A Poet on the Crossroad: A Reading into the Migrant Experience In Ouyang Yu’s Selected Poems

The overwhelming scores of migration have reoriented the formative foundation of Australian society by reconceptualising multiculturalism as the national identity of the country. The multifarious identity has eventually led to the inception of migrant literature, an indisputable compilation. Among the many, Chinese Australian literature is challenging the existing paradigm of Australian Literature by being vocal in recounting the migrant experiences of the Chinese population in Australia. Chinese Australian poet and author Ouyang, Yu, whose dissenting voice and writing style is testing new waters in the literary world of Australian poetry. The present paper is an attempt to address the preoccupied question of national identity of Australia by divulging more into the workings of the entangled cross- cultural psychic of the Chinese immigrants. Ouyang’s poems will provide a genuine ground to unravel more on the concept and nature of multiculturalism. So that one can deduce whether the multicultural image that Australia is proclaiming across the globe is a fact or a facade