In other words, a way of seeing between artists, writers and immigrants is very similar, an acute awareness of everyday strangeness, a necessary attentiveness to primary experience. I also realised that a lot of the things I'm trying to do as an artist, looking at my native environment from a certain objective distance, is something that immigrants are routinely doing anyway. Anyway, Dad has many interesting anecdotes about migrating from Malaysia to Western Australia in the 1960s, which I only appreciated myself once I started travelling internationally as an adult. Sometimes I wonder if that has given me a certain perspective that's been useful later on as an artist and writer, a sense that there's no absolute 'normal', that reality is adjustable. I guess I grew up in a mixed-race family without thinking much of it, having an Australian mum and Chinese dad was just normal. Yes, my own family history was definitely a key factor in my being attracted to immigrant tales in the first place. What inspired you to create The Arrival? Does your family have a migration story? We were thrilled to catch up with Oscar winner Shaun Tan whose cult illustrated novel The Arrival ou r forthcoming theatre circus production is based on.
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