MasterChef’s Poh Ling Yeow reveals she’s ‘never really identified with being female or Asian’

MasterChef star Poh Ling Yeow has sat down for a candid chat with the ABC this week, to talk all things identity on Stan Grant’s One Plus One

The 47-year-old cook spoke about migrating from Malaysia to Australia as a nine year old, before saying that she never wanted to be defined when talking about her identity. 

‘I’ve never really identified with being female or Asian or anything, I really just want to do interesting things,’ Poh said. 

Candid: MasterChef’s Poh Ling Yeow revealed that she’s ‘never really identified with being female or Asian’ in a candid sit-down interview with the ABC this week

‘I think being in the media, it’s something I really fought hard to break down… people will think that they like you and they’re very quick to decide why without really digging deep.’ 

Poh said that with her job, she’s usually ‘steered towards’ projects around her looks. 

‘I’m like, “you don’t understand, I’m not your person for Chinese New Year, I’m like the worst Asian. I don’t speak any Asian languages.”

Poh said she used to feel ‘cultural guilt about that,’ but is now happy and proud of her story, having migrated to Australia at the age of nine. 

‘I’m really comfortable with that now, being a product of what my parents have done, they bought me here, I’m a migrant, I love a lot of my culture but I don’t feel an impulse to identity hugely with it,’ she said. 

She added: ‘For me, its all about moving forward and about creativity and absorbing what’s around me.’

Identity: Poh said that with her job, she's usually 'steered towards' projects around her looks. 'I'm like, "you don't understand, I'm not your person for Chinese New Year, I'm like the worst Asian. I don't speak any Asian languages," she said

Identity: Poh said that with her job, she’s usually ‘steered towards’ projects around her looks. ‘I’m like, “you don’t understand, I’m not your person for Chinese New Year, I’m like the worst Asian. I don’t speak any Asian languages,” she said

Poh said that while growing up, she didn’t ‘like the way she looked.’

She said she ‘never experienced much racism’ when she came to Australia, but instead, ‘felt different’ and it was all ‘self-imposed.’     

‘I felt completely alien,’ Poh said. 

‘I remember lining up at the tuck shop and seeing a blonde girl with freckles and blue eyes eating a Sunny Boy… she had blonde arms hairs that were golden,’ Poh said.  

‘I remember thinking… “I will never be that.” 

'I felt completely alien': Poh said that while growing up, she didn't 'like the way she looked.' She said she 'never experienced much racism' when she came to Australia, but instead, 'felt different' and it was all 'self-imposed'

‘I felt completely alien’: Poh said that while growing up, she didn’t ‘like the way she looked.’ She said she ‘never experienced much racism’ when she came to Australia, but instead, ‘felt different’ and it was all ‘self-imposed’

Poh, who is a fifth-generation Chinese Malaysian, has previously spoke about wanting to reconnect to her culture after moving to Australia as a child and going by the name of Sharon and trying to fit in. 

‘I did such a great job of shedding everything that made me feel different that in my early thirties I had nothing,’ Poh told Business Insider Australia back in 2014, before saying she ‘got a little bit scared’.

‘I thought if I have children I have nothing of my heritage to pass on to them and so I thought I really need to reconnect with my culture.

Cultural reconnect: Poh, who is a fifth-generation Chinese Malaysian, has previously spoke about wanting to reconnect to her culture after moving to Australia as a child and going by the name of Sharon and trying to fit in

Cultural reconnect: Poh, who is a fifth-generation Chinese Malaysian, has previously spoke about wanting to reconnect to her culture after moving to Australia as a child and going by the name of Sharon and trying to fit in

‘And food is such a natural fit for me, I love cooking, I’m just so driven with food.’

But in 2015, she told SBS Australia how she fell in love with Australia, when she migrated from Malaysia.  

‘When we arrived in Australia, I loved everything. I was just immediately besotted with this country,’ she said.

‘From waking up to the warbling of magpies, the smell of eucalyptus… I thought even the street signs looked beautiful!’

She added: ‘I just immediately felt at home here and never looked back.’

'I felt at home and never looked back': But in 2015, she told SBS Australia how she fell in love with Australia, when she migrated from Malaysia

‘I felt at home and never looked back’: But in 2015, she told SBS Australia how she fell in love with Australia, when she migrated from Malaysia