We are all dandelions.
In 1983, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci in China, the Hong Kong Catholic Church published a song titled “We Are All Dandelions,” sung by the pop star Teresa Cheung. It tells the story of this missionary who, in response to spreading faith to the Chinese, came from his distant homeland to a foreign land, living in the Ming Dynasty and dying in Beijing. According to Ming Dynasty regulations, missionaries could not be buried in Chinese soil after death and had to be transported back to Macau for burial. Because Ricci brought science, geography, and Western thought to China and made significant contributions, at the request of the believer Xu Guangqi and various officials to Emperor Wanli, he was granted burial outside the Teng fence at Pingze Gate in Beijing. Subsequently, more than a hundred missionaries, including John Gabriel Tamba and João Fernandes, were buried here. Most of these foreign priests had no families or relatives. They came alone to the Ming Dynasty, learned Chinese culture, and at the same time brought Western culture to the people living in this land.
Today, we immigrate to this land of Australia and become Australians. Besides establishing families here and generation by generation continuing to become Australians, do we find that the multiculturalism of Australia is particularly suitable for immigrants from different places like us to take root here?
According to what my father said, my grandfather was a resident of a village not far from Hong Kong in Po On County, Guangdong Province. He became a fisherman at sea to escape local tyrants and bullies and gradually arrived in Hong Kong, fishing near Hong Kong. Shortly after the Second World War, my grandfather passed away and was buried in the Wo Hop Shek Cemetery. One of my grandmothers died during the Japanese bombing of Hong Kong in the Second World War and was hastily buried beside a hut on the shore of Tseung Kwan O. The other grandmother passed away in the 1960s and was also buried in the Aberdeen Chinese Permanent Cemetery in Hong Kong. The generation of my grandparents, although not born in Hong Kong, ended up dying in Hong Kong and being buried in Hong Kong. Therefore, our generation considered Hong Kong our home, and we believed our roots were there.
In the 1970s, my third and fourth elder sisters came to Australia one after another. Later, out of the eight siblings, including myself, astonishingly, five settled in Australia, and each of us built our lives in this country. As a result, our parents decided to move to Melbourne after the age of 70. At that time, I did not understand the struggles in my parents’ hearts. More than ten years ago, during a global family reunion, the most significant event was selecting a burial place for our parents. Six years ago, my father passed away and was buried in the Springvale Cemetery. My mother is still alive, but in the future, she will also be buried next to my father. Before the age of 70, my parents never thought they would no longer be Hong Kongers and would permanently stay in Melbourne.
My brother-in-law immigrated from England. He came to Australia with his father at the age of 16 to live. When his father passed away more than 30 years ago, my brother-in-law scattered his father’s ashes under a lemon tree in the backyard. After my brother-in-law passed away, my fourth elder sister renovated the entire house, and the lemon tree no longer exists. However, my brother-in-law and his father still exist in the hearts of those who love them today.
Whether it is Matteo Ricci, my grandparents, parents, brother-in-law, or ourselves, we are all like dandelions. Wherever the wind blows us, we take root there, not fixed in one place.
However, Australia today is indeed a country suitable for us to take root in.
The British Developed and Established Today’s Australia
Yes, recent research shows that the British may not have been the first to come to Australia. Some say the Dutch arrived earlier, while others say that during the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He’s voyages to the Western Seas included fleets that reached northern Australia. Some even argue that the first to land in Australia were the inhabitants of the Pacific Islands, and even the indigenous people might have arrived more than 60,000 years ago. However, it was undeniably the British who extensively developed Australia, particularly the oppressed lower classes of British society who lost their freedom and were forcibly sent to develop Australia. They found freedom here, as well as hope in life, and established a society pursuing freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and fairness.
Their numbers were small, and they could not develop on this vast land. Under the slogan of “Populate or perish” in the last century, Australia opened its doors to the world, resulting in a country today with people from different countries, speaking different languages, and bringing different cultures here to live, and they all respect, accept, and tolerate each other. This country welcomes people from all over the world who share the same values to become citizens.
What unites this society is not a long-standing culture, a history of rise and fall over thousands of years, or the pride of a dominant nation, but rather a sense of equality where everyone is respected and has equal opportunities for development and a sense of security in life. It cannot be denied that the initial British settlers laid the social foundation of this country, and we appreciate their contribution to this nation.
