Family is a complex thing. Our concept of family is shaped by many factors such as our cultural background, personalities and experiences. In particular, family values tend to be very different in Eastern and Western cultures.
Having my family and close friends across Asia and Australia, diverse dynamics are enriching yet also chaotic in my life. Sometimes I resonate with my Chinese family values, other times western values resonate with me more.
Home may be a place that you know well. Or a space that resonates with you. Or something that seems elusive. The feeling of being most at home is a multi-layered, complex construct, and it can be hard to explain.
As someone who is often caught in between Eastern and Western cultures and has lived in different countries surrounded by different languages, no place has ever felt like home to me. About a year ago, an evening stroll inspired me to think a bit more about this thing called home.
Striding down the Princes Bridge, the crisp autumn air picks up. Pulling the zipper up my puffer jacket, it is just another routine evening of sunset photography in Melbourne CBD. The cold is always a familiar part of it at this time of the year in May, no surprises.
It’s customary to take your shoes off at home in many parts of the world.
For instance, in many Asian households it’s often shoes off at the door. There’s also a no shoes rule when walking around indoors at home.
Shoes | KAWS: Companionship in the Age of Loneliness (1)
Having grown up in a Chinese household, this is a habit that comes naturally to me. As a kid, I’d come home, take my shoes off and place them on the shoe rack by the door. Today this is still what I do every time I come home.
All my life I’ve never liked using the dishwasher.
Washing the dishes by hand after after a meal by myself or with five others at home is something I do.
Most people around me baulk at my refusal to use the dishwasher. They argue you don’t need to spend time washing up with a dishwasher.
Garlic and Chinese Mun Shou Rice Bowl
Growing up in a traditional-minded Chinese family, the dishwasher was instead used as a stacking rack for clean dishes. These days I use the dishwasher to store my empty work lunch containers and banish plates that I never use.
If you want to feel connected to where you live, you might want to cultivate good feng shui at home.
Practicing the art of feng shui can help attract positive energy and create a more balanced atmosphere at home. When you feel good vibes at home, chances are you’ll feel better about your life.
Practicing Feng Shui is about finding balance | Lens-Artists Challenge #12 – Path.
When you feel better about your home and life, chances are your everyday life will attract wealth, peace and prosperity.
Home. It sounds like a simple word to define. But it’s a word that has layers and layers of meanings.
For many migrants, third culture kids, parachute families, expats, travellers, interracial couples, refugees, asylum seekers, Asian Australians, Asian Americans, African communities, Indian diaporas and really anyone who has moved around or hangs around different cultural groups, home can be hard to define. Home can be more than one place.
Home is a place and all that space around us.
There’s always a personal connection to home and each of us understands home differently. What is ‘home’ to someone may not be ‘home’ to someone else.
Mabel Kwong 