Victor Wu is a 39-year-old documentary filmmaker from Hong Kong. Through his work, he has pushed the envelope in amplifying the voices of LGBTQIA+ people in the Chinese-Australian community. His recent documentary film, To Freely Flourish, is intended to help break down the stigma that so many people in this demographic face. The film emerges from Wu’s own journey of coming out as gay and queer, which he navigated with the support of his parents, who worked for Hong Kong’s education department before relocating to Australia.
In what seems like a deeply emotional letter, Wu came out to his mom and dad. He was clear that he didn’t need their permission—he just needed to let out an essential part of himself. His parents accepted his sexuality and gender identity after reading the letter. Wu shared, “I just kind of spelled out exactly how I felt, what my position was, which was that I was not asking for approval, I was not asking for acceptance.”
Yet for all the progress he’s seen, Wu is not blind to the challenges that still pervade the community. “While homophobia still exists in the Chinese community,” he remarked, “there has been a shift in terms of what people are fearful of.” He is passionate about creating a broader, more diverse narrative within Australian media that showcases positive experiences of LGBTQIA+ people. “These things take time,” he noted. “It’s not just for you but for your parents.”
Lucy Xu, a 24-year-old postgraduate student who specializes in Chinese publishing and editing, reflects that same story of hardship and hope. Xu, a Chinese-Australian, has always had to juggle her true self with the weight of living up to being the ‘good’ child that her first-generation immigrant parents envisioned. When she decided to come out as a lesbian, Susan hit an important turning point in her life. Sadly, her choice meant she was disowned by her mom.
Deeply hurt after her mother’s abandonment, Xu suggested therapy as a way to reunite. She looked for a therapist who was bilingual in Mandarin to help bridge the language gap between her and her mother. Xu’s mother had been going to counseling sessions after the loss of her husband. This experience cemented the need for mental health support within their family dynamics.
Xu reflects on her experience, stating, “Going no contact with my mother after coming out was the most painful period of my life.” The process of coming out is often an emotional rollercoaster, and this can be an even more painful experience when cultural norms add tension to family dynamics. Ryan Qian, a peer and advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights, adds, “Coming out has such a great impact when it comes to you and your family. It’s a great challenge if you don’t know how your parents are going to react.”
Xu and Wu have each experienced tremendous obstacles on their journeys towards self-acceptance and reconciling with their families. Even in the midst of this struggle, they represent the hope of their communities. Through Wu’s lens, the need for visibility and representation of LGBTQIA+ lives—in all of their complexity—within media narratives is amplified. “I think part of the problem is because the narratives in the media and storytelling are still so much around pain and tragedy and loss,” he stated. “We don’t have these positive stories that queerness is equated to sadness, death, tragedy, and pain.”
Still, the stories of Wu and Xu highlight CSF’s work to combat societal pressures faced by LGBTQIA+ immigrants. Xu’s story underscores her experiences as a first-generation immigrant. It opens the door to the societal pressures that first-generation children are too often weighed down with. “It feels like a social pressure to put on you that you have to come out,” she shared, encapsulating the unique struggles faced by individuals navigating their identities under cultural scrutiny.
Wu and Xu are working to promote cultural awareness and acceptance in their communities. Recognizing that change is multi-faceted, long-term, and incremental. There may be people who are already doing this work, but so many are invisible because society demands that they hide, Wu points out. He said that with hopes for more inclusive storytelling, communities will have future generations more represented and better reflected in their communities themselves. “It feels like when you lose something, it’s so much more impactful because you already didn’t have as much as someone else who was white growing up in Australia,” he remarked.
