Yellow and Confused

"Strangers pulling their eyes slant at me when they walked by. They’d pretend to be Chinese and make fake nasal pitched noises that they thought passed for an Asian language."

Author, freelance copywriter, food blogger and storyteller, Ming-Cheau Lin, released her memoir 'Yellow and Confused - Born in Taiwan, raised in South Africa and making sense of it all' on Wednesday 18th September 2019. In her second book, she details a deeply personal and in-depth look into her life as a third culture immigrant in South Africa.

Please support Ming-Cheau by purchasing 'Yellow and Confused' widely available at most bookstores or online.

Promotional material credit: Courtesy of 'Amazon.com'.

Fighting racism and hate speech

Taryn Lock (Founder of Proudly Chinese SA), Ming-Cheau Lin (Guest speaker) and Elizabeth Lee Ming (Marketer and the event's organiser)

Thank you to Ming-Cheau Lin for sharing a teaser of her upcoming memoir during the 12-course Family Day Feast banquet fundraiser held at Tao Yuan Chinese Restaurant in Sea Point on Monday 22nd April 2019. All proceeds were donated to The Chinese Association Gauteng (TCA) Community Legal Fund.

"Why can’t your first impression of me be as a South African, and not a foreigner? You don’t have to ask every Asian person you meet: “Where are you really from?”

Read an edited extract from 'Yellow and Confused" she wrote in the Mail & Guardian newspaper published on Friday 13th September 2020 here.

Remodel minority

Promotional material: Courtesy of 'Instagram / @takeyourphil' (Friday 30 August 2019)

“As an immigrant, as a minority in South Africa, it was about blending in and not having to stand out for yet another reason. So being a people pleaser, you avoid confrontations, being picked on. You make life easier for yourself and I realised it was a form of survival.”

Listen to Ming-Cheau Lin discuss cultural food and identity, validated anger and unlearning racism with Phil de Lange during his The Phil Monty podcast here.

Confused identity

Promotional material: Courtesy of 'Twitter / Afternoon Express' (Monday 2nd September 2019)

“… the problem with being such a minority in these kind of spaces is that either you assimilate to what’s around you so that you don’t have to stand out so much but when you do stand out anyway it kind of screws around with that…”

Watch Ming-Cheau Lin discuss her continual identity struggle of having immigrated from Taiwan to Bloemfontein at three years old with Palesa Tembe on SABC3’s Afternoon Express:

Video credit: Courtesy of 'YouTube / Afternoon Express' (Tuesday 3rd September 2019)

Reclaiming yellow

Promotional material credit: Courtesy of 'LitNet' (Wednesday 18th September 2019)

“I hate that yellow became the race colour of the Western society’s depiction of East Asians. I hate the biased perceptions that became associated with it and the harmful outcome of that, evolving into flawed and ignorant gender norms … We are misrepresented in Western society, but it is the Asians living outside of Asia, we are the ones that suffer the impact, we are the stereotypes, we are the punchline, we are seen as objects without a second thought or concern.”

Congratulations to Ming-Cheau Lin for the successful launch of her second book, 'Yellow and Confused – Born in Taiwan, raised in South Africa and making sense of it all', at The Book Lounge in Cape Town on Wednesday 18th September 2019. She also participated in five panel discussions during the 2019 Open Book Festival.

Watch her conversation with author and journalist Sara-Jayne King:

Video credit: Courtesy of 'YouTube / LitNetKanaal' (Wednesday 5th February 2020)

"Basically a third culture child is when your foundation culture is different from the society around you. I am a first-generation immigrant – even though I have no memories from Taiwan – my home culture is Taiwanese. Being in South Africa even though it’s a black country, the dominant culture is Western society."

Read why The Daily Vox's Fatima Moosa enjoyed "the raw honesty" of her second book 'that's refreshing' here.

Embracing being different

“We are individuals, we are all unique, therefore we need to understand that it’s okay to be who you are and not be so hard on ourselves.”

Watch Ming-Cheau Lin explain why she often felt like an outsider, either too Asian or not Asian enough and not South African, during an interview with Marcelle Gordon on eNCA’s Upfront:

Video credit: Courtesy of 'YouTube / eNCA' (Friday 27th September 2019)

Defending 'others'

Promotional material credit: Courtesy of 'Sunday Times' (Wednesday 25th September 2019) newspaper

"Filling out government or work forms where the only tick-boxes available are “African”, “coloured”, “Indian” and “white”, we are told to tick the “coloured” box. Or we are included as another category — “other”. Literal “othering”. We are not made to feel included in this delusion of a “rainbow nation.”

Well done to Ming-Cheau Lin for launching her memoir at Bridge Books in Johannesburg on Friday 27th September 2019. Watch her discussion with Cheeky Natives' Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane about trying to figure out where and how she belongs.

