East Side Voices: Essays celebrating East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain

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Featuring essays and poetry from new writers, celebrities and authors ranging from the likes of Gemma Chan, Katie Leung, Sharlene Teo and Zing Tsjeng, this collection explores the wide spectrum of experiences from the East and South-East Asian community. The evening is hosted by Helena Lee, founder of the East Side Voices salon and editor of East Side Voices: Essays Celebrating East and Southeast Asian Identity, and features poetry, discussion and live readings by contributors to this first-of-its-kind anthology. Reading this book was so therapeutic. I often feel like I'm in between cultures, not Chinese or Malaysian enough to be either, but also not fully British or English. Reading essays from people who have also experienced life like this was very enriching and validated a lot of feelings I've had while growing up. I also learned A LOT from these essays. There were various infomation that I did not know and were horrified to learn, such as the fact that Filipinos make up the largest ethnic group of nurses in the NHS and in 2020 were the single largest nationality to die from Covid. In another essay, it was informed that Filipino nurses were the ones assigned most to the Covid wards in the UK during the critical times. There were also some essays here that were written during those first critical months and their experiences of racism that they had to endured because of it. Joanna Lee said: “In 2022’s East Side Voices, Helena Lee talks about the ‘cycle of systemic non-representation’ of British east and south-east Asian identity. In publishing and the media more widely, we’ve found this to be true and endlessly frustrating – our aim with the ESEA Lit Fest is to disrupt this cycle, create space for solidarity, and showcase the breadth of ESEA talent from across the diaspora. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Foyles on this initiative and are excited about what’s to come.”

East Side Voices: Celebrating ESEA Identity - Southbank Centre

Ladyboy by June Bellebono was a beautiful essay and really highlighted the importance of the intersectionality with race when it comes to talking about LGBT+ issues. Asian women are blighted by racist and sexist tropes: the demure, obedient little woman; the steely, relentless Tiger Mothers; and the sexy, compliant super babes. Discussing passing for white, mixed race writer Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, recounts the times she has passed but wished she hadn’t. Such as when white men tell her they rate women by race, White, Asian, and Half, wearing their racism with a strange kind of pride. Women are guilty of blatant racism too, like the random woman who says, “Alright, Ching Chong?” as Hisayo Buchanan walks past. Zing Tsjeng is a journalist with over 10 years of experience across print, online and broadcast media as an editor, writer and presenter. She is VICE UK’s editor in chief, where she specialises in arts, culture, identity and current affairs, and has also written for publications such as British Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Time Out London. East Side Voices is a collection of essays on the experiences of Asians living in Britain. The topics are wide ranging and each author brings their own unique take on the subject. Taken together, these essays paint an empowering, touching and enlightening picture of what it means to be Asian in Britain. The bookshop Foyles is to partner with a publishing network to launch a new festival featuring writers from east and south-east Asia, thought to be the first in the UK focused wholly on writers from the region.I continuously resonated with the different authors ‘essays’ and felt as if their anecdotes were about me. I realised that farming was the link to everything. Food and the making and growing of the food were the thread that tied so much together: the rhythms of farming, the myths of farming, the spirits and gods and souls of everything in the jungle. And so I learnt that I am from the jungle, no matter how far I am, the rituals and rhythms of the soil of the jungle sit within me.’

East Side Voices, edited by Helena Lee review – reflections East Side Voices, edited by Helena Lee review – reflections

It's astonishing that I'm 26 now and I've never read a book like this before. I've read books like The Good Immigrant, but never one that's focussed entirely on the experiences of east Asians in Britain. I'm so glad this book exists. We want to change that for future generations by creating a joyful, thought-provoking celebration of ESEA culture that’s open to all people,” she continued. “We couldn’t have a better partner than Foyles, as they are passionate, long-standing advocates for ESEA literature and are perfectly located, close to the heart of things in Chinatown.”

