How Australians Grew Up Pretending to Be English | Chapter 10 | Razor-Wire Round Our Hearts

Australia, 1956. A twelve-year-old's birthday party falls into shocked silence when a teacup turns out to be "Made in... Japan." In this chapter, "Wogs Begin at Calais…" (Part 2, Chapter 10), we grow up in two places at once: on Australian streets, and in an imagined England of muffins, spinets, thatched cottages and Elizabeth Bennet. In this chapter: The cultural cringe and the colonial hangover of postwar white Australia Inherited prejudice, from British snobbery to Australian attitudes to the Japanese Why Australians, Anglo-Indians and others who loved England were never fully embraced by it A London landlord's furious tirade in 1980 that changed everything Henry Reynolds's argument that Australia never decolonised The England worth keeping: Shakespeare, Keats, Orwell, the BBC and The Lark Ascending Funny, rueful and thoughtful, this is a reflection on identity, belonging, racism and the stories we inherit. Content note: contains strong language and offensive terms in quoted dialogue. More chapters are in the playlist. Subscribe to hear the next one.