Why Does It Matter - Take Me Away Lily Chan

Read any story that we haven't read yet and write a review of the story and explain why it matters. Why should anyone care about the story/read it?


Take Me Away - Lily Chan


In this story the author explains to us the life of a little Chinese child who is at school but after school goes to his parents restaurant to work there and help them out. Every day after school he would go there and do his homework while his parents would work til late at night. He would take calls and tell his parents the orders and when he got a break he would watch television or play outside.


I think this is a very good story as it shows us how life for a Chinese family is in Australia and what lengths they have to go to, to earn money and provide for their family. This story also shows the difficulties this family have had to experience such as making their children work for them and do their homework inside a shop. This isn't a good environment for a child at a young age and especially not good if they have to go there every day after school. Compared to an Australian family who may own a restaurant they would either leave their kids at home and give them that responsibility, get someone to mind them in afternoons or drop them over to a relatives house where they can do their homework and relax. Instead they are in a business environment that they should not have to experience until later in their life. Even though there may benefits such as responsibility and the experience of counting money and getting into the feel of running a business, these are things that can be learnt very easily later in their life when they need these skills to actually start and maintain a business. There is obviously a major contrast between Australian families and immigrant families in the way they live every day life and the choices they make with their children and between themselves. 


This family has a competing restaurant down the street who owned a Hong Kong restaurant. Even though they were competitors they were family friends and celebrated many Chinese events together. This would not happen though because they are competing restaurants. If there were other Chinese family's in the community they wouldn't be friends but because  there isn't these two families are friends. This starts to give us a perspective of the story and its "moral."