Author: Benjamin Cheung

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Intersectionality Matters!

Both Asian Canadians and LGBTQ+ Canadians are facing increasing rates of discrimination and violence

Author:
Tsuba Shima (she/her)

Health is a huge issue when it comes to the Asian diaspora for numerous reasons – cultural barriers, traditional systems of medicine, discrimination, and other factors all play an important role. The discussion that needs to take place with greater prominence is understanding how racialization, gender, and sexual orientation all intersect with each other to better explain and account for variability in health. Tsuba conducts a comprehensive review to examine whether or not such intersectionality matters when examining health disparities. In particular, do conventional health trends regarding racialized settlers in Canada replicate for racialized LGBTQ+ folks, and what implications does this have for future research involving this topic?

Click on the following to reveal the paper (Note: PDF viewer not compatible with some mobile platforms; but it is available for download or to view via mobile PDF viewers)

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Where is “Home?”

But what if home no longer accepts you?

Artist:
Meriwether Morris (they/them)

The idea of belongingness and home can often be an elusive one for diasporic folks. There is the oft-repeated and clichéd trope of existing in a liminal space, frustrated by being simultaneously both and neither. It being a cliché, though, does not stop it from being true. Compounding this struggle is the additional frustration of not knowing how to react when disaster strikes in one’s “heritage home” – does being away from that “home” automatically make one less? Does being away from the crisis take away one’s ability to claim to be? All of this comes down to the diaspora wondering about their obligations and belongingness. All of this is to say, for many in the Asian diaspora, one of the primary questions is, “Where is home?”

Click on the following to reveal the comic and subsequent artist’s statement (Note: PDF viewer not compatible with some mobile platforms; but it is available for download or to view via mobile PDF viewers)

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Culturally sensitive public health care?

[T]hey have bad experience. They feel misunderstood, they feel unheard.

Author:
Ramit Seth रमित सेठ | ਰਮਿਤ ਸੇਠ

“Canada” is a place that consists of numerous cultural groups existing together; but this cultural mixing is also associated with numerous inequities that relate to economic and social power, amongst others. One of the most important challenges that such inequities pose is to figure out how to equitably provide health care to different cultural groups. Access to appropriate health care can be hampered by various factors, including time availability, proximity to transit, language barriers, and cultural misunderstandings. Without ensuring that everyone can have equitable access to good health care, we will always see health disparities between cultural groups emerge. How should we think about some of these issues plaguing the health care system, and what can be done to try to address these issues?

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Click on the following to reveal the podcast’s transcript (Note: PDF viewer not compatible with some mobile platforms; but it is available for download or to view via mobile PDF viewers)

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You should work twice as hard as everyone around you

“…oh you are Persian, so you should get good grades…”

Host:
Sahar Sajjadi سحر سجادي (she/her)

Guest:
Kawa Ada (Afghan heritage; Actor, Writer, Producer; he/him)

The migration experience can often be a very difficult one, and this difficulty can be compounded when one simultaneously experiences multiple axes of oppression: what happens when someone is at the intersection of being a war refugee, from West Asia, and being part of the LGBTQ+ community? Between external and internal racism, homophobia, war trauma, and acculturative stress, there is so much that someone in that position would have to deal with. From the midst of this intersection emerged an individual with endless understanding and insight. Join Sahar and her guest, Kawa, as they explore various cultural issues that West Asian diaspora face in Canada. There is perhaps no better way to set up this entry’s question with Sahar’s own: What does it mean to be a human, and what does it mean to live your truth?

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Click on the following to reveal the podcast’s transcript (Note: PDF viewer not compatible with some mobile platforms; but it is available for download or to view via mobile PDF viewers)

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Filipino Media Representation and Colonial Mentality

“Most of us are expatriates right here in our own land. America is our heartland whether we get to go there or not.” – Conrado de Quiros

Author:
Gabrielle Abando

The Philippines is an infinitely diverse country with a rich precolonial and postcolonial history. Notably, though, the several centuries of colonization inevitably left their indelible mark on the Philippines in things like beef caldereta, champorado, and spamsilog. As benign as those examples might be, colonialism had more insidious effects, most notably affecting the psychology of the local population. This effect, more generally referred to as a colonial mentality, has impacted consequential aspects of life including standards of beauty, social stratification that prizes Whiteness, migratory aspirations, and Western idealization. In considering these issues, Gabrielle presents a research proposal to address a greatly important question: To what extent do second-generation North American Filipino diaspora identify with media about Filipinos and how does this facilitate distance or proximity to their Filipino ethnic identities?