Video credit: Courtesy of 'YouTube / Bridge Books' (Friday 24th January 2020)

Fighting microaggression

“… it’s not about fighting your own battle, every single battle that is on the side of injustice should be fought and we should fight them together, because how else can we move forward as a society if we kind of retain all these ignorant and old school mindsets about what reality is and how can we be so arrogant to think we don’t need to learn anymore.”

Watch Ming-Cheau Lin share whats it like being a third culture immigrant in South Africa with Sashnee Moodley from Creamer Media's Polity SA TV.

Video credit: Courtesy of 'YouTube / PolitySA' (Monday 30th September 2019)

Changing narratives

Photo credit: Courtesy of 'Cape Talk 567AM' (Thursday, 3rd October 2019)

“When we look at a social level and how people perceive us, they see one skin tone, one person, one country and one stereotype.”

Listen to Ming-Cheau Lin explore her internalised racism, light-skinned privilege, racial inequality and cultural discrimination she's faced with Cape Talk 567 AM presenter Sara-Jayne King here.

Navigating whiteness

"I embrace my culture and ethnicity, as well as the confusion of feeling displaced, as someone who doesn't seem to belong in either the country of my birth or in the one I was raised in."

Read why lifestyle writer and book reviewer Julian Richfield found reading 'Yellow and Confused' quite distressing, wanting to give Ming-Cheau Lin a hug and ask her how he could make it better for her in the 'Cape Times' newspaper below:

Article credit: Courtesy of 'Cape Times' (Friday, 4th October 2019) newspaper

Ming-Cheau Lin also facilitated an open discussion on East Asian identity during Western Province Chinese Association's (WPCA) annual Spring Food Fair at Cape Town Chinese School and Community Centre on Sunday 6th October 2019.

"Due to the lack of representation for East Asians, to our numbers being so much smaller, we struggle to get heard. Our culture also dissuades us from being louder and speaking our truth. I'm trying to change that narrative in the work that I do."

Read why Ming-Cheau Lin encourages representation and mindfulness in a multicultural environment in a Sunday Times newspaper book feature published on Sunday 27th October 2019 here. Listen to her interview with Multi Media Live's Michele Magwood here.

“What I have come to understand is that being Asian is Africa is multi-layered, identity is a plural.”

Read why New Frame's Dinika Govender describes 'Yellow and Confused' as "uncannily relatable, yet deeply personal" and a "public service to collective memory" here.

Selected must reads

Article credit: Courtesy of ‘City Buzz’ (December 2019 / January 2020) newspaper p. 22/24

Well done to Ming-Cheau Lin, whose memoir was handpicked by Bridge Books owner Griffin Shea as the third best read of 2019. Her two books were also included in his top five books recommended for the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Connecting cultures

Promotional material: Courtesy of 'Facebook / Beautiful News SA' (Sunday 5th January 2020)

"It's okay to unlearn. It's okay to be ignorant. It's more about what you do with it."

Watch how Ming-Cheau Lin learnt to embrace her heritage through her parents’ prized recipes and how to use food to show us how we can appreciate our differences here.

Promotional material credit: Courtesy of 'Facebook / Via TV' (Thursday 6th February 2020)

Thank you to Ming-Cheau Lin and Taryn Lock for sharing South Africans of Asian descent cultural identity with Gadija Sydow Noordien, Fatima Sydow and viewers of Via TV's Kaap, Kerrie en Koesisters on Thursday 6th February 2020. Watch the episode teaser here.

Breaking stereotypes

Promotional material credit: Courtesy of 'Cape Talk 567 AM' (Friday 20th March 2020)

“I do feel we’re unseen and when we are seen it is never usually in a good light. I do feel there is a lack of education, there’s a lot of stereotyping and media is to blame for a lot of that …the hurt and pain are the effects of it.”

Thank you to Ming-Cheau Lin for sharing how Novel Coronavirus fears has led to escalating prejudice and stigmatization towards East Asian communities in South Africa with listeners of Cape Talk 567 AM’s Breakfast with Refilwe Moloto on Friday 20th March 2020. Listen to her full interview here.

Please support her top 5 Chinese restaurants in Cape Town and all East Asian-owned small businesses bearing the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Promotional material: Courtesy of 'Twitter / @Mingcheau' (Tuesday 31st March 2020)

“Children are not even spared. It’s heart-breaking.”

Listen to Ming-Cheau Lin discuss Novel Coronavirus fuelled sinophobia with Lester Kiewit on Cape Talk 567AM on Thursday 2nd April 2020 evening here.

Follow Ming-Cheau Lin's journey via her social media: