Me, Her, Us
Yen-Rong Wong
Me, Her, Us
Yen-Rong Wong
Memoir-essays from an award-winning writer, exploring race, sex, familial expectations, and identity.
Raised by strict, religious, Malaysian Chinese parents in Brisbane's southern suburbs, Yen-Rong Wong internalised an idealised image of a Chinese-presenting girl at a young age. As she grew into young adulthood, she began to bristle against the weight of these expectations and the pressure to conform to cultural notions of family and future. However, she couldn't find any stories to help her forge her own path - so she decided to write one for herself.
In this compelling collection of essays, Wong blends memoir and cultural criticism to interrogate perceptions around sex, racism, and familial dynamics. Laying bare her own life, she examines the joys and difficulties that lie at the intersections of her identity.
Brave, unflinching, and with a dash of wry humour, Me, Her, Us is a provocative book for our times.
Review
Nishtha Banavalikar
Structured in three loose parts, Me, Her, Us examines themes of sex, community, and reconciliation of the Asian-Australian diaspora through witty and thoughtful narration. ‘Me’ delves into the topic of sex, considering the origins and pervasion of shame alongside an under-documented perspective on kink and BDSM. ‘Her’ examines personhood and language, cultural identity, and filial duty in contexts of generational trauma. ‘Us’ takes a retrospective glance at the Asian diaspora in the world today and speculates about ideas of the future in contexts of orientalism and fetish.
Me, Her, Us is ambitious. Few memoir-essay collections in recent times have covered as exhaustive a list of themes across sex, language, cultural identity, and filial duty with the ease Yen-Rong Wong displays here. Throughout the collection, Wong is deeply personal and intimate with the reader, blurring the lines between confessional and well-researched essay. Primarily documenting Wong’s past, the collection is interspersed with current and thought-provoking cultural references and parallels, cementing it as a modern cultural critique.
Equal parts personal memoir and examination of diaspora, Me, Her, Us is an unabridged presentation of identity and subcultures as they fluctuate between being at odds and in harmony. Wong’s essays are rich with literary references, nuanced in their perspectives, and unflinching in their intimacy and depth in culturally avoided topics. It’s refreshing and validating to hear a voice like Wong’s articulate the nuances of desire and guilt circulating in Asian diasporas. It signals to a promising future for young women of colour in Australian literature, documenting their unfiltered lived experiences in their own words.
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