'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'(Publication summary)
'A bristling collection about race, sex, familial expectation and identity from a writer with lived experience.'
'As a woman of colour, reading about sex, relationships and desire has often made me feel slightly uneasy. Most depictions of sexual awakening come from straight white women, whose experiences of sex so rarely engage with the nuances of racialised identity. But when I discovered books such as The Terrible (Yrsa Daley Ward) and Sex Lives of African Women (Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah) that deal firsthand with how race can influence our sex lives, it felt as if I had found something that had been missing. This underrepresentation is especially glaring in the Australian context.' (Introduction)
'The autobiographical debut Me, Her, Us by Yen-Rong Wong – winner of the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in 2022, and a theatre reviewer for this paper – lays bare the most intimate aspects of her journey to self-discovery. Through a collection of carefully curated essays, she comes to terms with her relationship with sex as well as her identity as a “Chinese-presenting woman”.' (Introduction)
'The autobiographical debut Me, Her, Us by Yen-Rong Wong – winner of the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in 2022, and a theatre reviewer for this paper – lays bare the most intimate aspects of her journey to self-discovery. Through a collection of carefully curated essays, she comes to terms with her relationship with sex as well as her identity as a “Chinese-presenting woman”.' (Introduction)
'As a woman of colour, reading about sex, relationships and desire has often made me feel slightly uneasy. Most depictions of sexual awakening come from straight white women, whose experiences of sex so rarely engage with the nuances of racialised identity. But when I discovered books such as The Terrible (Yrsa Daley Ward) and Sex Lives of African Women (Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah) that deal firsthand with how race can influence our sex lives, it felt as if I had found something that had been missing. This underrepresentation is especially glaring in the Australian context.' (Introduction)
'A bristling collection about race, sex, familial expectation and identity from a writer with lived experience.'