Enjoyed reading most of them very much. Fab collection. Very surprised to see Tash Aw in it (pleasantly surprised). 4 and a little more but rounded off to a full 5-star rating. I like how different each story was. This just felt like something that needed to be published. Haven’t read anything quite like this collection before. Very well edited, and for the most part, very well written too. Might write a longer review later. Maybe… Gemma Chan’s father in 1975, during his time in the merchant navy. Photograph: Courtesy of Gemma Chan I highly recommend this book, particularly to my fellow South East Asians and those dealing with moving to the west from the east. This book was a great insight into the lives of individuals in the East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) community living in the UK, and some of the difficulties they have faced as a result of being from this community. Most poignant to me were the stories of the desire to assimilate and be accepted, and the associated hardships. As someone from the ESEA community who lives in England, I truly resonated with many of these accounts. I wish that I had read this book much earlier in life. The fact that there is a glimmer of resemblance between this anecdotal snippet from someone who frequently walks the red carpet and my own upbringing reminds me that we may all have shared pasts in some way or another, no matter our present or future.

East Side Voices | Belfast Walking Tours and Museums East Side Voices | Belfast Walking Tours and Museums

I discovered this book thanks to the actress Gemma Chan whom I adore enormously. She also wrote an essay for this book, so I bought it haha. I’d love to read something simmer form a Middle East viewpoint because believe me, it’s be very different but also very similar. All the anthology contributors are incredibly successful: society’s winners, global third-culture kids. As Chinese-Malaysian novelist Tash Aw writes poetically“: “We revel in the three-dimensional nature of our hybrid cultures and languages, rejoicing in the fact that we have an instinctive understanding of how the south-east Asian archipelago weaves its cultural connections.” Yet many of the testimonials demonstrate that no amount of privilege protects you from the racism of others. One of the saddest stories concerns Claire Kohda, daughter of a Japanese mother and English father. As a child she visits her father’s parents, dreading the lukewarm reception she and her mother always receive. Surprisingly, her grandmother has painted a portrait of Claire, which is and isn’t Claire. Her grandmother has painted her as perhaps she would like to see her: her skin lightened, her features made more European. It is a devastating example of passive-aggressive racism.

I'm really happy to have seen it "because an actress I like was talking about it" and that in the end, it was instructive and very important. A wonderful book – so timely and much needed. I loved the collection and I hope everyone will read it’ Elif Shafak Purcell Room is located in Queen Elizabeth Hall. For step-free access please use Royal Festival Hall JCB glass lift to Level 2 and enter via Riverside Terrace. It is a testament to the quality of each author’s writing that despite the brevity of each account, I became deeply invested in their stories. I also found myself reflecting on my own experiences and difficulties as an Asian immigrant with greater clarity and understanding. Talk to a member of staff at the auditorium entrance if you have a disability that means you can’t queue, or you need extra time to take your seat. They can arrange priority entry for you as soon as the doors open.

East Side Voices | personal stories of Gemma Chan, Katie Leung

I am a huge lover of reading essay collections when it's about race, gender, and inequalities individuals face every day. And this book seriously did not disappoint. The curation of voices Helena was able to get for this book is amazing and I so hope another book is in the works. How long have you had this?” I asked in amazement. He shrugged. This was no ordinary plastic bag. Indeed, the bag was not of this millennium. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community.Dazzling . . . East Side Voices is a thoughtful, painful reminder of the grand narratives that get buried under belittling stereotypes’ Bidisha, Observer Many of the essays discuss the unseen but inherent racism toward the Asian community in art, and media…which I rarely see discussed but is important that it is. The essays were compiled recently and there were frequent references to covid and the impact that prejudicial misinformation has had on Asian lives. In the aftermath of the second world war, Britain forcibly deported hundreds of Chinese seamen who had served in the merchant navy, deeming them an “undesirable element” of British society. These men had helped keep the UK fed and fuelled on highly dangerous crossings of the Atlantic (approximately 3,500 vessels of the merchant navy were sunk by German U-boats, with the loss of 72,000 lives). Publishing in January 2022, EAST SIDE VOICES is a first-of-its-kind essay anthology that showcases the brightest East and Southeast Asian voices in Britain today. My dad isn’t a man of many words, but that night he’d had a few glasses of wine. He told us that he used the bag regularly, despite its pristine appearance, and that the last time he’d used it in the local M&S the cashier had shrieked, “Oh my lord, I haven’t seen one of these in years,” and made the other members of staff gather round to take a look. This moment perfectly encapsulated what I would describe as Dad’s Golden Rule No 1: nothing goes to waste, which applies equally to food, clothes, household items, cars – everything really. Things will be used until they break, if they can be mended they will be mended, but rarely will anything be thrown away. This was established in his childhood out of necessity, but even now, in relative comfort, he still treats everything with such care and hates wastefulness.