Elizabeth:
We go back to 1853 when my grandfather, at 19, left China and came to Australia. They called this the land of the New Gold Mountain.
It was the first outbreak of the goldfields. He came as a road digger to clear the bush and make roads. For the early British settlers who wanted to set up their stations he must have shown great leadership qualities because by the time he was 23, he was a road contractor bringing over quite a few hundred Chinese men to work under him clearing the bush in northeastern Victoria, in a little place called Wahgunyah.
Then my grandfather became a businessman. He imported and brought over essential goods, even gold mining equipment for all the Chinese who would come over for the gold rush. He managed some of the Chinese camps up that way.
By 58, he decided it was time to get married. My grandmother was chosen as an 18-year-old girl from one of the villages in China. She had come over by boat accompanied by an elder to marry my grandfather in Wahgunyah. They settled there and had six children. They had quite a lot of privileges because they were Australia-born Chinese and they were allowed to acquire property and have their own businesses.
In 1901, my grandfather decided to go home to China. He was about 65-years-old, which was considered to be very old. Therefore, my own father was only five when all the family went back to China for good.
Having scant education because they were very rural, my father and his brothers could, as teenagers, see their future in Australia. I think my father was 15 or 16 when they came to Victoria. He got the taste for the wholesale fruit business and went to Queensland and brought over bananas to ripen in Victoria. That led to him and his brothers then becoming one of the largest wholesale fruit businesses in Victoria.
He was 23 when my mother was chosen for him. My elder sister Ruby, and my older brother Tom, were born in Carlton, Melbourne. In 1929, it was decreed that my mother was not able to remain in Australia any longer [under the White Australia policy]. So my father packed up the whole family and went back to the village in China. My mother had the third child, Irene, on-route in Hong Kong.
Elizabeth’s face became well-known from regular appearances on Good Morning Australia with host Bert Newton. Source: Supplied
My father commuted backwards and forwards to look after his businesses and to look after the family. In 1931, I was born in that little village in China, making me the only one not born in Australia like all my siblings. In 1934, I was three before my father could get a visa for the whole family plus his own mother to come to Australia.
From the age of three, I considered Australia my home. I spoke Chinese at home but English was my natural language. And all my life has been spent in Melbourne.
I think we were the only Chinese family going to my school then. We were like little novelties. The teacher used to pinch my cheeks because I had a little Chinese fringe and I think they thought I was something a little bit different, which they thought was cute. I just didn't feel discriminated against. I felt I was always happy with my school friends. Whereas when I went to secondary school, the first week or two, was the first time I felt a little bit not belonging because of my face.
Even in my own career, I had to fight against a certain status for Chinese cuisine. That sat very badly with me because I love my cuisine and respected my mother's cooking. When I thought that people thought Chinese food was just something filled your stomach up, it was cheap and cheerful, it really upset me. I thought they really don't think that about French cuisine or Italian cuisine. Why do that put Chinese cuisine in that category?
I realised then that the very beginnings of Chinese food in Australia were on the goldfield days. And on the goldfields itself. Food did have to be cheap and cheerful. I realised, I should be proud of the way the pioneers brought it over here and persevered and were resilient with all the attacking and the discrimination and Chinese food has survived. And now people have given it its rightful place as one of the world's top cuisines.
Angie:
I grew up knowing I am seven-eighth Chinese and one-eighth Irish. I've only ever known Australia, even though I've travelled to China a number of times. I'm very proud of my heritage. I think that it's always been a part of my life.
I often reflect and talk with mum about growing up in the 50s and 60s here. I remember as a teenager trying to desperately to change the colour of my hair and painting freckles on my face because I wanted to look like everybody else in my class. I felt Australian but I looked other. 
It has [since] changed. During the 70s and 80s it then became fashionable to be a bit different. Moving on into more recent decades, it's more than just okay to be aware of your culture. We celebrate diversity.
Tess as a toddler between her mother, Angie, and grandmother, Elizabeth. Source: Tess Duddy
Now I have very natural freckles. They are well earned from just sunbaking under the sun in the 60s and 70s before we had problems with too much sun. I'm Australian and proudly of Chinese background.
My upbringing has been different to Tessa's in that I was very much surrounded by family, a large family of cousins so less diverse in that sense. I was very protected by family for two decades, until I was 20. I think with each generation, we've become more Australian.
It's interesting to be able to connect with my mum and hear the stories of her growing up and I know those stories intimately and very excited about the new SBS program that's coming on New Gold Mountain because they're all the stories I grew up on when my family came to Australia. I can see my grandparents, my grandfather living there and I can relate to that as a part of my life.
In more recent years when Tess was asking me how to cook those foods that I grew up on. It was great. It was lovely to know that she wanted to share some of that culture that I learnt from my mum and my mum from her mum. And by way of food, that's how the culture is passed on.
Tess:
Growing up I certainly had lots of racist comments from little kids in the playground. And now teaching kids at school you see there’s a lot more multiculturalism than when I was young.
I’m fifth generation Australian even though there was a bit of back and fourth. In terms of me being Chinese Australian, I travelled a lot as a kid so I was always moving about and being a bit different in all of those places. I think themes in porpor’s (grandma) childhood and in mum’s were the same also in mine, being one of the only Asian people in the classroom. But I think essentially, I’ve had a pretty Australian upbringing whatever that is.
How close do I feel to my Chinese roots? I think I'll always be connected to my family and a sense of responsibility that goes along with that, such as the importance of looking after your family. That’s a duty that you have and a pleasure.
Elizabeth Chong and her granddaughter Tess Duddy. Source: Tess Duddy
Certainly, if we’re together, we’re all eating and we’re all eating Chinese food. We’re all eating the dishes we’ve always eaten that have been in the family for generations.
And then there are those dishes you have when you’re sick, everybody has the jook (congee) that somebody will make or after you’ve had a baby, you’ll have that same dish. The significant things that happen in your life will revolve around a certain dish. At Christmas we'll always have the same sorts of dishes. We used to go to yum cha if it was Chinese New Year.
I’m really lucky that I live close to mum and I’ve always had a close relationship with porpor. I think also there’s something special about grandparents and grandchildren relationships that often because skip that parenting part, you can sort of be a bit more like a friend. You have an understanding of each other but without the grandparent without having to reprimand you for anything. I see that with my mum and my child (Teddy, 2). It’s just fun and games.
Elizabeth Chong and granddaughter Tess Duddy share a window of their relationship, fuelled by a love of creativity and humour at the .
New Gold Mountain airs over two big weeks premiering Wednesday 13 October at 9.30pm and continuing on Thursday 14 October, Wednesday 20 October, and Thursday 21 October at 9.30pm on SBS and SBS On Demand.
The series will be subtitled in Arabic, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean and will be added to the subtitled collection on SBS On Demand.
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