TV

With ‘The Family Law’, My Asian-Australian Story Is Finally Being Told

The success of 'The Family Law' needs to be attributed to its authenticity.

by Erin Chew  22 January 2019
The Family Law Season 3

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What a hopeful and emotional end to the final season of The Family Law.

Who would have thought that a sitcom with a full Asian Australian cast as leads, which cleverly blends lighthearted comedy with serious undertones of identity and relationship issues, would last three seasons on Australian mainstream television?

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Considering how blatant Australian television tries to not show diversity, The Family Law has defied all barriers, and revolutionised the definition of what modern diverse content means in Australia.

In addition, the show tackles issues, which are often not associated with a “typical Asian Australian family”, showing that Asian Australians are more than just a boxed model minority, and that our lives are plagued with everyday issues — just like any other regular Australian family.

The first two seasons of The Family Law consistently explored what it means to be Asian in Australia, and how it feels to be confronted with family dysfunction, cultural clashes between generations, and facing casual and systematic racism in a society — which sees anyone who doesn’t assimilate to white-centric standards, as a perpetual foreigner.

The final episode of season two had us sitting at the edge of our seats, leaving with an almost failed business venture, broken relationships, a health scare and the dilemma of a filial teenage son feeling the burden of choosing his responsibility to family over pursuing his goal of traveling around Australia with his drama class.

The third and final season continued this theme and definitely did not disappoint.

Being Asian In Australia

The life of the Laws in season three is the same life and experiences shared by many Asian Australians, myself being one of them.

It is our Asian Australian story.

Many of the themes presented in the show are challenging cultural dilemmas — taboos and situations often not shared outside the immediate family unit. The idea that an immigrant Asian mother who is separated and goes back out on the dating scene with someone outside of her own race, goes against her own generational cultural ideals.

Couples going through separation and/or divorce are still generally viewed as failures within the family unit and a reflection of poor family values.

Patriarchy is embedded within many Asian cultures and traditions, so it is seen as more acceptable for separated/divorced Asian men/fathers to date others as opposed to separated/divorced Asian women/mothers to date. This is the situation Jenny finds herself in and her journey in navigating around this really challenged her traditional Chinese values and her upbringing.

One of my favourite scenes in season three was when Jenny and her work mate were drunk at a club, and dancing on the bar top receiving the attention and gaze of all present.

Danny and Ming Zhu happen to be at the same club, rekindling their relationship. Danny spots Jenny, drunk, and in his eyes at her worst. He tells her in Cantonese to get down, and expressed how it was a bad look for her, him and the family — which means he “lost face” because her behaviours in public were unsavoury.

This idea of “lost face” or ”saving face” is extremely important in many Asian cultures, specifically Chinese culture and traditions.

It implies that a person’s behaviour in public is a reflection of their family, and how they were bought up. In Jenny’s case, she wanted the best of both worlds — to uphold the values she was brought up in and passed down to her children, but at the same time to enjoy and live out the years, she had missed bringing up a large family.

How she navigates around this challenge is extremely significant in understanding the position Asian women are put in, due to the value placed on draconian cultural traditions and ethics.

From a progressive and women’s liberation standpoint, this really should not be an issue — but to want this freedom and new life, and at the same time staying in line with traditional Asian cultural values is a crisis that many Asian women in Jenny’s position go through.

A Minority In The Majority

The idea of crisis and identity is a continual theme in all three seasons of The Family Law.

It not only affects children growing up, but can have a multi-layered affect on Asian Australian families generationally (as seen with Jenny). However, flipping over to Ben, this journey of knowing one’s identity and where they belong is extremely important and highlighted in depth in this final season.

Ben is tasked to learn how to navigate and reconcile his cultural identity and his sexual identity. Understanding cultural identity is something which I and many other Asians who grew up in Australia can painfully relate to.

As a child growing up, I faced a number of cultural identity crisis in an environment where I was a minority in a white-centric majority.

For me it was a struggle, and in the process faced a lot of racial bullying and went through painful periods of self doubt and internalised racism. I desperately wanted to be accepted as part of the majority, and be treated the same as everyone else around me. My story and experience growing up Asian Australian is a common story.

In this final season of The Family Law, we saw this internal struggle within Ben, who was trying to find out who he was culturally and at the same time navigate around the ideals of being racially bullied, and desperately wanting acceptance. However, an added layer caused even more angst and confusion within Ben and that was understanding his sexual identity and coming to terms with being queer.

Asian cultures, specifically the Chinese culture still perceives queer identities as a taboo, so for an Asian Australian child to come out to their families is often an extremely distressing experience. The fear of being disowned and isolated are all valid concerns for young queer Asian Australians, and as Ben showed us in this final season, he had to fight strongly against these demons to finally come out to his family.

This struggle added on top of his racial identity crisis formed the crux of what made the ending to this awesome show extremely powerful.

Where To From Here?

The success of The Family Law needs to be attributed to its authenticity.

In six episodes of season three, it managed to make a person laugh, cry and reflect on their own lives growing up. Not many shows on Australian TV can do that, but this is what makes The Family Law unique and how it gets being Asian Australian.

So where to from here?

Well, the hope is that following the success of The Family Law, Australian TV will start to understand how important representation and visibility is in the current societal environment. Diverse content is extremely important in highlighting how different and multicultural Australia is, and it is these stories about being different and being a minority in Australia, which will continue to educate and inspire the next generation.

It’s sad that The Family Law has come to an end, but it has turned the wheels of the movement for change in what Australians want to see on their TV screens and it has provided a voice for those of us who grew up Asian Australian who would have otherwise been voiceless.

The Family Law is currently available on SBS On Demand.

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Erin Wen Ai Chew is a social activist and founder of the Asian Australian Alliance. She is also a freelance writer specialising in issues around whitewashing, media representation and racism. Erin was a former co- editor of YOMYOMF ( You Offend Me, You Offend My Family) and runs a podcast called Offended AF (Asian Feminists).