For Sydney-based composer Christine Pan, music is more than an arrangement of sounds. It is memory. It is code. It is identity, inheritance, investigation – even a form of resistance.

On 27–28 June, the Sydney-based composer will unveil The Parts We Give, a new hybrid work blending edgy electronic pop, opera, song cycle, video gaming and lived experience into an exploration of Asian-Australian family dynamics as seen through the eyes of siblings faced with the thorny terrain of expectation, independence and duty.

Christine Pan. Photo © Ester Maria

The Parts We Give comes from a personal place, Pan tells Limelight. “It’s not autobiographical, but it is emotionally honest. It started off as a seedling of a concept, exploring the nuances of love in a Chinese-Australian home. That was back in 2023, when I was just starting to unpack those conversations within my own family.”

That “unpacking” inspired Pan to research more deeply. “I went to local libraries in Chatswood, Eastwood and Parramatta. I was reading tons of archival material. I found that the Australian-Chinese diaspora experienced similar things on a community-wide level. Values such as reciprocity and...