Introduction by Alice Pung
1. What were Asian-Australians referred to as when the author was growing up?
Power-Points
2. How does she interpret this title?
As Asians having 'electrifying brain power'. She thought it was because they were so smart and dweeby in a dynamic microsoft-magnate sort of way.
3. What did this title actually refer to? Did the author find this demeaning? Why/why not?
The title actually refereed to the fact that the Asian's face's looked like a power-point. She did not as she thought the power-points looked cute.
4. ‘All that untapped potential! All that electrifying brain power!’ What techniques are being employed by the author? How do they highlight her misunderstanding?
Imagery is used is used by the author as well as exaggeration to highlight her misunderstanding. Exaggerating how smart Asians are shows a bit of ignorance.
5. What did the teen author take away from teen fiction? What did she feel that she needed to do? Why? What does this say is essential to fitting in to a culture?
That she need plastic surgery. She felt she needed to read other books such as the John Marsden because they wrote about growing up.
6. Who are the authors that she turns to? Why?
John Marsden and Robert Cormier because they wrote with raw honesty and real felling about coming of age.
7. In the third paragraph how does the author use repetition. How does it highlight the focus of this book?
She repeats the word 'first'. It highlights that the book is the first of it's kind a book about growing up Asian in Australia that wasn't wrote by an outsider.
8. What metaphor does the author use to highlight the writers and the writing style in the third paragraph?
The writers are the tree who write from it's roots. She means, the writers write the true story and not the worst parts of it like other authors.
9. Why does the author use a quote in the 4th paragraph? Wlihat does it say about her reaction to the stories in the book?
10. On page 2 the author talks about the themes that she loosely choose for the collection. What are they and why is it ironic that they show up in this book?
11. At the bottom of pg 3 on to page 4 the author says that sociologists have described Asians as the ‘model minority’. What is meant by this? What difficulties arise out of this label for young Asian-Australians?
12. What are the editor’s hopes for the collection of stories?
Pigs from Home by Hop Dac
1. How does the author start this story which is in direct contrast to the title of the story? What effect does this have on the reader and their expectations of the story?
The title gives the impression that pigs are good and welcomed, but the story starts off saying how horrible pigs are. It makes you confused.
2. What core Vietnamese value is instilled in the author?
That animals are kept at home to be eaten.
3. What is humorous about the mother’s ‘flair for natural medicine’ in regards to her personality?
She a hypochondriac.
4. How does the description of the killing of pigeons continue the style utilised in the introduction of the story?
It's normal to slaughter the animals that you keep and eat them.
5. What is the author’s opinion of pigs? Give two quotes to support your conclusion.
They are despicable and unworthy of a name. 'That miraculous, repugnant beast: The Pig' 'The nameless pigs.
6. In the paragraph on pgs 53-54, give two examples of alliteration employed by the author.
'Bellies of babies' and 'prime position'
7. On pg 54 what simile is used to describe pigs? How does this simile work for the situation it is used?
'A pig is like the ocean.' It is a term that would be used a lot in Australia and shows that the character, although Asian is becoming more Australian, particularly when compared to the parents.
8. What simile does the author use to describe her mother sunning herself? How does this relate to the core focus of the story?
'turning herself slowly like a rotisserie chicken.' She is a hypochondriac but when she suns her self she is literally burning her self like a chicken.
9. What does the author describe as ‘the divide between the old world and the new’? What do you think is meant by this statement?
Her grandmother offered her some of the slaughtered duck. She declined. this is the divide between her Asian ancestry and being Australian. She is loosing some of her Asian traditions and customs. An Australian wouldn't want a duck that had just been slaughtered in front of her. If she was in Asia she would have accepted it. It is a representation of changes that the different generations of immigrants go through.
10. What is the author’s reaction to the slaughter of the pig at night? What statement does the author make about the neighbours which displays the way he feels about the whole experience? What is important about including this statement?
She is transfixed to the sight. She wonders if the girl next door who catches her bus had heard the commotion. This is an important statement because it employs that she is changing and finding that something that is normal for her family and culture is now distressing and she wants to fit in with the other Australian kids.
11. Why don’t the parents have pigs anymore? How does this relate to the description of the burial of the last pig they owned?
They have friends who have a pig farm and they get free pork every time they go there. They don't give a great deal about the pigs, their just food not pets.
12. How would you characterise the description of the mother’s treatment of the pig’s blood? Is it appetising?
It's sounds pretty disgusting.
13. What is ironic about the way the author has a popular Vietnamese dish? What is it about the way the author describes the experience of having pigs that makes it ironic?
The author despised the whole pig killing and the blood dishes. It's ironic because now she has it all the time.
14. How does this story relate to the title Pigs from Home?
It reminds the author of home when she has the Vietnamese dish.
15. Why do you think this story is in the Battlers section of the book?
The author was having to deal with the pig killings of which the author felt, living in Australia, wasn't right.
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