You may have heard of our popular series on the BuzzFeed Australia YouTube channel called "Never Have I Ever." In a special all-star edition, we invited Remy Hii, Natalie Tran, Benjamin Law, Jennifer Wong, and Max Brown to share their stories and experiences about what growing up Asian in Australia was really like.
From herbal remedies (Tiger Balm fixes everything — haven't you heard?) to wearing shoes in the house, here are some of the cultural experiences we touched on while playing "Never Have I Ever: Asian Australian Edition."
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1. Calling someone auntie or uncle even though you're not related to them.
2. Leaving your shoes at the door or storing them on a shoe stand at the front of the house.
3. But then feeling conflicted when you visit a friend's house and are told to wear your shoes inside their home — even though it feels wrong.
4. Growing up and being told that home remedies work better than Western medicine.
5. Having random people you've just met ask you, "No, where are you really from?"
6. Eating rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
7. Receiving brutally honest comments about your appearance from your parents and extended family.
8. Not being allowed to go to bed with wet hair or leave the fan on while you're sleeping.
9. Attending language school on the weekends.
10. Feeling the pressure to become a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or accountant in order to make your family proud.
11. And ultimately, carving out your own career path — even if your parents don't quite understand what you're doing.
12. Owning more than one rice cooker.
13. Being forced to go to tutoring.
14. Or worse, having your parents tutor you themselves.
15. Performing the ultimate Asian ASMR when you would use a plastic cup to scoop up rice from the rice bucket and tip it into the rice cooker.
16. Putting up with racist jokes — because if you don't laugh along, then you supposedly don't have a sense of humour or are too sensitive.
17. Eating certain foods because — according to your parents — they would make you smarter or improve your health in some way.
18. Having various household items covered in plastic.
19. Placing all your pots and pans in the dishwasher or oven for extra storage — and never using said dishwasher or oven for their intended purpose.
#GrowingUpAsian Your family uses the dishwasher as storage
Even more annoying is what my family does — storing our pots and pans in the oven and having to take them out each and every single time we use it.
20. Being threatened with an assortment of household items whenever you were acting up.
21. Begging your parents to buy your favourite snacks while grocery shopping.
Blessed with haw flakes today
Haw flakes, Pocky, and White Rabbit Candy were just some of the favourites you munched on.
22. Having a shit tonne of complimentary toiletries from hotels that your mum had collected over the years.
23. Wishing you had less Asian features or were white, so that you could fit in better with the kids at school.
24. And then growing up and going through a process of accepting who you are and being proud of your cultural identity.
Don't forget to watch "Never Have I Ever: Asian Australian Edition!" And let us know which cultural experiences you relate to the most in the comments.