Tag: cultural identity

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Diasporic Guilt – A Story Book

…[O]ur narratives are not just about guilt, they are about love, resilience, and the quiet courage…to…carry the weight of our past while shaping our present and future selves.

Creators:
Summer Park (She/her)
Rita Lu (She/her)
Tracy Huang (She/her)

Diasporic guilt is a complex and difficult experience – it entails a sense of responsibility to people in the past, present, and future. That sense of responsibility can be for things that one has done, one hasn’t done yet, or one has no control over. Regardless of any combination of these components, diasporic guilt comes for most diasporic individuals. Across three different chapters, Summer, Rita, and Tracy detail the different sources of their diasporic guilt, the different people who are involved, and the different ways in which their diasporic guilt manifests. Despite their different cultural backgrounds and cultural/migration histories, all three ultimately have remarkably similar experiences because ultimately, diasporic guilt comes for most diasporic individuals. What miight have led you to experience your diasporic guilt, and what has that compelled you to do?

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Us Versus Them

[W]hile systemic changes are needed, …there is a lot of meaningful work that can be done at a personal level.

Creators:
Britney Ng 吳碧妍 (She/her)
Kelly Zhang 张薇 (She/her)

While there are commonalities among people with the same cultural/ethnic background, no one culture/ethnicity is a monolith. Everyone has their own individual experiences, preferences, and identities that are unique to others despite their similarities in other domains; however, sometimes these differences create tension even amongst people from the same cultural/ethnic groups. As Britney and Kelly detail in this podcast episode, one of the more insidious ways in coethnic diaspora harm each other, when it’s unity that is needed, is intra-ethnic defensiveness. This leads people to denigrate each other, creating harmful separations and divisions within the community. This often entails the use of othering terms such as “white-washed,” “F.O.B.s,” or even “international students.” What other ways do you think coethnic create divisions within their own communities?


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It’s Not One-Size-Fits-All

Everyone in Canada deserves to have the same access to healthcare.

Creator:
Samantha Wong 黃千殷 (She/her)

Mental health is a challenging concept to grasp at best, and downright seemingly intractable when considering the different layers of issues that can further complicate one’s experience with mental health. Too often, racialized individuals attempting to access mental health support are left with options and practitioners who do not share their cultural backgrounds, views, or practices. Without taking into consideration the numerous ways in which a client forms their identities (whether it’s gender identity or cultural identity), mental health supports simply cannot effectively address the unique needs of those clients. As Samantha details in her letter to her Member of Parliament, it is clear that the current state of mental health support is most effective at providing support for those who belong to the cultural mainstream, leaving racialized (and other marginalized) populations in a worse position to handle their mental health struggles. If it were up to you, what would and equitable mental health care system look like, and what challenges have you seen within the existing mental health care system?

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On Asian Canadian Queer Activism

They compel me to fight a little harder for justice – for others like me, and even for myself.

Creator:
Anonymous

One of the most notable aspects about academia in a Western context is in its lack of diversity in terms of the “object” of academic inquiry, such as the lack of discourse around the experiences of various cultural/ethnic communities. This lack of diversity is pervades through various domains of academic study, including that of queerness in Canada. While plenty of work exists to articulate the experiences of LGBTQIA+ individuals within the cultural mainstream, the same cannot be said of those among cultural/ethnic minorities. This dovetails with the activism scene as well, where queer activism has long been seen as representing and benefiting queer White folks, with racialized queer folks feeling increasingly left out of activism spaces. It is then left to racialized queer media to highlight the work of racialized queer activists to showcase the history of work that has been done, and the work that continues to happen. In this paper, the anonymous writer profiles Orientations: Lesbian and Gay Asians, a documentary by Richard Fung, and showcases the struggles, efforts, and resilience that the racialized queer community demonstrated (continues to demonstrate) in Canada. What do you think queer liberation should look like if it were to achieve true equality, and how would queer spaces look different if that were the case?

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Vegetarianism Through a Buddhist Lens

You’re just doing it because that’s what’s trendy among White people.

Creator:
Isabel Huang (She/her)

Dietary choices are often hugely personal, sometimes existing at the intersection of cultural identity, religious identity, and religiosity (among other dimensions). Whereas vegetarianism is an important way of life for many people who follow Buddhism, Sikhi, Hinduism, and other religions in many Asian cultures (particularly in East and South Asian cultures), vegetarianism has sometimes been associated with privilege and Whiteness in Western societies. This can create a conundrum for Asian diaspora growing up in Western societies where practicing vegetarianism for religious reasons may have those reasons be invisibilized, and instead be seen as secular Westernized Asians. Follow Isabel as she reflects on her experience being vegetarian as an East Asian, contemplating her cultural identity, her connections to her cultural community, and the secularization and commercialization of Eastern religious ideas for a Western market. What has been your relationship with your dietary choices, and what led you to eat food the way that you do?

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The Daughter Who Refused to be Silent

This is a story of becoming — not in spite of the silence, but through it.

Creator:
Lavleen Walia ਲਵਲੀਨ ਵਾਲੀਆ

For South Asian women, one cannot escape the clutches of izzat – a cultural concept (akin to “honour”) that dictates nearly ever aspect of their lives including how they carry themselves in the home and in public, who they are friends with, and who their partners are. Moreover, asymmetrical gender expectations in many South Asian communities (including diasporic ones) often mean that South Asian women and girls are held to a much higher standard for maintaining the family’s honour than are South Asian men and boys (who are certainly also subject to expectations based on izzat too). In a series of poems, Lavleen articulates the different ways in which her life (which is stereotypical of many other South Asian Canadian women’s), along with familial interactions and her connection with herself, have all been strongly impacted by izzat. Even if your langauge doesn’t include the concept of izzat, has your life been impacted by a similar concept?


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Perfumes on my Nightstand

Sniff well.

Creator:
K. Siy 施颖洁

We use all sorts of literary devices to describe ourselves and unravel our complex identities and experiences; but have you ever considered how our entire beings might be communicated by perfume? Just like how identities can have layers, complex tones, and sophisticated notes, so, too, can perfumes. In this anthology of poems, K. showcases how complex migration histories, multi-faceted cultural identities, deeply-rooted societal stereotypes, and a fight for individuality can be symoblized by culturally important scent notes such as calamansi zest, creamy ube, star anise, and ylang-ylang. If you were think of the different notes that can describe you in all your complexity, what would they be?


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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?


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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?


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There’s Food at Home

You have to choose. Do you want to be one of them. Or one of us.

Creator:
Haniya Syed (she/her)

So many things stay with us in our memories – the flavour of meals, the aroma of food, the sights and sounds of meal time, and the emotions of being around families and friends. In this cookbook, Haniya shares with you some of her most treasured family recipes that map onto her parents’ migration history, and her experience growing up in a multiracial family set within a society filled with racialization. To complement the amazing recipes, Haniya sprinkles this cookbook with offerings of scrumptious poetry, dashes of mouth-watering food photographs, and heaping portions of heart-warming family pictures. As you read through this cookbook full of amazing recipes set to immense nostalgia and reminiscence, what foods draw out some of your fondest childhood memories – and why?

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