Asian-Australian Political Office Holders

Tsebin Tchen was the first Asian migrant elected to the Australian State Parliament in Victoria, after being pre-selected on a Liberal Senate ticket in 1993. 


He was born in present day Chongqing in Sichuan Province, came to Australia on a student visa and became a town planner.   He took up Australian citizenship in 1971 after the late Prime Minister Harold Holt ended the White Australian policy on immigration.    He works today as an Adjunct Professor at the Swinburne University of Technology and in 2015, was appointed by the Labour Government in Victoria as a Commissioner of the Victorian Multicultural Commission.



Senator Billy George O 'Chee was the first Australian born of Asian background elected as Senator - and one of the youngest , whether white or not, at the age of 24.  


William served as the Nationals Senator for Queensland from 1990 to 1999.  He attended both the Southport High School and the Brisbane State High School, before going to the UK  (Oakham School and the Brasenose College at the University of Oxford).   Before entering politics, he was an investment banker specialising in Latin American debt.  His father has Chinese heritage and his mother, Irish-Australian.


Billy fought for freehold titles to be granted to Indigenous Australian claimants over vacant Crown land, in exchange of entire extinguishment of native title.     He also alleged that News Ltd. made an attempt to bribe him in 1999 to cross over the Parliamentary floor and vote for the financial interests of the accused.   The  Court of Appeal in Queensland also upheld his stand on parliamentary privilege for communications between a Parliamentarian and his or her constituents.


Billy was involved with the sport called Skeleton,at World Cup and World Championship events.  He coaxed the lightweight rowing crew at Oxford, where he was a contemporary of former British Prime Minister David Cameron.



Penny Wong has a hattrick - first Eurasian elected as Senator, served as Finance Minister in a Labour Federal Government and also the first of Malaysian (Hakka Chinese) origin to serve such high office in Australia.   Penny moved to the Adelaide Hills from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia with mum Jane Chapman and her younger brother Toby Wong.  


Penny graduated in law from the University of South Australia, where she was a contemporary of Liberal Minister Christopher Pyne,  South Australian State Premier Jay Wetherill and former Greens Senator Natasha Stott Despoja.    She was significantly involved with the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union and the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in her early career.


She was appointed the Minister for Climate Change and Water in the Labour Government at Federal level in 2007.  Three years later, she became the Minister for Finance and Deregulation until the win by the Coalition in the 2013 elections.    Penny is currently the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Senate.




John Chun Sai So is of Hong Kong background served as the first Lord Mayor of Melbourne of Asian origin for eight years from 2001 to 2008.   He held this office during the second hosting of the Commonwealth Games by Melbourne.   He was the first Lord Mayor to be elected directly by the people, breaking the previous practice for the position to to e elected by Councillors.   He was the winner of the 2006 World Mayor Award and was in office when Melbourne was first ranked as the World's Most Liveable City.


John attended the University High School in Melbourne after migrating from Hong Kong. He is an alumni of the University of Melbourne and taught physics at Fitzroy High School before launching into business in 1973.   He strongly supports major sports events in Victoria, especially two soccer clubs - the Melbourne Victory and the Melbourne Demons.


John was honoured with being made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) by Queen Elizabeth in 2014.  This was after he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Chinese Economic Forum.   In 2007, he was criticised for not meeting up with the visiting Dalai Lama and presiding over a significant budget deficit for the Council.



Henry Tsang served as Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney from 1995 to 1999.      He was born to Hakka parents in Jiangxi province, China and qualified as an architect before entering Australian politics, becoming the first member of the City Council of Sydney.   He was responsible, together with his business firm, Tsang and Lee Architects, for the construction of the Cabramatta Mall south-west of Sydney city centre, Darling Harbour Chinese Gardens and the Dixon Street Chinatown mall in down town Sydney.  


Henry attended Sydney's Vaucluse Boys' High School after migrating from Hong Kong.   He stepped down from political life after failing to declare gifts and paid accommodation from the Hightrade Group.    He was awarded an Order of Australia (AO) medal in 1991.

Shantou Synergy - Life at the Grassroots

The Monkey King is popular.   China followed a one child policy for many decades until this was changed in 2016.

The Gu Chai Kueh or dumplings with chives.  Chinese cuisine consists of eight main regional flavours, with Guangdong; Shandong;  Beijing;  Anhui and Fujian;  Sichuan and Hunan; Zhejiang; and Jiangsu.   Teochew culinary dishes are a sub-set of the Guangdong tradition.

Sunday morning at the park, beside the thoroughfare of Hai Pin Lu.   Shantou enjoys a coastal climate and is geographically close to Hong Kong in Southern China.    The Tropic of Cancer crosses just north of the city.

The iconic fish balls.   Fishcakes, bean sprouts, lettuce and noodles often make a yummy piping hot soup, popular in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia as well.

The Carousal ride at the Shipaotai or Stone Fort Park.

Goose liver slices at dinner time.   The Lion Head goose variety is much appreciated here for roasting and steaming.

