The thing that really struck me, reading your post, was when you said China. Chinese people have been in Australia in significant numbers for about two hundred years, afaik.
You're absolutely right that it's racist, though. The reason I know is this:
I am white. I am not Australian-born, but I've lived here since I was 18 months old. Due to the mingled influences of my parents' accents and some accent hints I've picked up here and there along the way, though, I have an odd accent myself; to non-Australians I sound Australian, but to some Australians I sound faintly foreign.
On the rare occasion when someone asks about it, the question I get is: "Where does your accent come from?"
Which is a rather different question, one that nonetheless seems to imply an acceptance that I'm obviously Australian now.
It's sort of bitterly ironic, really, since if "being Australian" was measurable on a scale, you're clearly much more Australian than I am, since, you know, I'm an immigrant and all, and yet...
no subject
The thing that really struck me, reading your post, was when you said China. Chinese people have been in Australia in significant numbers for about two hundred years, afaik.
You're absolutely right that it's racist, though. The reason I know is this:
I am white. I am not Australian-born, but I've lived here since I was 18 months old. Due to the mingled influences of my parents' accents and some accent hints I've picked up here and there along the way, though, I have an odd accent myself; to non-Australians I sound Australian, but to some Australians I sound faintly foreign.
On the rare occasion when someone asks about it, the question I get is: "Where does your accent come from?"
Which is a rather different question, one that nonetheless seems to imply an acceptance that I'm obviously Australian now.
It's sort of bitterly ironic, really, since if "being Australian" was measurable on a scale, you're clearly much more Australian than I am, since, you know, I'm an immigrant and all, and yet...