Category: ACAM 320B

Posted on

Other(ed) Body At Home

A myth of the yellow body

Creators:
Royce Uy

The migration process is often hopeful one for everyone involved; but it is also often mired with obstacles – obstacles that have more to do with how others see them than anything that the migrants have done. Over time, the racialization of Asians has come to be intricately entangled with the model minority myth, which has driven wedges between Asians and other racialized minorities, and sometimes even among Asian communities. This is then also complicated by notions of racial essentialism tinged with queerphobia based on contemporary conservative notions of gender and sexuality. Royce’s collection of poems speaks to all of these phenomena, and invites the reader to think about discrimination both from outside and inside of Asian diasporic communities, especially from an intersectional perspective. What kinds of images and emotions do these pomes evoke in your mind?

Posted on

Cultural (Re)connection

[W]hat does it mean to have a seat at the table, when the table itself is on unceded land?

Creators:
Julianna Yue 余美鳳 (she/hers)

Identity, when achieved, gives us a sense of self; a sense of wholeness. Sometimes we are given an identity; but sometimes we have to find it, and other times still we need to reconnect with it. The process of finding/reconnecting with that identity can be a messy, clumsy, brave, and beautiful process all in one because along the way, we learn things, meet people, and emerge with a sense of ourselves that we never could have imagined before. Across two pieces, Julianna opens up about her continuing journey of reconnecting with her Métis-Cree heritage, discovering things about her Chinese heritage, and figuring out what it means to be Chinese-Indigenous in the context of so-called Canada – whether it’s through beautiful Métis beadwork, or an honest self-reflection. What activities would you do to try to learn more about your cultural identity/identities?

Posted on

Flavours of Home

“Good luck with that!”

Creators:
Megan Kadzirange (she/hers)

One of the biggest tasks that anyone has when leaving home is to find food that reminds one of home – sometimes it’s not an easy task (see the number of Hong Kong-style cafés or Indian restaurants around Vancouver); but sometimes it’s a monumental task. Megan, whose heritage home is in Zimbabwe, created this food journal to document her arduous journey of thinking about what food from home means, and, most importantly, figuring out where to even find the ingredients needed to make all the hometown delicacies so she can feel that warmth and comfort again. From tapping into others in the diasporic Zimbabwean community to using her own resourcefulness, she ultimately succeeds in her plans and cooks up some amazing offerings. What you are craving for something from home, how do you go about getting it?

Posted on

My Culture Book

I should be proud of being a little different

Creators:
Aiko Webb ウェブ愛子 (she/hers)

As racialized diasporic children grow up, the one struggle that they will undoubtedly have is thinking about their identity. They may think that they do, and ought to be able to, identify as someone from the mainstream culture; but that choice may be rejected for them. To compound this, they also need to figure out where they stand in terms of heritage identity – especially for people who have multiple heritage identities. Aiko’s book is an amazingly creative way of getting young children to start thinking about their cultural identities at an early age. Through various stories, activities, and prompts, Aiko gets children to think about how to navigate difficult questions around identity, and how to be comfortable with the inevitable uncertainty of discovering one’s identity. What else would you like to see included in a book like this, and how might it be different if the book were for an adult?

Posted on

But it’s too bitter! 可是太苦了!

[I]t gives them a sense of security and comfort…

Creators:
Jessica Liu 刘润芃 (she/hers)

People who grow up as Asian diasporic children likely have one unifying experience – having their parents push traditional medicine onto them (whether Japanese, Mongolian, Chinese, Indian, Persian, or others), and then having the children subsequently get annoyed, deciding to disavow traditional medicine. Regardless of one’s stance on these traditional forms of medicine, and regardless of the their validity, they all rest on consistent sets of principles. In this booklet, Jessica describes some of the principles underlying traditional Chinese medicine, and shares her personal connections to this ancient form of healthcare by tracing its practice through her family history. Traditional medicines play a huge role in the lives of diasporic folks – what kind of role has it potentially played in yours?

