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.

Yen-Rong Wong is an arts critic and award-winning writer working between Yugambeh and Jagera and Turrbal lands. She won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in 2022, and the Queensland Premier’ s Young Publishers and Writers Award in 2020. She has been a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk fellow and writer-in-residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre. She is a frequent contributor to The Saturday Paper as a theatre critic, and her work has appeared in many print and online publications, including The Guardian, Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, and Griffith Review. Yen-Rong Wong is an arts critic and award-winning writer working between Yugambeh and Jagera and Turrbal lands. She won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in 2022, and the Queensland Premier’ s Young Publishers and Writers Award in 2020. She has been a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk fellow and writer-in-residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre. She is a frequent contributor to The Saturday Paper as a theatre critic, and her work has appeared in many print and online publications, including The Guardian, Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, and Griffith Review.

Author’ s Note Me 1: Shame 2: Pleasure 3: Kink Her 4: Monsters 5: Language Us 6: Yellow Fever 7: Race Traitor 8: An Oriental Flower Acknowledgements Further Texts Notes