Memories Contained Within Objects (Part 2)

The Ang Pao (red packet)

Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash

I remember receiving Ang Paos as a child from my mum at Chinese New Year. The Ang Pao, or red packet, is a red envelope containing money that is given to Chinese children for Chinese New Year or other celebrations. The front is decorated with gold script. They must contain gold in some shape or form, gold being significant in Chinese culture. My mum would make sure there was a one or two-dollar coin in our Ang Paos. I used to keep these red packets long after I had removed the money. The writing on the front of the envelope was illegible to me but I felt the need to hold on to these mementos.

Growing up in the outer suburbs of Perth in the 1980s and 90s, I felt very disconnected from my mother’s culture. I wasn’t fully aware of my own cultural and ethnic background until in primary school when the local racists kindly pointed out that I was different. I should mention that there were both teachers and students who didn’t know how to accept a Chinese-English child in their classroom. I clung to my father’s heritage, and having been born in England, I convinced myself that I was more English than anything else. It didn’t occur to me until much later that I could simply identify as Australian.

My mother came from a large family but we were the only branch that had come to Western…