Award-winning author Melanie Cheng on leaving Australia for Hong Kong, and juggling writing with being a doctor
The Australian GP and writer talks about meeting other girls ‘like her’ and the magic of writing a passion project
I was seven when we moved to Hong Kong from Sydney. What I remember most was my first day at Kennedy School. Australian terms are different; I was a late arrival, everyone had already made friends, and a Eurasian girl was tasked to help out. Afterwards I told my mother that there were other kids “like me”; there was an immediate sense of belonging. Much later, she said that she hadn’t realised, till then, that I was aware of being “different” in Australia, but clearly I had noticed!
At home in HKU
We lived in the Hong Kong University Staff Quarters at Pok Fu Lam; my parents worked at HKU as doctors. After Australia, we didn’t have much personal space, but we had a lot of personal freedom and a sense of safety when we went out.
School days
At Kennedy School, then later Island School, my classmates mostly didn’t have local roots. My dad is Chinese with an extended family in Hong Kong. On weekdays, we lived a kind-of expat life, and then every Sunday night went to my grandparent’s place in Taikoo Shing. My personal identity blurred a bit – I wasn’t a Hong Kong local, but I wasn’t an expat, either. My grandmother only spoke Cantonese – I didn’t. Similar identity challenges in reverse happened later in Melbourne. But being an outsider is very useful as a writer.
Becoming a doctor
We visited mum’s family in Adelaide regularly, but I didn’t return to live in Australia until medical school. International House, a residential college at Melbourne University, was a ready-made community, and what I loved about Melbourne – and still do – was its arts and cultural scene. That appealed right away. Sometimes I wonder whether I’d have become a writer in another Australian city – perhaps not. But in Melbourne’s arts and culture world, and in the cafe scene around that, I found my place.
