Asia Is Not A Country

Coming out isn't always an easy experience, and for some Asian countries and cultures, queerness is stigmatized not just on a systemic level but also within the home. How do you strike a balance between making your parents happy but also ensuring that you're staying true to who you are and owning your sexuality? In this episode, we speak to Jingsi who identifies as bisexual and demisexual to get a glimpse into her life as a member of the LGBTQAI+ community in Guangzhou, China. From (childhood) crushes to her coming out story, and her eventual involvement in PFLAG China—an NGO that serves and supports LGBT people and their families—we find out what being out and proud means for Jingsi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If we're lucky, some of us might go through life without having to experience racism. But for most of us who've moved away from our home countries, we do so with the knowledge that racism is just around the corner. This change in your social positioning can be quite jarring and disorienting if you've been privileged enough to have belonged to the majority group for most of your life. It might make you question how complicit you've been to racism back home. How do you deal with the feelings of guilt and shame that arise while trying to take care and heal from the violence and fear you feel in your new home? In this episode, we speak to Ellison Tan, a Singaporean-Chinese actor, about this dilemma. She moved from Singapore to London at the height of COIVD-19 and the subsequent anti-Asian hate, the latter of which she had to deal with in London Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For many third culture kids, finding a way to stay rooted to their culture and feel a sense of belonging to their home country can be difficult. Not only were many of them raised in a culture other than their parents' or the culture of their home country, but they might have also lived in a different environment during their childhood. In this episode, we speak to Anirudh to find out how he creates anchors to pull and keep him close to his culture in a way that still feels authentic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is your passport a blessing or a curse? For many foreigners, our passports are an extension of our being and our ticket to the opportunities we seek outside our home country. Our passports define who we are, so what does living without a passport look like? Do you have any allegiance to your home country? In this episode, we speak to Liam, the holder of a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Document of Identity for Visa Purposes (yes, that isn't a passport) to find out how he moves in the world without a document some of us might take for granted. And we also look at how this feeling of limbo has permeated other parts of his life and in his interactions with people. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the biggest struggles mixed race or multiracial folks deal with is feeling inadequate about one or more of our cultural identities. While we can't change the past, we have the power to decide how we choose to reconnect with the part(s) of us that interest us. In part two of our interview with Michelle, we talk about how she attempted to reconnect with her Japanese heritage. From cooking food and learning Japanese to going through an anime phase, Michelle claims her heritage and learns to be comfortable with who she is. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Growing up with parents from different countries and ethnicities can be a challenge, depending on the decisions your parents make, you might grow up immersed in one culture more than the next. But what happens when you grow up in a cult that strips away your individuality, your culture, and the things that make you, you? How can you possibly engage and learn about your cultural identity when your sole purpose should be the community you're in and the leader of your cult? In this episode, we speak to Michelle about her childhood in the Children of God (The Family) cult and how this erasure of her Japanese culture made her second guess who she is.This is part one of a two-part interview, part two drops next week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“West is the best”—or so we were told growing up. Many of us study our childhood away with hopes of making it into an Ivy League university. But what happens when we arrive at our north star only to realize that all that glitters isn’t necessarily gold? What do we do when our long-held symbol of success is tarnished, especially in the midst of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia brought about by COVID-19. How much bitterness must we eat in order to prove to ourselves and those around us that we’ve made it? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast is a reminder that Asia is not a country, it is not a monolith–that even within one ethnic group, the experiences and micro-cultures are so varied and we want to spotlight those intricacies on the show. Each and every one of us has a unique story that makes us who we are, and if we’re lucky, sometimes we find people whose lives and experiences intersect with ours. Asia Is Not A Country examines these personal stories and is an ode to the multitude and diversity of Asian cultures, identities, and folks.New episodes weekly Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.