ABC. The letters drummed into Natasha when she was young stand for “Australian born Chinese.” She felt confused by the phrase; something about it didn’t sit right with her. Under the umbrella term “ABC” is a mélange of mixed identities, from those whose families emigrated directly from China to those whose ancestors came via a third place: Mauritian Chinese, Fijian Chinese, Cambodian Chinese, and more. Why were these specificities glossed over? Growing up in Australia with a Chinese-Malaysian father and an Indian-Malaysian mother, Natasha didn’t really feel “ABC”.

They had few relatives in Australia and Natasha spent most of her childhood connecting with her mother’s side of the family, who are Tamil. Twice a year, with her parents and her older sister, she boarded a flight to Malaysia to visit her paati, periammas, chinnammas, mamas, akkas and annes.* Frequent and cheap flights were one of the perks they enjoyed from Natasha’s father’s job as an engineer with Qantas, Australia’s national airline. 

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