Trailer: Shifting Subjects
Growing up, Lisa Divissi absorbed all sorts of messages about what being ‘Asian’ in Australia might entail from news media, popular culture and the larger zeitgeist. But in her new series, Shifting Subjects, she’s more interested in seeing things for herself. By documenting the Asian Australian stories around her, Lisa sets out to complicate our ideas of who we are, while carefully expanding on a clearer picture of us together.
Credits
Writer, host and audio producer: Lisa Divissi
Sound Designer and Mix Engineer: Jon Tjhia
Musician (theme): Marcus Whale
Additional music: AnSo
Artwork and design: Annie Luo
Special thanks: Jane Lee, Rosa Ellen and the City of Melbourne Arts Grants
Shifting Subjects is a Liminal podcast and a proud member of the Broadwave podcast network.
Get in touch
We love hearing from our listeners. Stay in touch across Instagram and Facebook, and @lisadivissi, @liminalmag and @broadwavepods on Twitter.
Hi, I’m Lisa Divissi. I’m an audio producer and journalist… and I’m Asian Australian. My mum’s Vietnamese, and my dad is Italian.
When I was growing up, a red-headed politician got up in parliament and said Australia was in danger of being ‘swamped by Asians’. Since then I’ve absorbed all sorts of messages about what being ‘Asian’ in this country might entail from news media, popular culture and the larger zeitgeist.
But in my new series, Shifting Subjects, I’m more interested in seeing things for myself.
[music shift: FUN]
Lisa: Alright here we go…
Angie Pai: Huahgh [gag noise, laughs]
This season, I’m bringing you five stories. They’re all pretty different.
I try to sort out my feelings around footy by speaking with Asian Australians who live and breathe it.
SH: The adrenaline kicked in, I was like YESSS, you know, this is it! My team won! WE won. Immediately there was that inclusive language as well, WE won, this is OUR team, and you know, US.
I spend a day at a tofu factory with Camly Le, who’s been making it by hand for 30 years.
Camly: You feel hard or soft or you feel good or no good and you stop and you balance with your mind, but the machine can't do that.
I learn how the artist Angie Pai holds space for her confucian and taoist values in a contemporary Australian context.
AP: You teach me ‘Oh, when people are mean to you, just be nicer to them because then they won't be mean to you.’ That doesn't work, you know.
And there’s more.
[music shift: melancholy]
It’s all part of my effort to understand what ‘Asian Australian’ can mean.
Because term Asian Australian is broad as hell.
It’s an overflowing container… a complex, vibrant and contradictory one… filled with diverse journeys, geographies and experiences.
It includes some things I know a lot about, and many others about which I know nothing.
My working theory is that a story is a bit like a sonic photograph, representing a subject at a moment in time before that subject shifts into something else.
(music: theme)
Shifting Subjects is a LIMINAL podcast, and a proud member of the Broadwave podcast network.
Episode one launches on the 30th of March, 2023. Subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts, and tell your friends.
And if you’re in Melbourne, come to the launch of our series! Details can be found here.