Gary, as you know, I am a bit of an egg – outwardly white, but culturally very Chinese and, since I have a Chinese surname, this adds to the confusion. I am often interested in the experiences and background of people who are ethnically Chinese. But I am sensitive to not going up to someone and speaking in Chinese straight away, or asking them ‘where do you come from’. Actually I was in a 12 week intensive course last year and there was a guy whose family was from Shanghai on the course. We only started to speak out his Chinese culture after we finished the course, and only then because I talked about my interest in Chinese post-partum confinement and he started telling me what his Shanghai family cooked for his (white Caucasian English-background Australian) partner.

Do I see you as Chinese or Australian? A bit of both. And you are most definitely a Queenslander!