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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Look Who's Morphing is a collection of bizarre, funny, often menacing stories in which, along with his extended family, the central character undergoes a series of transformations, shape-shifting through figures drawn from film and television, music clips and video games, porn flicks and comics. He is Godzilla, a Muppet, and Whitney Houston's bodyguard; the Fonz, a robot, a Ford Bronco 4x4 - and, as a climax, a Gulliver-sized cock rock singer, played upon by an adoring troupe of sexy Lilliputians in short skirts and sailor suits and cheerleader outfits. Within these fantasies there is a deep intellectual and emotional engagement, a fundamental questioning of the nature of identity, and the way it constructs itself in a world dominated by the images of popular culture. – From the publisher's website.
Notes
-
Dedication: This book is dedicated to the memory of my father
Contents
- Dirty Dancing, single work short story (p. 3-6)
- Suitmation, single work short story (p. 11-14)
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The Exorcist,
single work
short story
humour
horror
fantasy
The narrator's Auntie Wei starts acting strangely when she dons a novelty apron that has built-in plastic breasts. At first the narrator thinks the behaviour results from drunkenness, but it soon becomes clear that the breast apron has caused Auntie Wei to be possessed by a demon.
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Dinner With My Brother,
single work
short story
humour
The narrator and his brother discuss their Chinese names, their meanings, and the names that they feel would more adequately describe them.
-
Dinner with My Grandmother,
single work
short story
The narrator goes for dinner at his Chinese grandmother's house. After lemon chicken and brandy and cigars, they engage in a Cantonese lesson.
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Dinner with Auntie Ling and Uncle Wang
Dinner with Auntie Wei and Uncle Wang,
single work
short story
humour
fantasy
Tom goes to his aunt and uncle's house for dinner. After dinner, his Uncle Wang, who has been a volunteer in 'neural interfacing research' at a university, starts speaking in the computer programming language C++. Tom has a background in IT, and so attempts to fix his uncle.Note: With title: Dinner with Auntie Ling and Uncle Wang
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The Sound of Music,
single work
short story
fantasy
humour
In a story that strongly references the film The Sound of Music, the narrator is in training to be a nun, but is sent away to care for the children of a Captain von Trapp. The narrator appears to be Tom, the same narrator of the previous stories in Look Who's Morphing. Tom and Captain von Trapp are soon 'having sex and falling in love,' but as the relationship progresses, Tom finds that he is losing his identity and becoming very much like the Captain, even dressing and speaking like him. Wondering 'how do you solve a problem like co-dependency?', Tom returns to the abbey to ask the Mother Superior's advice. The Mother Superior and Tom each share fantasies about The Fonz from the television show Happy Days. Then, following the Mother Superior's advice, Tom decides to go to Switzerland to try to live like Captain von Trapp.
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Learning English,
single work
short story
A surreal account of learning English through lessons and television viewing.
- Today on Dr Phil, single work short story (p. 59-64)
- Chinese Whispers, single work short story (p. 67-73)
- A Counting Rhyme, single work short story (p. 77-78)
- The Bodyguard, single work short story (p. 81-89)
- AIYO! An Evil Group of Ninjas is Entering and Destroying a Call Centre!!!, single work short story humour fantasy (p. 93-95)
-
I, Robot,
single work
short story
science fiction
The narrator decides to follow his mother's example and sign up for a government program that converts low-income earners into robots. Scientists determine that he is best suited to becoming a protocol droid. The only problem is, he also becomes a protocol droid with an anxiety problem. On an assignment at the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, he follows 'in a tradition practised by many other robots and humans in history: that of seeming to go haywire, and then turning on one's masters and what they stand for.'
- My Life in China, single work short story fantasy (p. 111-113)
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Pinocchio,
single work
short story
The narrator explains his year-long disappearance from his girlfriend's life by telling her that he has been unwillingly turned into a Muppet and subsequently spent twelve months appearing as a Muppet penguin on The Muppet Show. She doesn't believe him, and points out many holes in the logic of his story. What's more, she knows that he is lying because his nose has grown very long.
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Look Who's Morphing,
single work
short story
fantasy
Tom morphs into a giant reptile and terrorises the streets of Melbourne. Then he transforms quickly into a range of different people, including television characters such as Dr Quinn from the programme Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, and one of the Village People. In fact, Tom and his brother have been morphing since they migrated to Australia from China, and the morphing is difficult for the family. Tom finds a solution in television viewing.
