Overview
November 2015: The past three years have seen steady progression in Austin Wang’s busy life. He's a confident and very sporty boy. He loves chicken flavoured chips, Chinese food, McDonald's Happy Meals, and tuna sushi. His favourite colours are blue, green, and black.
An expanding family
Austin’s 3-year-old sister, Yolanda, is increasingly becoming part of his life. They play together and, as her older brother, Austin is expected to look out for her.
Austin now has all his grandparents in New Zealand, after his father’s parents also immigrated. He and Yolanda spend a lot of time with their grandparents. Both pairs of grandparents live nearby. Austin’s parents drop him off at school and a grandparent will walk home with him. Grandparents then look after him and Yolanda until their parents arrive home from work.
School
Two years ago, Austin started at Point View School, Howick, Auckland. He loves it and has lots of friends. Austin’s parents want him to excel and he is doing so, having received merit awards for effort, reading, and maths. He uses an iPad at school.
Free time
Austin likes maths and happily plays maths games on his computer in his own time. He also plays on Moshi Monsters – a website aimed at children aged 6 to 12 where children choose one of six virtual pet monsters. They name, customise, and nurture them, and navigate them around Monstro City.
On TV, Austin watches the Cartoon Channel and Disney XD (a United States digital cable and satellite TV channel). He also enjoys watching basketball and rugby games with his dad. Big Hero 6 (2014) was a favourite movie.
After dinner in the summer he often goes to the park to ride his scooter.
Sporting activities
Austin loves sport, especially soccer. He belongs to Bucklands Beach AFC and in winter played for the Piranhas, and was named Player of the Year. In summer, he plays for a team named Athletico Madrid.
Austin also plays basketball and table tennis and attends weekly swimming lessons. He holds a green belt in taekwondo (a Korean martial art), and likes riding his bike.
A keen collector
Austin collects Disney Pixar dominos (a Countdown supermarket giveaway), Blockheads (a Z Energy petrol station giveaway), and Pikachu cards. He has three Pokémon sets (trading cards based on a videogame) – a set his mother bought when in China in 2015, a set that he got for Christmas 2014, and a Dragon Bay set.
Cultural activities
Austin’s parents want Austin to know about his Chinese heritage. He is part of a Chinese language and cultural group, is fluent in Mandarin and English, and knows a few words of Korean and Japanese. He has also started learning the piano.