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?
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?
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?
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?
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?