Yen-Rong Wong
黃彥蓉
Writer & arts critic
Yen-Rong is an award-winning writer of creative non-fiction, an arts critic, and an avid crafter.
Awards
Winner
2022. Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer
2020. Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award
2019. Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship
2019. Katharine Susannah Prichard Next-Gen Writer-in-Residence
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Shortlisted
2019. Deakin University Non Fiction Prize
2019. Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award
2018. Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award
2017. Deborah Cass Prize
Work
Essays: On Growing Up
Forever Young – Archer Magazine, issue #14: the GROWING UP issue
The Trauma of Discipline: What constitutes a reasonable chastisement? – Griffith Review 65: Crimes and Punishments
I was bullied because I was a soft target, not because I was “unlikeable” – SBS Voices
How I felt watching Summer Heights High as a teen – SBS Life
Let’s talk about sex – what I wish I knew as an Asian-Australian teen – SBS Life
How nerd camp saved my life – SBS Life
Shouldering Shame – Kill Your Darlings
O is for Online Dating – F is for Feminism
Hazy Dreams – Eyebag Magazine, issue 2
Changing Childhoods – Dear Damsels
Reclaiming My Independence – Feminartsy
Essays: On race
Anti-Chinese racism isn’t a thing of the past – SBS Voices
Yellow Fever – Meanjin
Australia, please don’t use coronavirus as an excuse to be racist – Whimn
The Very Model of a Model Ethnic Minority – Meanjin, Summer 2018
AOC speech not racist, just code switching – Eureka Street
Never again locked out by whiteness – Eureka Street
Dangerous Ideas (Republished) – The Berlin Review of Books
The fight for our stories is far from over – SBS Life
Monkey Business – Overland
Work – Where are you really from? zine
What Does it Actually Mean to ‘Put Australians First’? – Catalogue Magazine
Women of Colour are Superheroes Too – Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Newsletter
Sexual Racism: Why Do You Swipe Right? – The Quo
Essays: On culture
Crime, Friendship, and Family: ‘The Bad Kids’ – SBS
Junk mail – Sydney Review of Books
Fangirls: how a new musical celebrating teenage girls became a Brisbane festival hit– The Guardian
Engaging thoughtfully with racist Disney – Eureka Street
Why Arts Funding is More Important Than Ever – Catalogue Magazine
What I’m Reading – Meanjin Blog
Behind the Bamboo Screen – Brain Mill Press
Stories we grew up with: The Moon (China) – Djed Press
Cultural appropriation a year after Shriver furore – Eureka Street
Essays: On parents
The Upside of Illness: Behind the Chinese Patriarch – Homer
Sending nudes is different when you have Chinese parents – SBS Voices
I hid my teen battle with depression from my parents – SBS Life
How to coax stories out of your quiet parents – SBS Life
Livin’ on a Prayer – Tincture Journal, Issue 20
Family Illnesses – mous magazine, Issue 3
Reviews
Assorted reviews: theatre, festivals, books - The Saturday Paper
One Hundred Days (Alice Pung) – Australian Book Review
Disobedient Daughters – un Projects
Review: David Carlin and Francesca Rendle-Short, eds. The Near and the Far: New Stories from the Asia-Pacific region – Southerly Journal: 77.2, The Long Apprenticeship
Review: A Greater Music by Bae Suah, translated by Deborah Smith – Structo Magazine
A Response to ‘One the Bear’ – Hot Chicks with Big Brains
Will We Be Right?: Melanie Cheng’s Australia Day – Kill Your Darlings
‘How Australian is Australian Enough?’: A Review of Roanna Gonsalves’ The Permanent Resident – The Lifted Brow
Single Asian Female: No Topic is Taboo in Michelle Law’s Impressive Debut – The Guardian
Other
Aisle 8 (catalogue essay for Chiranjika Gradsby’s exhibition) – Nexus Arts
Making Art Work (contributing essay, Permanent Revolution) – Institute of Modern Art
Disobedient Daughters (exhibition in 2021 at the Counihan Gallery Melbourne) – participating writer
Joy Luck Pub: a collaborative multi-movement work – Joy Luck Collective
A Missing Atlas – Queerstories
Me, Her, Us
Memoir-essays from an award-winning writer, exploring race, sex, familial expectation and identity.
Raised by strict, religious, Malaysian Chinese parents in Brisbane’s southern suburbs, Yen-Rong Wong internalised an idealised image of a Chinese-presenting girl at a young age. As she grew into young adulthood, she began to bristle against the weight of these expectations and the pressure to conform to cultural notions of family and future.However, she couldn’t find any stories to help her forge her own path – so she decided to write one for herself. In this compelling collection of essays, Wong blends memoir and cultural criticism to interrogate perceptions around sex, racism, and familial dynamics. Laying bare her own life, she examines the joys and difficulties that lie at the intersections of her identity.Brave, unflinching, and with a dash of wry humour, Me, Her, Us is a provocative book for our times.
what have people been saying?
‘Smart, audacious and deadpan funny, a book that interrogates a young woman’s quest for identity and belonging in intrepid and unexpected ways.’ – Alice Pung‘Me, Her, Us is a gift, speaking loudly in the silences so many of us will recognise, playing a vital role in ensuring those silences cease to exist for the generations to come.’ – Yassmin Abdel-Magied‘Yen-Rong Wong is whip smart in her assertions on language, subcultures and family ties, and takes readers on a journey that is as unapologetic as it is vulnerable.’ – Michelle Law‘Incisive and bold… Wong’s vulnerability and fierce commitment to creating nuanced and open conversations about Asian Australian women’s experience of sex shine throughout.’ – The Big Issue‘An important and defiantly provocative debut.’ – ArtsHub‘Wong’s essays are rich with literary references, nuanced in their perspectives, and unflinching in their intimacy and depth in culturally avoided topics.’ – Readings Monthly‘The prose reads like thoughts that have been felt deeply but not articulated in public until this moment. This positions the reader as a confidant – a profound connection that enables you to devour Me, Her, Us.‘ – The Saturday PaperMe, Her, Us offers blunt and biting critiques on the treatment of Asian women by white Australian society and their respective cultural enclaves... [Wong's] first-person voice, coated with humour and familiarity throughout, creates an egalitarian relationship with readers." - Mascara Literary Review
About
Yen-Rong is the winner of the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in 2022, and in 2020, she won the Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award. She has also received fellowships from the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre and the Wheeler Centre. She regularly contributes art criticism to The Saturday Paper, and has written for Meanjin, Griffith Review, The Guardian, SBS, Archer Magazine, and more.She was the founding editor of Pencilled In, a magazine dedicated to showcasing work by young Asian Australian artists. She has previously been a Queensland Writers Centre Ambassador, and has also been involved with many literary communities around the world, including Rambutan Literary, Umbel & Panicle, and Hot Chicks with Big Brains.Her first book, Me, Her, Us, a collection of essays that explores the intricacies of navigating sex and relationships as a young Chinese-presenting woman in a Western society, was released with the University of Queensland Press in 2023. She is also working on a number of other projects, including a novel, a play, and two new works of non-fiction.Yen-Rong completed an Honours degree studying English Literature at The University of Queensland in 2016. She completed a Bachelor of Science/Arts, majoring in Biomedical Science (specialising in genetics) and English Literature in 2015.She is particularly interested in South-East Asian women’s writing, Asian Australian fiction, and postcolonial Gothic literature. She hopes to pursue these interests further in an academic context at a later date.
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