I don't appreciate the sacrifices my parents made to build a better life here in Australia. I don't think many people do because they don't understand what they faced. It's simply because we often don't experienced the same hardships as them.

If you're like me with parents who immigrated to Australia on borrowed money with few connections and knowing limited English, chances are you're in the same boat as I am (no pun intended - although my parents arrived on a plane on student visas). More specifically, if your parents arrived in the late 80s from China it's even harder to understand because by growing up in Australia today we haven't lived under oppression, been denied an education or been unable to buy food because there wasn't any physically left in stores or marketplaces.

Things got better after Mao Zedong was no longer the leader, but by even knowing all of this I couldn't appreciate what my parents had done - leave their old life and home in the hope that they could build a better one in the future. Key word being hope...

Yep, it's my attempt at a flatlay. Guess what book this post was inspired by?

Since it's the holidays, I've gotten back into reading - I read the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan recently, and it was a really good and interesting read. It beautifully captures the stories of four Chinese women who emigrated from China to San Francisco for various reasons around the time the Japanese attacked Kweilin. They formed the Joy Luck Club, which meets to share a traditional Chinese meal, tell and remember stories of the past and present and play Mah Jong once a week, and later once a month or every few months. It also tells the story from their daughters' point of view, and it's really interesting to read all the traditional Chinese beliefs and values about marriage, superstition, the layout and structure of a house - which seems silly to the daughters, and me, sometimes.

I found it so relatable - everything from the Asian parenting, which means that Chinese parents like to show off their children and want their children to be accomplished so they can have 'face' and in order to do so will limit their children's other experiences (like social experiences), to the mothers' quiet demeanour and collected attitude which has translated into 'not taking on challenges without fully thinking it through and not making it in the Western world'.

It also goes to show how little we understand about our parents lives - especially when they like to keep a lot of it quiet and sometimes it's honestly just difficult to fathom what it was like for my parents during the Cultural Revolution and after it, or why they hate the Japanese so much. Reading this book gave me a starting point for discussion with my mum, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to understand more about what it was like for Chinese women who emigrated from China in search of a better life, especially if your mother is like those in the book.

This was taken in Adaminaby when I was away in the Snowy Mountains, and we had a particularly cold night that left a blanket of white on the grass and a lot of the trees.

I learnt so much - it's one of the best books I've read in a while since it's so relatable. It could also be a potential discovery related text for any HSC students - but don't take my word on that. It's made me think about all the stories my parents have told me and how rich they are in information and history - and I feel like I'm on the way to understanding and appreciating what my parents have done so I can live the life I do. I feel that it's always been difficult to understand because I grew up in a Western culture in a happy family home - and we never learnt much about Chinese history except through our parents, and only then because I was receptive and I listened.

What Amy Tan's done is give Chinese women a voice in Western literature and a means to share aspects of the Chinese culture which are often misunderstood, even by their own daughters. It's a great read and a enlightening book. But I'll leave you with this.

Listen to your parents' stories, because one day you can pass them on to your future family - otherwise by then it might be too late to hear them. Let me know in the comments or on Twitter if you've had similar experiences!

With love, Sarah x