Ozzie obstacles

ERIC Quah arrived in Australia in 1972, at the tail end of the While Australia policy (which officially ended in 1975).

“You can imagine how difficult it was. In Malaysia, I was considered an up-and-coming young artist. In Australia, I had to wash dishes in Chinese restaurants to support myself and was called derogatary names like ‘Chink-Chong’ in the streets. It was like starting all over again,” he says, remembering the period when he painted Struggle (1976).