Through her travel book (Asian Girls are Going Places), plays (Single Asian Female, the upcoming Miss Peony) and TV series (Homecoming Queens), writer and actor Michelle Law often explores the things that connect us to culture, ancestry and identity.
This is Law’s story about how a small ceramic lion, found in a wooden drawer in southern China, became one of those things. It’s a link to her ancestors, and it also comes in handy for burning incense.
Here is my glazed porcelain lion. He looks quite fierce, and he’s got a little hole in the tip of his tail. That's where you put incense in when you’re praying to your ancestors.
This guy came to me when my brother was doing a documentary for the ABC, Waltzing the Dragon with Benjamin Law. In one episode Ben went to our dad's village in Guangzhou in China. He went to my dad's childhood home – which my dad still actually owns – and the literal room in which my dad was born.
The place is pretty dilapidated. Nobody's living there at the moment. But they found a chest of drawers. And inside the drawers were two lions, a set of miniature teacups – which I think were used for food and drink offerings at the family shrine – and a portrait of our great-grandmother. They were all quite dusty and dirty, but well-preserved. So Ben brought all of these things home to Australia.
Our sister got the portrait of our great-grandmother, the miniature teacups are at our brother’s place. And then Ben and I got one lion each. Mine is on display on shelving in my bedroom – I have him in front of a portrait of my cat, alongside some porcelain horses. Because I like to collect small porcelain animals. He's the most prized because the others I acquired through op-shopping. The lion is an actual piece from the family.
For me, it's like connection to home. It's a symbol of where I've come from and where my family’s come from. When my parents migrated to Australia, I don't think they brought much with them – apart from my grandmother. She was that real physical connection point to China, and to Chinese culture. The more traditional aspects of it, anyway.
Since she’s passed away, and I don't have any grandparents left now in the world, I lost that. So now the lion is a link. It's a reminder of my roots and ritual and family. And yeah, it's priceless.
I haven't attempted any rituals with the lion. But I knew all about them from a young age. My dad would pray to his father late at night. We had a picture of him in our living room, and my dad would do the bowing and do the prayers. Sometimes he'd let me sort of piggyback on him while he was doing that, so I would be bowing physically with him on his back. But I've never done it with the lion before. I think I would need to have photos of my grandparents to do it properly. Give them a good feed and some good chats.
I’ve never been to mainland China, and I don’t see myself going in the foreseeable future. Politically speaking, it's so fraught. It's a connection point I've never really had, and I'm very conscious about that.
Dad’s been trying to sell his childhood home, and I would love to visit before it goes. He has so many stories about the village he grew up in, the fruit trees he would climb. That’s something I've never seen. And the fact I've never been to mainland China is definitely a source of grief.
So this little lion just speaks to my roots. And what I feel is almost physically missing from my life, especially now that my grandparents are all gone. As I've gotten older, I’ve noticed the traditions and rituals they kept alive are now starting to fall by the wayside. It's something I'm conscious of – especially now my sister has a child. I want to instil those sorts of traditions in him as well. Save it for the next generation.
Read more in our Sentimental Value series.
