Unpolished Gem 20th anniversary — Alice Pung in conversation

The evening begins with a poetry reading by Flora Chol, setting the tone for a celebration of storytelling and migration. Alice Pung and Bruno Lettieri will then engage in an in-conversation discussion exploring Alice’s groundbreaking memoir—a story that deliberately "does not begin on a boat."

They will examine the witty, moving portrait of a Chinese-Cambodian family pursuing the Australian Dream and explore themes of identity, belonging, and the everyday struggles and triumphs of family life.

This event is part of Refugee Week’s “A Million Stories” theme and offers audiences a chance to reflect on how personal stories, like Alice’s, continue to resonate two decades later, while enjoying poetry that complements the themes of migration, resilience, and community.

This story does not begin on a boat. Nor does it contain any wild swans or falling leaves.

In a wonderland called Footscray, a girl named Alice and her Chinese-Cambodian family pursue the Australian Dream – Asian style. Armed with an ocker accent, Alice dives head-first into schooling, romance and the getting of wisdom. Her mother becomes an Aussie battler – an outworker, that is. Her father embraces the miracle of franchising and opens an electrical-appliance store. And every day her grandmother blesses Father Government for giving old people money.

Unpolished Gem is a book rich in comedy, a loving and irreverent portrait of a family, its everyday struggles and bittersweet triumphs. This special twentieth-anniversary edition, with an afterword by the author, brings this Australian classic to a new generation of readers.

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