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Hsu-Ming Teo Hsu-Ming Teo i(A50491 works by)
Born: Established: 1970
c
Malaysia,
c
Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia, ;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1977
Heritage: Malaysian Chinese
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BiographyHistory

Hsu-Ming Teo moved to Castle Hill, Sydney at the age of seven. Upon leaving school she began studying Medicine but changed to Arts in her second year of university. She has tutored at both Macquarie University and the University of Sydney, where she was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1998 on the subject of British women's travel writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She has taught postcolonial studies at the University of Southern Denmark and in 2001 through 2006 worked as a research fellow at the Department of Modern History, Macquarie University. With Richard White, Teo edited the social history anthology Cultural History in Australia (2003).

In 1999, Dr Teo's novel Love and Vertigo won the Australian/Vogel Literary award for a first novel by a writer under thirty five. Published in 2000, the novel is about immigration and an exploration of family history in the wake of the death of the protagonist's mother, the story moving between Singapore, Malaysia and Australia.

In 2010, Dr Teo was appointed one of the judges for the Man Asian Literary Prize.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Author writes in these languages:ENGLISH

Personal Awards

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Behind the Moon Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2005 Z1201374 2005 single work novel (taught in 8 units)

'Justin Cheong, Tien Ho and Nigel Gibbo' Gibson have been best friends since school in a world divided along ethnic lines into skips, wogs and slopes. Together they've survived a suburban tragedy, compulsory karaoke nights and Justin's mother's obsession with clean toilets. They thought they would always be there for each other but they hadn't counted on the effects of jealousy, betrayal, and their desire to escape themselves.

'Ho Ly-Linh, Tien's mother, wasn't around for much of Tien's childhood. Left behind in a rapidly changing Vietnam, she risked everything to follow her family to Australia. Having spent so much of this dangerous journey alone, she is ready now to find love. On Saturday, 6 September 1997 they all meet at the Cheongs' house for the first time in years because Princess Diana is dead and their mothers have decided to hold a Dead Diana Dinner to watch the funeral on television. Nobody realises just how explosive this dinner will be, or how complicated life is going to get.

'This is a story of three families' discovery of the meaning of love and friendship.' [Source: publisher's website]
2006 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Multicultural NSW Award
y separately published work icon Love and Vertigo St Leonards : Allen and Unwin , 2000 Z514595 2000 single work novel (taught in 4 units)

'For the first time in my life, I saw my mother in relation to her family, and I didn't recognise her any more . . . These Singaporean roots of hers, this side of her—and possibly of me too—were unacceptable. I was determined not to belong, not to fit in, because I was Australian, and Mum ought to be Australian too. The tug of her roots, the blurring of her role from wife and mother to sister and aunt, angered me.

'On the eve of her mother's wake, Grace Tay flies to Singapore to join her father and brother and her mother's family. Here she explores her family history, looking for the answers to her mother's death. This beautiful and moving novel steps between Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia, evoking the life, traditions, and tastes of a forceful Chinese family as well as the hardship, cruelty, and pain. Written in a fresh, contemporary voice tinged with biting humor, this is a story about resilience and a story about migration, but in many ways it is a story about parents' expectations for their children.' (Publication summary)
1999 winner The Australian / Vogel National Literary Award (for an unpublished manuscript)
2001 commended The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist of the Year
VIEW ALL AWARDS
Last amended 1 Sep 2010 17:53:55
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