Author and illustrator Shaun Tan's childhood in suburban Perth during the early 1980s, marked by frequent boredom, served as a significant source of inspiration for his artistic work. He described his home suburb of Hillarys as a "nowhere sort of place" where he would explore and imagine, encountering peculiar elements that fueled his creativity.
Tan has authored and illustrated 14 books and provided artwork for many others. He received an Oscar award for a short film adaptation of his book, "The Lost Thing." Recently, another of his works, "Tales from Outer Suburbia" (2008), has been adapted into an animated series for ABC iview. This book directly draws from the observations and fantasies of his childhood suburb.
His work often focuses on imbuing everyday experiences with unique significance, often featuring bizarre elements presented without fanfare, such as deep-sea divers visiting a milk bar or sparkling goldfish in the night sky. Tan prefers surrealism to fantasy, believing that ordinary things possess inherent strangeness. He states that he is "always wary of fantasy, because it can sort of spin off into something that feels detached and dreamlike."
Tan's stories frequently address themes of belonging and displacement, stemming from his experiences as a half-Asian child in a predominantly white community. He typically uses child protagonists, whom he views as more open to curiosity, aiming for his work to bridge childhood curiosity with adult perception.
The inspiration to write about his suburban upbringing was partly sparked by fellow Perth writer Tim Winton, who demonstrated that local landscapes could be as significant as any other setting in literature. Tan's work consistently draws from the suburban landscape, even when narratives are set in different contexts, and he encourages readers to develop their own interpretations.