Back then, there was much stronger pressure to conform to the majority culture than today, when selective schools are heavily dominated by Asian students.

“Now they would be 95 per cent Asian; back then it was 30 per cent, maybe, and so the narrative was still very much ‘Be more Australian’. Certainly, the Chinese Australian kids definitely felt that our Chinese-ness was something that we needed to suppress a little bit,” says Ko, who migrated to Australia from Taiwan at the age of nine.

“We teased each other a lot about being Chinese; we especially bagged out the first-generation Chinese, the parents, the people who spoke with an accent, the people who did really Asian things, those who liked Asian pop culture or stuff that wasn’t mainstream. You really felt that if you didn’t watch cricket and rugby, if you weren’t more Aussie, you were left out.”

Peter Ko

As Chinese New Year 2022 celebrations begin from February 1, Ko believes that Chinese Christians growing up in Australia now have a wonderful opportunity to embrace their bicultural identity for the sake of the gospel.

“I’ve noticed the young people at my church, most of whom are actually Australian born Chinese, but funnily enough they’re more Chinese,” says Ko, who is the lead pastor of South-West Evangelical Church in Sydney, whose members are about two-thirds Chinese and a third Vietnamese.

“All around the world, this idea of being Chinese is something that can be celebrated.”

He says the Chinese Christians who attend his church in Hurstville have grown up speaking Chinese, even though most were born in Australia.

“They’re very bilingual and you can see how Australia has changed in the fact that we’re celebrating Chinese New Year, not just in Chinatown, but Bankstown has its lunar new year festival, Campsie has one, Hurstville has one – Eastwood, you know, it’s just everywhere.

“And all around the world, this idea of being Chinese is something that can be celebrated and, in some areas, you are actually the majority, not the minority. I like to tell people, ‘You don’t have to be ashamed of your ethnicity, whatever that is, whether you’re Chinese, Vietnamese, Lebanese – it doesn’t really matter.’

“Australia is a multicultural environment, especially in the major cities. I know it’s probably hard in regional centres, but in the major cities, you can retain and celebrate your ethnic identity and your cultural identity. You don’t have to assimilate, in the same sense that you have to feel like you have to start liking Vegemite and rugby and cricket.”

For Ko, the key opportunity from this increased ethnic diversity is its impact on church life and the spread of the gospel.

“I grew up in a Chinese church where I think the majority of the people I grew up with couldn’t wait to not be part of a Chinese church. And so they suppressed a lot of their Chinese-ness as well as their Chinese Christianity,” he says.

“And I think it’s only later on in life that they’ve realised that growing up bicultural – even if you don’t speak a word of Chinese – the fact that your parents were migrants or your grandparents were migrants and you grew up straddling different cultures is an incredible advantage for the sake of the gospel.”

“The fact that … you grew up straddling different cultures is an incredible advantage for the sake of the gospel.”

For example, in Canterbury-Bankstown where Ko lives, the three big ethnicities are Chinese, Vietnamese, and Lebanese. And these three ethnicities feel closer to one another than to the majority Anglo culture because they share a common migrant experience.

When Ko started working at a church in Fairfield, he didn’t have any Middle Eastern friends, but he soon realised he felt much more at home with Lebanese Egyptians and Arabic migrants than he did with those he served as a student minister at a very Anglo church.

“Even though I speak English without an accent, I really felt it was more of a culture shock when I preached at a men’s convention at Glen Innes [in the NSW northern tablelands]. That was the biggest cross-cultural experience I’ve ever had.”

“I actually think God has given me these opportunities, and that’s something that I think the Lord can really use, going ahead.”

No longer do Christians who grow up biculturally need to feel like outsiders because, in fact, they are more culturally attuned for cross-cultural ministry than their Anglo Australian peers might be, he says.

“I actually think God has given me these opportunities, and that’s something that I think the Lord can really use, going ahead.”

Asked to articulate the cultural bonds among migrant cultures, Ko identifies an instinctive understanding of cultural codes around treating family elders with respect and being prepared to try different foods.

“For example, our parents have come to a country completely foreign to them, sacrificed so much, worked to the bone for their kids to have a better opportunity,” he notes.

A focus on family rather than individual identity and the bonding that comes from sharing food are also common denominators across almost all migrant communities in Australia, whether Middle Eastern, Asian or African. He also believes there’s something about the dynamic among second-generation migrant Christians that creates a bridge across cultures.

“I think one of the most interesting passages in the Bible is Acts Chapter 11, where the church in Antioch was started by a group of Jews who were in Jerusalem, but where they weren’t native Jews to Jerusalem – they were men from Cyprus and Cyrene.

“There were second-generation Jews, if you like, they were bi-cultural Jews. Whereas it states very clearly in Acts 11 that the Jews in Jerusalem only preached to fellow Jews. It was the bicultural Cyprus and Cyrenian Jews who began speaking to Greeks and Gentiles and that’s when the church in Antioch started.”

“You could invite your Chinese neighbours in and say, ‘Hey, let’s do a potluck thing in my house.”

Ko encourages Christians of all nationalities to use Chinese New Year to reach out to their Chinese friends and neighbours.

“There are a lot of migrants who are dislocated from family, especially if they’re single or even if they’re elderly or don’t speak much English, so Christians are able to use the Chinese New Year or the Asian lunar new year as an opportunity to gather around food,” he says.

“You don’t even have to be Chinese. You could invite your Chinese neighbours in and say, ‘Hey, let’s do a potluck thing in my house. I’m not Chinese, but I know this is important. And why don’t you come and everyone brings a dish?’.

“And if you’re not Chinese, you actually have a real advantage in reaching Chinese people because you can get away with anything, as long as you’re willing to befriend them. They actually feel really honoured that my Anglo neighbour not just wants to know me, but wants to have me over and do a Chinese New Year thing.

“That’s so much about the gospel because no one else is really doing it who’s not Christian. And especially if they are dislocated international students or they’re just lonely elderly, that says so much about the gospel.”