David Giang is one of Multicultural NSW’s new Advisory Board members. This is his story.
I grew up in South Vietnam during the war time in 1965. As a young student, I witnessed the chaos from the fall of Saigon to the Communist regime up until the end of the Vietnam war in 1975. Life was so tough during the war that our family was forced to escape Vietnam by boat.
Before we escaped Vietnam, my Dad was a writer, publisher, and editor of the South Vietnamese government’s official daily newspaper. Upon arrival to Perth, WA in late 1979, he established, Chieu Duong, “The Sunrise” – the first and only Vietnamese daily newspaper circulating throughout Australia continuously since 1980.
We started from very humble beginnings, and I, along with all members of my family have united together in helping to build up our traditional family business from a young age, throughout university, post-graduation, and up until the present time.
I was blessed growing up with an interest in literature reading many books about diverse topics from our home library my dad built up since I was a teenager. Even holding the duty as the current managing director of our newspaper today, I have always been a “newspaper boy” through the media ‘s learning journey.
These learnings have guided me through the understanding of history as well as current affairs.
Even though I was born overseas, I am deeply grateful to Australia and to Australians who opened compassionate arms accepting our family and I have always told my children that this is the land that I want to be buried in.
I was fortunate to serve in the Ethnic Affairs Commission back in 1993 as the youngest part-time commissioner for two terms when I was 27 years old. Now after thirty years and not far away from coming to an end of our earthly life, I wish to dedicate my time to the community and contribute to promoting community harmony in the years to come.