The classic Orh Lua or oyster omelette, with which tapioca starch is utilised to bind the eggs and raw oysters.  Other iconic dishes are the Chai Tau Kueh, a savoury stir fried white radish and rice flour cake, served with eggs, bean sprouts, soy sauce, spring onions and dried shrimp;  the Orh Nee or taro paste dessert; the Kueh Chap, a savoury mix of flat and broad rice noodles, dark soy sauce, braised duck meat, various bean curd slices, pig intestines and slices of preserved eggs;
the Mee Pok, stirred with sauce, mushrooms, dumplings, minced pork and garnish;  the Kiam Chai Ark Thng, duck served in a soup with tomatoes, preserved plum and vegetables; and the Ngo Hiang, deep fried spring rolls with a dash of five spice powder, minced pork and crab or prawns wrapped in a bean curd wrap.

Some thing I have never come across at lunch  - can some one please let me know what this is.

At the river front.   This promenade also has an interesting display of stone creatures, pavilions, ships and fishing boats along the walk path.

Street vendor all dressed up!

Chicken ready to be bought at the Shantou wet markets.

https://kindlyyours.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/shantou-synergy-markets.html

Summer Garden Food Bistro Penang

Salted fish curry with veg and Tofu puffs.

Jee Hoo Char - that veg and cuttle fish combination that is easy to eat but more challenging to make.

Prawns marinated in tamarind juice before deep frying.

Summer Garden is located at 2 Lorong Lembah Permai 3, at the corner with the Vale of Tempe Road, Tanjung Bungah, Penang island.
Opening hours are from 11am to 11pm every day.
Contact   +604 890 0977

The restaurant offers a bar and a varied menu, including Japanese, Western and Straits Chinese dishes.

Wollongong and the Illawarra Coast - Perspectives in Art

The Lake Illawarra, from another era.

Lee & Me, along lower Crown Street, Wollongong city centre.

That lighthouse!  Wollongong Harbour NSW.

Wentworth Street, Port Kembla NSW.

Pool by the ocean, Austinmer NSW.

Coastal walk, a lifestyle choice.

Belmore Basin and the escarpment, Wollongong NSW.




The art pieces are copyright of their owners and creators.  You can view them in March 2017 at the Wollongong Art Gallery, at 46 Burelli Street, at the corner with Kembla Street.

Europe's Migration Challenge and Opportunity

The islands of Greece lie as close as only five kilometres from the shores of Bodrum peninsular in western Turkey. The typical price paid to people smugglers is USD 1200 to arrange passage to cross this divide.  2015 and 2016 witnessed a huge movement of people, mostly ordinary folks, escaping the continuing and unresolved conflict in Syria.   However, there have been individuals and families from the north western corner of the Indian sub-continent, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia all joining the persistent urge to get into Europe through difficult physical, regulatory and health conditions.    

In the biggest movement of people not seen since the end of the second World War last century, Germany, Sweden and Italy accept most applications to stay, with Romania the least.   Increasingly there is an emphasis to differentiate refugees from other migrants when deciding on acceptance by Germany. Many of these people on the move last year may not have validated identity documents with them, but most of them have cell phones with which they could communicate with relatives and friends already settled in the West.

There have been so many unselfish acts by German families voluntarily inviting refugee families to share their homes for several days instead of having to live on the streets.

A Gallup poll in 2016 indicated that as high as 13 per cent of Earth's human population would like to move to another country, especially to the USA.    The benefits to a receiving nation are offsetting declining population in the host country, fostering innovation and boosting entrepreneurship.

The flow of such migrants is so obviously skewed and headed in one way, to Western societies. It has been rare for Asian, South American, Central American and Eurasian nations putting up their hand to accept such migrants.

The second half of 2015 witnessed the beginning of masses of human beings literally and desperately walking for long distances in south-eastern Europe to their hoped for destinations, despite fences, prejudice and fatigue.

WhatsApp and Google maps have been guiding stars in the 21st century version of the exodus. The smart phone recharger has turned out to be critical when making this journey.

Many are just children, who increasingly made this sojourn alone without family. Casualties have included the drownings of would be migrants crossing the seas between Libya and Italy or Malta, and between the Turkish coast and Greek isles.

Those making this trek westwards are not only from Iraq and Syria, but also from Pakistan, Iran, Eritrea and Afghanistan. The risks have culminated in one tragic image last September, when the world learnt of the drowning of three year old Alan Kurdi, whose body, bereft of a life vest, washed ashore on a Greek beach. In reality, many family members have not made it despite having paid their borrowed or saved monies to smugglers arranging their illegal transit to Europe.

Overcrowding of boats, money lost to fraudulent people smugglers, dramatic separation of family members and having to leave everything behind of the past add to the tensions and dangers for such controversial migrants.

Many of those from Syria are well educated. Yet an individual on the migrant trek was later involved in committing the horrendous killings in the November 2015 attacks on the streets of Paris, when around 120 innocent people were shot and killed.

Turkey currently hosts the largest number of refugees, around 1.9 million. One of every four persons residing in Lebanon is a refugee from Syria.   The demographic background of refugees in this recent movement not only belong to the Muslim cohort, but include people of different faiths.


An immediate impact on the social-political landscape of several members of the European Union has been the rise of parties looking inwards and moving towards the political far right in popular sentiment and pressure.    This has also weakened the bonds between nations in the EU, especially after the still unresolved question of financial debts chalked up by some members and the increasing incompatibility of different rates of economic maturity amongst such member states.

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