Qin Qin
Model Minority Gone Rogue
“Model Minority Gone Rogue is about finding yourself against the expectations your parents, society and gender set out for you and courageously venturing into uncharted terrain ... It is illuminating, generous and full of gutsy hard-won wisdom.”
Hachette Australia, 2024
We all grow up with rules. Do this, be this, don't be that. Qin Qin was all about the rules: do your homework, be good, don't rock the boat. She was the model daughter, model student and model minority.
But doing everything right? It made her lost and miserable. So she decided to take a spectacular risk and change everything.
At 23, Qin Qin was an unhappy overachiever working for a prestigious law firm. So she quit. She didn't know what else was out there, but she wanted to find out. She changed paths, changed countries, changed her entire view of what the world could be, and who she could be - with some primal screaming and tree-hugging along the way.
In the process, she discovered the person she truly was, not who she thought she should be.
Model Minority Gone Rogue is a funny, sad, exhilarating and thought-provoking true story about what happens when you want to live life on your own terms, even when those terms go against everything you've ever known. It's a story of what happens when you choose love over fear and honour your authentic self: life can be bigger and brighter than anything you had ever imagined.
About the Author
Qin Qin was born in Southwest China and grew up in Canberra as a first-generation Chinese Australian. She began her career as a model minority poster child at five-years-old. By 29, she was a Harvard graduate with four degrees working for UNICEF.
After a quarter-life crisis, Qin Qin realised life wasn't an exam to ace and veered off-script. That gave her the courage to pursue her own path. She was recognised for her work and named a 40 under 40: Most Influential Asian Australian in 2020 and a past winner of the Young Australia China Alumni of the Year Award.
Qin Qin now lives in Canberra with her husband James and golden retriever Oprah. After recovering from an internet and technology addiction, Lisa rediscovered her love of writing. She was shortlisted for Penguin Australia's 2021 Write It Fellowship and received a residency at Varuna The National Writers' House in 2023.
Qin Qin continues to unlearn social expectations, heal from trauma and limiting beliefs, and to figure out what she is doing with her life. Her life mission is to live consciously with love, towards a more peaceful and sustainable world.
