Cabramatta: A Suburb Displaying Asian Culture in Australia

Running Head: Cabramatta
Cabramatta
Essay
System04104
1/10/2019

Cabramatta
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Cabramatta
Cabramatta is a suburb in South-Western Sydney, located in New South Wales in Australia
and one of the best places that display Asian culture in Australia. The story begins when
Australian prime minister opened the door of Australia for thousands of Vietnamese refugees
at the end of the Vietnam War. In the 1980s and 1990s, there were few incidents of street
gangs and the Vietnamese people are vilify and demonised (Noffs, 2016). Cabramatta
supports to represent all that is wrong with Asian immigration. In the late 1990s, this place
had the wrong reputation because it was a point of drug dealing but after 2002, this problem
has been ended when NSW state parliament enforced the anti-drug law in the region (Flux,
2017).
There are large numbers of Asian people (especially Vietnamese people) lives in Cabramatta,
and thus it is popularly known as ‘Cabra’. One of the major cons of these area is that the
population demographics of Cabramatta include large numbers of people who belong to
Vietnamese Australian or Chinese Australian, thus the major businesses and shops are
operated by these people and no other people involves in the Cabramatta business area. Thus,
people usually say that it is the suburb that represents gourmand destinations for both the
cuisines (Chinese and Vietnamese). Cabramatta is a place of all types of Asian and European
peoples in the late 20th century (Jakubowicz, 2015). Then after Cabramatta has been a centre
for the Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, and some other European people. A large number of
people from Asian countries live in Cabramatta where most of the people belong to Vietnam,
China, and Cambodia follows Buddhism culture and their ethics while the Indian people
worship Hindu God and Goddess (Kałuski, 2017).
Fig. 1 ‘Welcome to Cabramatta’ sign that show the unity of Asian people and their diverse
culture.

Cabramatta
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Fig. 1 Figure shows that Cabramatta is a mix of Asian culture, where a person can experience
Indian, Chinese, and Vietnamese culture. This is the holding on the entrance of Cabramatta,
which shows that the city represents the Asian culture and celebrating different diversity in
the region. This picture shows the domination of Asian communities in that area and they
also give a message through this is they are unite and show the different culture and ethics of
the Asian people.
Fig. 2 Gateway or Pai Lau in Cabramatta represents different culture of Asian countries by a
message “the world is for us to share and respect” with some animals sculpture.
The gateway is titled and ornamented with a pedestrian stroll and covered by a tree that has
bushes growing in large oriental tubs. In the lower part of the gateway, there are two bronze
dragons and some animals can be easily depicted. The gateways represent the different
culture of Asia including that represents Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian
culture and English inscriptions (Castillo and Hirst, 2010). This place provides maximum
jobs for the Vietnamese and Asian people, and even the shops are operated by the people who
belong to Vietnam and other Asian countries. The negative side of this place is that only
those people get jobs who are Asian or Vietnamese.
The front view of the gateway shows a message that is “the world is for us to share and
respect” that shows the liberty and democracy of Asian culture. This palace also includes a
smart shopping centre. One can also view the ‘Little Saigon' in the Cabramatta.