Reminiscing: Confucius has closed

Confucius has closed, originally uploaded by traffman.

Confucius was a little Chinese restaurant in Kings Cross. It never occurred to me to eat there because it reminded me of a low-grade Chinese restaurant, the type you find in country towns. But its closure has me reminiscing.

Chinese restaurants first began appearing in Australia in the 1950s. Australia in the 1950s was a very different place to today. Meat and three veg was the staple diet, immigration was something to be feared - not celebrated - and a large proportion of the population lived in a regional or non-urban setting. Despite the advent of the White Australia policy and subsequent ‘yellow peril’ hysteria, there seemed to be one Chinese family in every town, who would own the one 'international' restaurant. Albury, the country town where I grew up, was no exception.

I have fond memories driving empty single-lane highways with my father throughout regional New South Wales and Victoria, knowing that no matter what town we end up in, it would have a (nearly always empty) Chinese restaurant waiting for us, serving such cultural delicacies as sweet-and-sour, chow mein and, best of all, deep-fried ice cream. I cringe at the thought of eating these foods today, and, it seems, so do my neighbours, as the closure of Confucius illustrates.

These restaurants demonstrate sheer entrepreneurialism. Men and women moved their families into foreign, remote and unwelcoming environments, and established a business in the hope of creating a new, more prosperous and enjoyable life.

In the urban and self-consciously evolved society that is contemporary Australia, it is easy to dismiss our first taste of international cuisine as pure cultural cringe. But I am grateful to our first international restaurants and the people that ran them, because they helped establish the rich culinary landscape that Australia enjoys today.

Without chow mein, we may never have had Kylie Kwong, and for that we should be eternally grateful.

Thinking: Arts in the USA

I was surprised to learn that the United States doesn't have any representation of Arts at the Senate or federal level. Although this is the land of Paris, Britney, Miley, and many other "artists" who have saturated the world's airwaves knows on a first-name basis, it is also home to one of the world's most dynamic contemporary arts scenes, particularly in Los Angeles and Miami, and, of course, the stalwart that is New York.

With Barack Obama's imminent inauguration, the calls to introduce a Secretary of the Arts are becoming increasingly loud. Arts advocates see Obama - who is said to be the most depicted president-elect in US history and has an iPod stocked with artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Jay-Z, John Coltrane and Bruce Springsteen - as their greatest chance in decades to make this happen.

Although we in Australia are not seen as being particularly cultured (despite our self-view - perhaps this is the very symbol of being uncultured; when we think we are despite evidence to the contrary), we have federal arts representation sitting within the menagerie of responsibilities under the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. The Arts component is mainly responsible for literature, film, indigenous arts and administering tax incentives.

It is hoped that a US Secretary of the Arts will be able to increase awareness of America's diverse arts amongst its own people, as well as administer grants, educate young people on art history

However with the country in the midst of an economic crisis, the possibility of Obama adding a new bureaucracy, no matter how committed to the arts he is, seems unlikely.