Posted on

Depression & Suicide

“[K]eep it in the family”

Creators:
Reeva Bhandal ਰੀਵਾ (she/hers)
Tracy Ngo 吴雯娜 (she/hers)

It is not a secret that Asian diaspora face particular challenges when it comes to mental health, particularly dealing with depression and suicide – both from within their cultures, and outside their cultures. From outside their cultures, they have to deal with a lot of racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Within their cultures, there is also a lot of conservatism and misunderstanding about mental health that prevents effective usage of mental health support. These complex problems require multi-faceted solutions – solutions that can greatly benefit from enough State-level financial support. In this letter to their Member of Parliament, Reeva and Tracy lay out the problems in detail, followed by impressively in-depth and well-researched solutions that they request from the government. Are there any other solutions not on the list that you’d like to see – whether from the government or from Asian diasporic communities?

Posted on

ASD in Asian Diasporic Children

A practitioner assessing an Asian child for ASD must be culturally sensitive

Creator:
Rue Adler (she/they)

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) refers to a range of manifestations of neurodivergence, for which there seems to be a lot of cultural variability in terms of diagnostic and prevalence rates. While the reasons for this might be highly varied, one issue that warrants special attention is whether the diagnostic criteria for ASD are sufficiently culturally sensitive. In other words, the criteria for ASD were created in a Western cultural context, with particular cultural assumptions baked in; but those cultural assumptions might not hold in other cultures, like Asian cultures. Rue’s paper delves into some cultural issues that may pertain to the differential diagnostic rates of ASD, specifically involving Asian diaspora. What kinds of cultural differences do you think may interfere with current diagnostic efforts of ASD among Asian diasporic communities?

Posted on

Let’s Get Screened

Acknowledging that there tare cultural narratives around sex is critical

Creator:
Aysan Dehghani (she/hers)

One of the most important public health issues facing a country with a significant immigrant population is addressing sexual health among immigrant women, particularly those from more sexually conservative cultures. Such cultural conservatism, and an overarching cultural environment that treats public health in a culture-blind way, create access barriers for such immigrant women. This severely jeopardizes their sexual health specifically, and overall health more generally. Many cultures within Asian cultural spheres embody such forms of conservatism, which poses challenges for immigrant women from those cultures to have sufficient agency over their own health, especially when cultural perspectives significantly overlap with religious perspectives. Aysan takes on the specific issue of cervical screening and increasing health challenges facing Asian immigrant women in Canada by examining the cultural factors at play. If you were a medical healthcare worker, how might you try to help such patients address their concerns so they can have greater agency over their own health?

Posted on

Asian Girls in Western Worlds

“Ni hao”

Creator:
Rachel Leong (she/hers)

Growing up as racialized diaspora almost certainly means being subject to particular experiences, including not being assumed that you are born domestically (despite being a multi-generational Canadian), or having people assume that you speak Mandarin because you look Chinese (if your face is remotely East Asian-coded), among others. It is only in the recent decade that there has been a proliferation of media from Asian diasporic filmmakers who have been able to unironically poke fun at such racist tropes that Asian diaspora faces to a mainstream audience, not just camp movies that stay within diasporic communities. Rachel analyzes the film, White Elephant from filmmaker Andrew Chung, to discuss portrayals of constant “otheredness” that diaspora experience – a film that, as of the writing of this description, is featured on the mainstream platform CBC Gem. Are these experiences that you have had if you belong to a racialized diasporic group?

Posted on

Emotional Damage – EEAAO

The model minority myth adds another layer of complexity to our understanding of intergenerational trauma

Creator:
Meagan Ng 吳曦琳 (she/hers)

Media representation is an important factor for how people understand themselves – who they are, what their identity is, and how to think about their experiences. For cultural minorities in society, they are often left with stereotyped roles that both leave a small space within which individuals can imagine themselves, and never really accurately portray their cultural experiences. Throughout Asian Canadian/American history, few media productions have been able to do justice to Asian diasporic experiences; but Everything, Everywhere, All At Once shattered barriers and allowed the Asian diaspora to really see themselves and their experiences be portrayed effectively in Hollywood. In her paper, Meagan delves into how the movie deftly portrays the cultural nuances of sensitive themes like intergenerational trauma and mental health stigma. If you’ve watched the movie, how did you feel about the movie’s portrayal of cultural themes?

Spam prevention powered by Akismet