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.