I was a bit of a scatter brain and was definitely leading into the arts”.

In the education system in Kuala Lumpur she felt a bit depressed that she was not reaching her full potential because the education system was heavily focussed on academics. The education system in Kuala Lumpur was more focused on academic then on the arts or creativity and she felt because academics did not come naturally as the arts did, she questioned her ability.

“I distinctively remember the moment my parents told me that we were moving to South Australia and I remember my thought being that everything would be ok in Australia”. 

Growing up in Australia in a western culture while your own background is of Asian heritage, Poh and I discuss the lack of Asian Role models, which you see in mainstream media, particularly on the entertainment scale. With Poh’s Kitchen season 2 starting on ABC on the 24th of August and looking at Australia television in the entertainment industry, there really isn’t many Asian Role models. Growing up the only person Poh and myself could think of who was of Asian heritage on television was Lee Lin Chin, the lovely reporter on World News Australia.

But when walking through the CBD, these days you do see advertisements of young Asian men and women as well as commercials on television. We are moving forward and you see the changes gradually happen. Australia is heading forward and moving multiculturalism into mainstream industries.

 “I feel privileged to be in this position”

Personally, she stated clearly she had never suffered from racism. But the self-esteem problems she had suffered in her 20s were self-imposed and was related to her teenage years feeling she was out of place and different because of her appearance to people around her. Only until she reached her 30’s was when she overcame these self-esteem issues.

She described to me her painting of the Little Asian Girl with Australian Birds around her. This painting reflected her feelings of being out of place. The Little Asian Girl, reoccurs numerous times which she explained was a mechanism she developed as a therapeutic act of embracing everything she had once hated about herself physically. By using her creative skills through her painting she worked on her issues of feeling and looking different.

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POH LING YEOW  Part 2

South Australia Chinese Weekly Reporter:Jo Phan/ 專欄記者: 潘在恩

我問Poh，當她回想起自己在藝術、繪畫，以及烹飪電視節目和編著食譜書籍方面獲得的成功時，她有沒有想過如果自己留在馬來西亞的吉隆坡而不是來到澳大利亞的阿德萊德，她的生活會不會有什麼不同。

Poh真心地回答：肯定會不同。

她解釋說，吉隆坡的教育更加註重學術，更加關注文化學習。

“而我是屬於發散性思維，所以肯定會向藝術方面發展。”

由於吉隆坡的教育主要是關注學習成績，所以Poh經常會由於不能施展自己的所有潛能而覺得沮喪。又是吉隆坡的教育體系注重學習成績，而相對忽略藝術和創造性，在這種教育體系裡的Poh由於在學術方面的表現不如在藝術方面的發展那樣流暢，導致Poh還是質疑自己的才能。

她說，“我清楚地記得我父母告訴我要搬去南澳州的那個時刻，我記得我對自己說，在澳洲一切都會好起來的。”

Poh和我同樣面臨一個問題，擁有亞洲背景、在澳洲西方文化里成長，但是在主要媒體，特別是電視娛樂行業缺少一個亞洲榜樣。隨著Poh的電視節目Kitchen第二季即將於8月24日在ABC電視台播出，這個空白也即將被填補。作為缺失偶像指引獨自成長的一代人，Poh和我能夠想到的有亞洲背景的電視名人只有World News Australia的可愛的記者——Lee Lin Chin。

但是，如今當我們走在CBD區域，我們可以看到許多以亞洲男士和女士作爲主角的宣傳、商業和電視廣告。整個社會在向前發展，你能夠看到身邊悄悄發生的變化。澳州也在向前發展，多元文化已經逐漸成爲主流社會的一個重要特徵。

Poh坦言，“能夠取得今天這樣的成就，我感覺很榮幸。”

與此同時，Poh表達地很清楚，她本人從來沒有遭遇過人種歧視的問題。然而，在她20多歲時曾經被自信的問題困擾，這主要是源於她在青少年期感覺自己的外貌與身邊的人不同而感覺到自己格格不入。直到Poh進入30歲後，才逐漸克服自信不足的問題。

在採訪過程中，Poh不止一次地提到自己的繪畫作品，她解釋說這些作品是她自己創造出來的一種治療機制，是用來重新領略她曾經憎惡過的自身外貌方面的問題。在許多作品中，Poh向我展示了一幅繪畫，許多澳洲的鳥類圍繞著一個亞洲

小女孩，這幅畫表達了她經歷的格格不入情感經歷。通過在傑出的繪畫技能，Poh成功地

表達了自己面臨的感受和不同的體驗。

 

Posted in: 潘在恩,Australian Birds .,Jo Phan,Little Asian Girl