William Yang comes out of the bamboo closet

By Toby Longhurst

William Yang first realised that he was Chinese when at age six when he was called a ching chong Chinaman by a child at his Dimbullah primary school in North Queensland. When he questioned his mother later that day, it was explained to him that, yes he was in fact Chinese. This is despite the fact that his family had lived in Australia since the 1880s gold rush and he had never even been to China. 

Since that time, William faced many challenges in his quest for acceptance as both Chinese and as an openly gay man. In the early 70's William was introduced to a world of photography and has recorded his journey ever since, all the while becoming one of Australia's premiere and most recognisable photographers. 

His latest work 'Life Lines' - part of The Gallery of Modern Art's China Project - offers a unique and fascinating insight into what it was like for William and his family to grow up Asian in Australia.

QNews met with William to discuss his exhibition and to learn more about his experiences growing up in North Queensland and coming out as a proud gay Asian man.  

Your contribution to the China Project tells the story of you and your family as Chinese Australians. What was it like for you growing up as a person of Chinese descent in Australia at that time?

Where I grew up in the Atherton Tablelands was a fairly mixed raced area. It was part of the tobacco industry and there were a lot of Italians and Yugoslavs so that wasn't so bad. But when I went to high school in Cairns the kids there were bigger and meaner and people used to call me names. It was all together a more unpleasant experience. At that same time of course I was a teenager and desperately wanted to fit in and conform and feel sexually attractive, but as well as being Chinese I always knew deep down that I was gay. There were no role models for me so it was really an unhappy time for me. When I got to Brisbane things were a lot better.

How did you go from a tobacco plantation in North Queensland to becoming one of Australia's most acclaimed photographers?

Growing up in North Queensland at that time was sort of a culturally deprived upbringing. There really were no arts to speak of as part of my growing up. When I came to UQ in Brisbane I began to engage myself in the arts and joined the Contemporary Arts Society, though at the time it never occurred to me that I could identify with being an artist. It wasn't until I went to Sydney, dropped out, mixed in artistic circles and became a photographer that I identified as being an artist.

How would you describe your work?

My photography is all self taught and is basically in the documentary mould. I started of in a photo journalistic form but have moulded it into a more conceptual one that uses text and has a narrative and is often auto- biographical. I found that writing on photographs allowed me to claim them through the text. People were able to recognise my photographs more because of the writing. Most of the photographs that I turn out now have got text on them. 
 

In the early 90s you were one of the people who initiated Asian Gay Pride in Sydney. How did this come about?

I wanted to put race back into sexuality and desire. One's sexuality is not generally discussed in Asia so it's harder for them to come out. As far as desire is concerned, the dominate culture decide what is sexually attractive. People's tastes are usually influenced by what is fed to you, and in the gay community that is often buff white males. You don't often see Asian men put up as an attractive role model- certainly not back then anyway.

Since that time is it now easier for gay Asians in Australia today? 

Things have certainly changed. There are a lot of Asians in Australia and many of them leave Asia to escape the suppression of their families, so there is a big concentration of gay Asian men in Australia. They don't have their own clubs but there are a number of social options organisations for them to become involved with.

How do you view the China Project?

I really love it. They have a great collection and have been putting it together for a long time. What I really like about it is that the work is accessible because it is neither abstract nor theoretical. I am very thrilled to be part of this exhibition and am very happy to be positioned in a contempory art context where as sometimes I have just been positioned as a documentary photographer.

The China Project is open now and runs until 28 June 2009 at GoMA (Queensland Gallery of Modern Art) Admission is free.