Helene Chung Martin

Helene Chung Martin, journalist and author, is a former Beijing correspondent, the first female posted abroad by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). She is an honorary research fellow at Monash Asia Institute, Melbourne, and the author of "Shouting from China, Gentle John My Love My Loss, Lazy Man in China "and, a new memoir published by ABC Books," Ching Chong China Girl".

Ching Chong China Girl
From fruitshop to foreign correspondent

'Ching Chong Chinaman' girls taunted Helene Chung in her Catholic school playground. An Australian-born Chinese growing up in 1950s Tasmania, Helene not only dealt with being different from her blonde-haired, blue-eyed classmates but suffered the shame of having divorced parents. And she kept a shocking secret – her mother, Miss Henry, was a nude model, who also lived in sin with a foreign devil and drove a red MG.

Surviving the embarrassment of childhood, Helene discovered the thrill of the theatre, fell into journalism and travelled the world. She became the first non-white reporter on Australian TV and the first female posted abroad by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"Ching Chong China Girl" is a memoir filled with honesty, humour, love and loss, and gives insight into life that traverses cultures East and West.

Lazy Man In China "Lazy Man in China" is the story of China over two decades – its transition from Old Communism to New Capitalism – intertwined with the love story between Helene and her late partner, John Martin. John is the self-dubbed lazy man employed at the Australian Embassy in Beijing. His witty, perceptive, self-deprecating letters to family and friends have inspired a book interwoven with ninety colour photographs of China past and present.

Background

Born in Hobart, Helene Chung is a fourth-generation Tasmanian Chinese, the younger daughter of Dorothy Henry and Charles Chung. In the 1880s her maternal great-grandfather left the southern Chinese county of Taishan (or Toishan) for the tin mines of northern Tasmania where, like so many around him, he became an opium addict. His son, Helene's grandfather, had no time for the pipe. He worked tirelessly in the tin fields and elsewhere, establishing himself as a fruit merchant, head of Hobart's Henry & Co. Helene's paternal grandfather came from neighbouring Xinhui (or Sunwei) County, began as a market gardener in Hobart and also became a fruit merchant, in partnership with Ah Ham & Co. and with his own firm, Chung Sing & Co.

Helene attended St Mary’s College and graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and a Master of Arts in history. On campus she spent most time cavorting about on stage or directing plays for the Old Nick Company. One of her most memorable roles was that of a strangely un-erotic Lysistrata for the Old Nick.

Journalism

Her first interview, on a claimed sighting of the extinct Tasmanian tiger, was broadcast on the ABC radio program "AM" in 1968. As a freelancer for three years overseas, in Singapore, Hong Kong, London and Cairo, in 1971 she made headlines with the first radio interview granted by HRH The Princess Anne. Back with the ABC, she joined "This Day Tonight" in 1974, so becoming the first non-white reporter on Australian television. In 1976 Helene interviewed her former university classmate, history lecturer John Martin, who became the love of her life. The first woman posted abroad by the ABC, as Beijing correspondent 1983-1986, she also freelanced for BBC, CBS, Hong Kong radio, NPR and NZBC.

Writing

* "Shouting From China", Penguin Books, Melbourne, 1988, tells of her adventures and tribulations as a foreign correspondent. A 1989 edition includes her coverage of the democracy demonstrations.
* John Martin's death from cancer in 1993 prompted her emotional outpouring in "Gentle John My Love My Loss", Hill of Content, Melbourne, 1995.
* "Lazy Man in China", [http://www.pandanusbooks.com.au/item.php?searchterm=PB50B Pandanus Books] , Canberra, 2004.
* "Ching Chong China Girl", [http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9780733322914 ABC Books] , Sydney, 2008.

References

* Significant Tasmanian Women: [http://www.women.tas.gov.au/significantwomen/search/helene_chung.html Helene Chung] .
* [http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.edu.au/henry.htm Tasmanian Tin Miners, Addicts and Merchants] : Helene Chung Martin's account of her unconventional family background.
* ABC Around the World, [http://abc.net.au/aroundtheworld/content/temp_china.htm History of ABC Foreign Reporting in China] .

External links

* [http://www.helenechung.com Helene Chung Martin's homepage] .
* Booked Out Speakers Agency: [http://www.bookedout.com.au/authors/Helene_Chung/index.html Helene Chung] .
* Some of the 90 colour photos, reviews and an excerpt: [http://www.pandanusbooks.com.au/addenda.php?searchterm=PB50B "Lazy Man in China" photos] .
* Robyn William's Ockham's Razor, 16 January 2005, Transcript of [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1266694.htm Talk by Helene Chung Martin] .
* ABC Overnights, Audio and summary of [http://www.abc.net.au/overnights/stories/s1248835.htm Peter Blight interviewing Helene Chung Martin] .
* Melbourne Chinese Studies Group Meeting with Chinese diplomat-defector [http://webdiary.com.au/cms/?q=node/734 Chen Yonglin and Others chaired by Helene Chung Martin] .
* The Tasmanian Chungs from Xinhui [http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.edu.au/jca/issue02/14WuGao.html including Helene Chung's paternal grandfather] .
* [http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.edu.au/jca/issue02/14Englishtrans.html Travel record of Helene Chung's paternal grandfather] .