Due to the distance from Britain and the proximity to Asian countries, maintaining close ties with Britain is not easy. Consequently, Australia’s participation and influence in the Asia-Pacific region far surpass its cooperation with Britain. It can be said that Australia and Britain are on somewhat divergent paths.
Learnings from Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians have been confirmed to have lived on this land for 60,000 years. Until the 1960s, they were not even considered citizens of this country. The British did not exterminate them but instead long ignored their presence here. Indigenous culture is a generous culture; they believe that even they are merely custodians of this land, not its owners. This is different from the mentality of people who have lived on this land from ancient times to today in China.
We learned from elementary school the phrase “Under heaven, all belonged to the emperor; on the borderlands, all are subjects of the emperor,” from the Book of Songs, specifically the “Beishan” section. This poem has often been used since Mencius to illustrate the rulers’ authority over the land and its people, but it is taken out of context. Its real meaning refers to the responsibilities of kings and feudal lords in the feudal system to everyone in their localities, and the following line “When the great officer is not fair, I choose to be alone” indicates that the poet, as a high official, is being treated unfairly and works harder than others. Mencius proposed “The people are more important than the ruler,” which is the opposite of the later misinterpretation of this poem.
As a result, Chinese culture has never developed concepts of human rights, the rule of law, democracy, and fairness but emphasizes obedience to authority and sacrificing oneself for the state. This is fundamentally different from the indigenous view of themselves as custodians rather than owners of the land. Therefore, today Australian society emphasizes mutual respect and responsibility for the country, rather than the privileges of rulers and neglect of social responsibilities in the past.
Immigrants to Australia need to understand the society’s shared values from its social system, culture, and history; otherwise, the way of life in a country may not necessarily suit them.
Different Social Values
Many newly arrived Chinese immigrants often feel uncomfortable and unable to identify with and accepting everything. However, after a period of time, they find themselves unable to change these aspects. Why is this? It is because they discover that other people in society have different values towards society from them. When you ask others to pay a high price to serve you, you find that others value personal space and family life. When everyone lives a peaceful and happy life, no one is willing to work for you without limits, nor does anyone consider you very important or more important than them. Feeling that you should perform better than others and finding that others do not compare themselves to you makes life dull.
Some people feel it is unfair to earn more money but pay more taxes, but they do not realize that Australia is a society that demands dignity for every person, including those who are disadvantaged and vulnerable. Therefore, although social welfare programs that consume a significant amount of resources may sometimes be found to be wasteful, they are not disliked by the majority of people. Recently, the Labor government reduced tax relief for high-income earners, which was also supported by many high-income earners because they saw that although they still had to pay high taxes, some low-income earners’ financial pressures could be relieved. For many high-income immigrants, this is confusing.
Interestingly, the next generation of immigrants growing up in this society, many of them hope for a fairer society like other Australians, rather than hoping to get more than others. Many of the next generation who grew up here still hope to be excellent themselves, but they are people who can achieve their ideals and surpass themselves rather than people who want to have more than others.
Immigrants Accepting Australian Culture
For more than 30 years, Australia has absorbed an average of about 120,000 immigrants every year. Therefore, in the 2021 population statistics, the number of people born overseas exceeded 5.5 million, accounting for more than one-fifth of the population. Readers are probably part of this group. Many of us in this group are stronger than native-born Australians in terms of education, work experience, wealth, or connections. Therefore, the competitiveness and living standards of immigrants are generally slightly higher than those of native Australians. Since more than half of the people around us have immigrant backgrounds (that is, first-generation and second-generation immigrants), we do not feel inferior to the original people in this society. Therefore, most immigrants have a positive attitude toward life in Australia.
However, due to Australia’s transition to multiculturalism in just over thirty years, most of the social management strata do not have multicultural backgrounds, especially influential politicians in various parties who have little immigrant experience. Many policies tend to overlook the situation of immigrants when formulated. Moreover, the vast majority of first-generation immigrants do not have the time to get to know society or participate in politics, let alone engage in politics. Therefore, the social policies implemented in Australia often ignore the specific situations of immigrants during execution.
Perhaps in twenty or thirty years, more of Australia’s managerial strata will have more contact with immigrant communities as they grow up, and this neglect of immigrants’ situation may be easier to change. During this period, I believe only our first-generation immigrants can actively integrate into mainstream society and speak up for themselves, and the situation may change.
Mr. Raymond Chow