Click on the following to reveal the paper (Note: PDF viewer not compatible with some mobile platforms; but it is available for download or to view via mobile PDF viewers)

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A Life Coloured by Expectations

Hidden Behind Colours: Art Piece & Reflection on the Impact of Cultural Identity on Mental Health

Artist:
Nichole Hui Ping Goh (she/hers)

Humans, being a social species, all live while subject to societal expectations; but the extent to which people are constrained in society by expectations are often indicative of their marginalization. This combination of repressive expectations, constraints, and marginalization can have strong negative impact on one’s mental health. Through her art piece, Goh uses different panels to speak to the multifaceted nature of the pressures that society places onto nonya/nyonya, an identity that places Goh (and others like her) at the intersection of Malaysian and Peranakan identities. Between societal pressures, family pressures, and internalized pressures, Goh’s piece speaks to the pervasive and all-encompassing nature of repressive societal expectations, and the damage that can do. This leads to a bigger question – how do we break this cycle?

Click on the following to reveal the artwork (Note: PDF viewer not compatible with some mobile platforms; but it is available for download or to view via mobile PDF viewers)

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Voices of Queer Asian Canadians

Voices of Queer Asian Canadians: Identity and Belonging for the Queer Asian Diaspora in Vancouver

Author:
Alger Liang 梁家傑

Queerness is a set of identities that many individuals in Asian diasporic communities still face barriers over due to a combination of the perceived clashes between queerness and Asian cultural traditions/concepts, and a lack of understanding/discussion on the part of friends, families, and family members from older generations. This is compounded by the racism that queer Asian Canadians experience in the face of a predominantly White queer scene in Canada, compelling queer Asian Canadians to create communities by themselves for themselves. Read as Liang summarizes some important themes underlying three queer Asian Canadians’ experience as they explore what it means to be a queer Asian for them. “Identity” is a complex issue, especially when it exists at the intersection of multiple dimensions of marginalization. Can better understanding of these intersections allow for a better equipped society to helping each other achieve liberation?

Click on the following to reveal the paper (Note: PDF viewer not compatible with some mobile platforms; but it is available for download or to view via mobile PDF viewers)

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Forming identity as a Filipino Canadian

We need people who won’t give up on our country

Artist:
Anonymous

Identity formation is a difficult process for members of the diasporic community, including the Filipino diasporic community. As the anonymous artist discusses, there are a lot of dynamics to consider – Am I abandoning people from the Philippines? To what extent do I embody a Canadian versus Filipino identity? How do people think about my English – is it too Filipino-accented for me to sound Canadian, or is it too Canadian-accented for me to sound Filipino? Ultimately, the big question is “Who am I?” While it’s a cliché to talk about this question, it’s a cliché precisely because of how commonplace it is. The anonymous artist decided to use a novel medium to explore all these ideas, and to ask a very important question – in the Filipino context, how might the interplay of colonial and nativist influences affect the experience of acculturation among Filipinos migrating to another context with an interplay between a different colonial influence, progressivism, and cultural protectionism?

Click on the screenshot to access the Instagram account

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It’s a lifestyle

It doesn’t really feel like taking medicine to me

Hosts:
Cynthia Chen 陳霈詠 (they/them)
Claudia Fu 符藴楓

Guest:
Andre Shih (Taiwanese heritage; TCM Herbalist, Accupuncturist)

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is widely practiced among people from East Asia; but using TCM is often seem as being in opposition to Western medicine. When does one use TCM, and when does that same person use Western medicine? The most difficult part of this question is the fact that TCM encompasses so many facets of one’s life – it’s not just about being sick, but more about being healthy in general. It also creates a lot of identity clashes, and for many Asian Canadians, it brings up issues of the Model Minority Myth and having to choose one culture to abide by. And how do these things get wrapped up in racism? And does it have to be a zero-sum choice? Listen to Chen and Fu as they unpack their own experiences. They also interview Andre Shih, a TCM Herbalist and Accupuncturist operating out of Vancouver, who answers questions about the challenges of being a TCM practitioner in Canada. Ultimately, knowing how important TCM is to vast numbers of diaspora in Canada, how can we re-envision the landscape of healthcare regarding TCM’s relationship with Western medicine?

Download here

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Con người có tổ có tông – Humans have origins

Như cây có cội như sông có nguồn – Like trees have roots, like rivers have headwater

Hosts:
YoungJi Kim 김영지
Tommy Nguyễn 阮武風

Guest:
Tiêu Kiến Vinh (Vietnamese heritage)

Surprise! Not all Asians are the same! (As if that even needed highlighting). As Kim and Nguyen discuss with their guest, it becomes abundantly clear that there is direso much heterogeneity among Asian commnities. North vs. South Korea, North vs. South Vietnam, heritage individuals vs. diasporic individuals, first generation settlers vs. multigenerational settlers, those who settled directly from the homeland to Canada vs. those who settled elsewhere first. All of these distinctions undoubtedly have an impact one’s identity formation and experiences of cultural adaptation. Take a listen as to how the different identities and experiences of the podcast’s discussants are brought to bear in this frank and interesting discussion. More importantly, the discussants challenged each other on disagreements, yielding an hour of conversation that covers so much ground. This certainly leads to a much broader question – with all this complexity inherent in cultural identities, how should we talk about and represent identities in a way that is inclusive, but not tokenizing?

Download here

Click on the following to reveal the artist’s statement (Note: PDF viewer not compatible with some mobile platforms; but it is available for download or to view via mobile PDF viewers)

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