I am a proud Chinese-Australian living in Australia since the age of 7. Growing up, I have experienced occasional racist incidents when people drive past and tell me to go back to my own country or casual racism where people made negative comments implying all Chinese are the same but not sure if it is directed at you or not.  I remember the first time it happened it came as a shock and wasn’t sure if that was racism and not sure how to handle it.  Overtime I learnt to let go and move on and largely forgotten these incidents, so if people asked if I experienced racism, my response would be not really because they don’t impact on me anymore, nor are they prominent in my memory that require me to talk to people about it.

I later worked in the multicultural and international education sectors and heard many stories of racism experienced by First Australians, African-Australians, Australians of Muslim religion, people of Indian heritage and more.  So whilst I know racism do exist and work to fight racism through various community campaigns alongside fellow Australians, my personal experiences remain to be low. Speaking to fellow Asian-Australians, some share similar experiences and fortunately never experienced racism over the years - until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. It was almost overnight that Asian-Australians became the target of racism.

I have witness friends sharing with me their experiences, people sharing on Facebook their incidents, reports in the newspapers. People asked anyone that look Chinese to explain coronavirus and take responsibility for it.  I also have to make a conscious choice whether to wear a mask and potentially attract unwanted attention. This time, I experienced and felt the helplessness that Muslim communities in Australia described after 9-11 when people expected anyone that is practicing Islam to be responsible for and have answers for any terror attacks around the world.

Given the severity of the impact on the Asian-Australian communities and in particular international students (the majority are from an Asian country), it was when I decided it was time to find ways to support people and help them cope with racism.  There is a gap in the current support system where it is not deemed serious enough for people to seek counselling services or psychologists because people are not mentally ill, however racist incidents still have psychological impact on people.  Therefore, through discussing with Christine Yeung, a leading Asian-Australian workplace psychologist to develop the 3-level resilience model to help people cope with racism.

We believe by helping people cope with racism and build their confidence to deal with potential future incidents, we can create a stronger and resilient community.

Christine Yeung, CEO and Principle Psychologist of Beyond Story. She is an experienced psychologist who spent more than a decade specialising in Organisational Psychology. Previously as a Head of Psychology at one of the leading psychometric testing companies, she has a decade of experiences in psychology consulting with various organisations including ASX Top 100 professional services firms and government departments. She brings a wealth of experience and knowledge in psychometric testing to designing and implementing scientific and evidence-based people solutions, that aim to develop happier, fairer and high performing Australian workplaces.

She has studied and consulted across Europe, Asia and Australia, working with businesses, government departments, NGOs and the United Nations at the intersection of governance and culture. Her career experience ranges from coaching and mentoring migrants, international students through to empowering leaders and organisations to harness the power of diversity and inclusion to strengthen leadership in Australia.    

Since 2016, Christine has founded and led a purpose-driven business Beyond Story, which has a mission to enable, inspire and empower every human to become the best version of themselves by optimising their mental, emotional and behavioural capacities for higher functioning and satisfaction at work and in life. Beyond Story is an organisation weaving data-driven and creative approaches to expand our human capacity to thrive in complexity and restore wisdom in our collective reality.

Gary is passionate on making diversity the norm. 

Since arriving in Australia as an international student from Malaysia, Gary has demonstrated a strong interest and commitment in issues affecting culturally and linguistically diverse communities, especially international students. He completed a Bachelor of Business and a Graduate Diploma in Business System before being offered a full scholarship to pursue a Master of Arts in Community Development at RMIT University.

In 2008, Gary joined the City of Melbourne and quickly earned a reputation as an affable and versatile collaborator. His leadership role resulted in City of Melbourne’s international student program being awarded the Victorian Multicultural Award for Service Delivery to Multicultural Community in 2010. Gary’s unique blend of creativity, knowledge and ‘out-of-the-box’ approach has seen him work with extraordinary people, causes and organisations.

He is a passionate ambassador for Bully Zero Australia Foundation, the AFL Multicultural Community Program, Melbourne Victory, Welcoming Australia, a member of the Victorian Multicultural Commission Regional Advisory Council and is involved in the steering committee for the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne and the African Music and Cultural Festival. His thinking on multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion have been influential in shaping many programs, projects and discussions across the country, with the strong view that Australia should value, above all else, the principles of fairness, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of life. In 2018, Gary was part of the North Melbourne Football Club’s not-for-profit The Huddle ‘Be Brave, Speak Up' campaign in a bid to stamp out racism in sport and the wider community.

Gary was recognised by the Australia Day Council as the ‘New Australian of the Year’ in January 2016 for his contributions in empowering and advocating for communities, especially those who are unable to have their voices heard. In 2018, he was the recipient of the prestigious IEAA ‘Distinguished Contribution to International Education’ award.