I know what you mean by some comparisons being ambiguous. My point is, my mother has some one-eyed views on things and she was horrified that I wanted to change from a European Australian doctor to a Chinese doctor. Some context, though. I say, when it comes to going to the doctor (I know they're fictional doctors), but you can't force a doctor like Doc Martin onto somebody better suited to Kate Rowan from Heartbeat, which was what my mother did to me.

I remember, also, and this comes into context, the day after Anzac Day, 1998, the Sunday Mail had a front-page article that showed two ex-POWs pouring small bottles of XXXX Beer out after Kirin Beer bought a 50% stake in Castlemaine Perkins. My response was, "So what?" And it was a case of the Murdoch media wanting to make a big story, and saying, "Okay, we'll get two, "53 years on, still bitter ex-POWs and say, "What you you think, Guys?"" knowing that it would get a negative response.

I remember, the year before, I was doing my Postgraduate Diploma in History, when a woman in my group said, when discussing Australian History, that her father had been dead for 3.5 years, and up until the day he died, he wouldn't buy anything Japanese.

To shape that into the context of what my mother did when she forced me to see the doctor she knew I didn't like, let's say, a bank manager retired, in 1988. He'd left school and joined the bank, in 1938, and worked there for four years, but was conscripted to serve in World War Two, and, in 1943, the ship on which he was travelling, following some home leave, was torpedoed by the Japanese and he was captured, and he spent two years as a POW. He returned to Australia, and following six months convalescence, left the Army and returned to his job at the bank, but never talked about his experiences or gave any indication of his feelings towards the Japanese. When it came to cars, he swore he'd never have a Japanese one, but he didn't say it to his wife, or to his kids, he kept it to himself. And, he had a 1936 Chevrolet (he couldn't afford anything else) not long after the war, which he later sold and bought an FC Holden, which he later sold and bought an XP Falcon, and he later bought an XB Falcon, then he bought a VK Commodore. On his 65th Birthday, he retired, and a banquet was held for him, and he was presented with a gold Seiko or Citizen watch. He didn't say anything at his banquet and he had the choice of either getting rid of the watch, or keeping it and remembering that it came from his former employer, even if it was Japanese. He opted for the latter, but only wore it on special occasions.

The watch would be a gift from the heart of people who may not have been aware of his circumstances. My mother KNEW that I didn't want to see this particular doctor, but was annoyed when I had a meltdown!

Even though my mother never minded that I liked studying Japanese and had a Japanese pen friend, she couldn't understand why I embraced Japanese so much and had Japanese friends, and other Asian friends. Her rationale when it came to changing doctors, though, was that she'd rather I changed to another European doctor, part of which I think was her being racist. But I will say, it wasn't me wanting to get away from conventional medicine and wanting to drink tiger penis soup or something like that, it was wanting to change from a European doctor who was educated at an Australian university, to a Chinese doctor who was also educated at an Australian university, so, her arguments were baseless, in my view.

Which brings me back to the comparison with the cars. I didn't see changing from a European Australian doctor to a Chinese doctor as being any different to having a Commodore as a company car (i.e. the doctor who was CHOSEN for me by my mother (okay, some people I knew were given a cheque marked "Not exceeding $40,000," and told by their boss to take it to the dealer of their choice, some, I knew, say had the choice of a Commodore or a Falcon (backbench politicians, in Queensland, had the choice of a Commodore, Falcon or Magna) and some were told, "Okay, there's your company car." And in the example, that was a person being told, "Right, there's you company car." (my maternal grandfather, when he retired, had a Valiant, as a company car, and according to my mother, he kicked up a big stink because somebody else was given a company car as part of their retirement, so when my grandfather retired, the company gave him his company Valiant as part of his retirement package. After four years, though, he traded the Valiant, that cost him nothing and was still a good, reliable car, and a comfortable one, in on a later model Valiant, that was temperamental) and when they retired, bought a Japanese vehicle. I knew of many men who served in the war, and knew a few personally, who, if their son, daughter or niece or nephew said, "Dad/Uncle, why don't you, rather than complaining about the cost of fuel, trade your Commodore/Falcon/Valiant in on a little Honda or Toyota?" would reply, "No way! Holden/Ford or Chrysler for me!" My paternal grandfather had mainly Holden cars, apart from a Morris minibus, when my Dad was little, and he had two Falcons, not because he was racist (he wasn't), but because he preferred to support the Australian car industry. If you bought a Japanese car, he'd ride in it, and he did have numerous Japanese purchases, including a stereo, and my aunty had Japanese exchange students and he treated them like his own grandchildren. To me, though, it is not unpatriotic or anti-Australian, or anti-anything, to decide that you want to stop seeing a European Australian doctor and go and see a Chinese doctor, if you feel they would suit you better. And I don't mean because the Australian doctor closes the surgery at 4pm and the Chinese doctor at 6pm, but because you and the European doctor didn't connect but you and the Chinese doctor did, or vice versa.

Despite my meltdown, I did not utter racist language, like the man in North Queensland who refused to see the only doctor on duty because he was Chinese. And there's no reverse racism on my part, either. I mean, I have a few European Australian specialists, but one of the reasons why I prefer to see female doctors and Chinese doctors is that many of the former have been subjected to misogyny (if you saw SBS Insight, a female Asian doctor said that she was thought to be a nurse by a patient, and was even dismissed by patients, who said they didn't want someone Asian to treat them) and a number of the latter have been subjected to racism. Being a marginalised person myself, I feel more comfortable with someone who knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of discrimination (my GP and specialists have been).