- Cock Rock, single work short story fantasy (p. 147-178)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also available as an electronic resource
Works about this Work
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Identity Is Cruel : Capital, Gimmick and Surveillance in the Australian Postdiasporic Short Story
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , November no. 69 2021; 'If we were to take recent controversies in the Australian literary scene as an indication of its current priorities, we would—at least on one pronounced level—encounter what can be generally called an ethics of inclusivity for diasporic writers. Regardless of the degrees of sophistication of these debates, their participants appeal to the primacy of diasporic identity—its sheer visibility—as a necessary part of the constitution and imaginary of contemporary literature vis-à-vis the nation’s demographic composition. This call for equity of representation is frequently paired with an emphasis on the labour of diasporic writers in surmounting obstacles for publishing narratives about multicultural life, and the structural biases of literary institutions, cultural awards and (white) critics against diasporic writing. The shared assumption here is that there exists an overlap of inequalities between social and literary worlds. What often remains a moot question is the extent to which disseminating diasporic representation is aligned with models of consumption prediction that are predicated on a direct relationship between institutionally fashionable terms such as diversity and inclusion, and maximising business performance schemes. As Sara Ahmed has observed, diversity is associated with conditions of work which are already promoted by organisations. ‘The story of diversity’, she writes, ‘thus becomes a story of diversity’s inclusion into the terms of an institution’ (9).'(Introduction)
-
Looking Back at Tom Cho’s “Look Who’s Morphing”
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Peril : An Asian-Australian Journal , June no. 24 2016;
— Review of Look Who's Morphing 2009 selected work short story -
Michelle Dicinoski Interviews Tom Cho
Michelle Dicinoski
(interviewer),
2014
single work
interview
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , May no. 15 2014; -
[Essay] : Look Who’s Morphing
2013
single work
essay
— Appears in: Reading Australia 2013-;'Look Who’s Morphing is a series of humorous short fiction stories, playing with issues of identity and pop culture. The humour in the book references pop culture from the 80s onwards, from Sweet Valley High books to David Hasselhof and Godzilla. The stories also question notions of identity, touching on ethnicity, family and gender and their interaction with popular culture. The series of short stories incorporates the fantastic with the real, where, with sardonic humour, characters turn into machines and celebrities, and the narrator is turned into Godzilla and a giant cock rock god. The book provides no easy answers but it leads the reader to question the societal assumptions about race, gender and identity.' (Introduction)
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That Punishing Sense of Lack : Reading and Reviewing 'The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction' in Australia
2011-2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Southpaw , no. 1 2011-2012; (p. 157-163)
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Surreal Search for an Identity
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 23-24 May 2009; (p. 31)
— Review of Look Who's Morphing 2009 selected work short story -
Haiku-Like Restraint
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June no. 312 2009; (p. 44-45)
— Review of Look Who's Morphing 2009 selected work short story ; Why She Loves Him : Stories 2009 selected work short story -
Surreal Journeys of a Morphing Gender Bender
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 21 June 2009; (p. 12)
— Review of Look Who's Morphing 2009 selected work short story -
Becoming What You Watch
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 15 August 2009; (p. 27)
— Review of Look Who's Morphing 2009 selected work short story -
Manic Microcosms
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , September vol. 4 no. 8 2009; (p. 21)
— Review of Why She Loves Him : Stories 2009 selected work short story ; What Came Between 2009 selected work short story ; Little White Slips 2009 selected work short story ; Look Who's Morphing 2009 selected work short story -
Ways of Reading
2009
single work
correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , July-August no. 313 2009; (p. 5) -
Interview with Tom Cho
Hoa Pham
(interviewer),
2009
single work
interview
— Appears in: Peril : An Asian-Australian Journal , May no. 7 2009;Cho discusses the cover of Look Who's Morphing (which features a photograph of the author), the textual 'intrusions' of his presence in the stories, the influence of trends on the stories' pop culture references, and whether short story writing was experiencing a surge of popularity at the time of the interview.
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The Asian Conspiracy : Deploying Voice/Deploying Story
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , October vol. 25 no. 3 2010; (p. 1-19) 'This essay develops on the premise of imagining, which is the heart of story-making: imagine the physicality of story. Imagine the deployment strategies, the covert 'translations' of difference' that facilitate the entry of the Other story through the gate.
And once inside, imagine how this Otherness is legitimised, packaged and consumed within the Australian nation.' (p. 3) -
Interview : Tom Cho
2009
single work
interview
— Appears in: Verandah , no. 24 2009; (p. 39-42) -
‘This Story Does Not Begin on a Boat’ : What Is Australian about Asian Australian Writing?
2011
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 25 no. 4 2011; (p. 503–513) 'With reference to recent debates about the politics of representation, this paper argues that a profound ambivalence about identity, and particularly about Asian Australian identity, is a common characteristic of much recent Asian Australian literary writing. It also asks whether this is the characteristic that marks this writing as specifically Australian. Tracing cultural contexts from the 'pathologies' of Australian multicultural debates to other transnational literary traditions, the paper uses examples from the writing of Brian Castro, Alice Pung, Ouyang Yu, Nam Le, Shaun Tan, and Tom Cho to speculate on the emergence of a new and distinct phase of transnational writing in Australia.' (Author's abstract)
Awards
- 2010 shortlisted South East Asia and South Pacific Region — Best First Book
- 2009 finalist Melbourne Prize — Best Writing Award
- 2009 shortlisted The Age Book of the Year Award — Fiction Prize