Tour of duty: how military service impacted Chongwan's sense of identity

World

Defining your identity becomes complicated when you’re called up for military service in a different country. After growing up in Macau, Chongwan Yu returned to South Korea to spend a year and a half in the army.

Now he’s creating a home and a life for himself in Sydney, and navigating his ties to three diverse countries.

"When I think of my hometown, I can’t really think of a place. For example, I don’t recognise Korea as my hometown, nor Macau as my hometown, nor Australia as my hometown."

Supplied

Chongwan Yu and his family when they lived in Macau.

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