by Alice Pung
Sometimes, when one of his children was out late, his wife and he conspired to stay awake. They did this by egging each other on in their bedroom.
‘Aiyoh,’ his wife would complain, ‘why do you always let them go out so late? I told you that you shouldn’t be so easy on them.’
‘Stupid kid,’ he would say, ‘always doing this. Why are they always doing this? How selfish. Selfish kids.’
And so on and so forth they would go, fuelling each other’s annoyance at the one kid who had stayed out late, so as not to be sleepy. So as to be awake to see the car pull into the driveway. It was only then that they could turn off the light and go to sleep.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My deepest gratitude to: Chris Feik, Denise O’Dea, Sophy Williams, Thomas Deverall, Elke Power, Nina Kenwood, Caitlin Yates, Duncan Blachford, Elisabeth Young, Kate Goldsworthy and all at Black Inc.; Clare Forster; Professor Ronald Sharp and Inese Sharp, Vassar College; Professor Susan Smulyan, Brown University; Christopher Merrill; Dr Damian Powell, Janet Clarke Hall; Ormond College; the Pung family in Cambodia; the Pung family in Hong Kong; Kathryn Hamill, Daniel Morrow and Jillian Mathes for their wise judgment and invaluable insight; Professor Robert Cording; the incredible support of my workplace, in particular Joelle Leggett, Miranda Pointon, Elizabeth Leung and Shannon-Kate Archer; Asialink and the Australia Council for the Arts; Peking University; the Iowa International Writing Program; the US Department of State; the Hermitage, Florida; the Island Institute, Sitka; Kathryn Favelle from the National Library of Australia; Sally Rippin; Natasha Klos; the Derks; Uncle Martin Gawler and Auntie Stella Gawler; Therese Robin; Bianca Ascher; Huyen Le; Katharine White; Alexander, Alison and Alina; my students, who have taught me much over the years; and ‘Teodoro’.
Finally, to Kuan Kieu Pung and Kien Chia Pung, for sharing their stories and unconditional love.