About Me — Amalina Davis

The concept of identity eluded me for twenty years.

Culturally ambiguous. Photo by author

I was born to an English father and a Malay mother.

I grew up in Malaysia, in a conservative Muslim neighbourhood.

Malaysia was home, but I never felt like I truly belonged.

My fair skin, brown hair and sharp nose stood out from the crowd.

For as long as I could remember, people always stared at me and asked me where I came from.

I didn’t look Malaysian, but my perfect Malay baffled them.

First Saw The World

At 18, I left for Sydney, Australia to go to university.

I studied Chemical Engineering and Business Management.

Coming from a family of scientists, a biochemist dad, a biotechnologist mum and a physicist brother, I was also expected to pursue something in the “hard sciences”. I didn’t want to do the “hard sciences”, so we settled for engineering.

Note: I later on realised that this was an Asian thing — that your parents have a say in what you choose to do in life.

The degrees were the smallest part of my education.

What I really got from living in Australia was a lesson in the life I wanted to…