#british asian

[not-your-asian-fantasy]

PLUS SIZE ASIANS EXIST

Michelle Elman

As you all know I’ve been talking about the absence of Asians in adverts, campaigns and fashion in general so @lindablacker and I decided to team up on a little passion project. Look at how incredible these women look!

Here’s to showing them what they are missing 💪🏽

Despite the absence in the media, asian is actually the largest ethnic minority in the U.K.

Asians deserve to be represented.

Asians deserve to be seen.

And all Asians aren’t the stereotype of being small and petite.

Being Asian is not one look.

Being Asian is not one culture.

Whilst even this shoot isn’t perfect representation, it shows just a small sample of the diversity within Asia. #AsianRepresentation

Thank you to all the wonderful women taking part and being my stunning models @nesslala @bishamberdas @saalene @kat_v_henry @minakumari.uk @simksandhu95

This was such a personal project and I couldn’t have done it without @lindablacker. She came up with the idea when I was talking about asian representation earlier in the year and I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it. She has always placed diversity at the forefront of her shoots and her talent is remarkable. This entire concept was her doing and I’m so grateful for everything you did to make this a reality! Thank you also to @umberghauri and @hannah.shaikhup for the incredible makeup! It felt so complete to have the makeup artists also be Asian. We need just as much diversity behind the scenes on shoots as well! x

[circular-time]

Waris Hussein unveils producer Verity Lambert's blue plaque.

While Anthony Coburn's son throws a hissy fit about a young Black man cast as Doctor Who, I'd like to celebrate director Waris Hussein, a young Black man (as British South Asians were then known) whose thankless task it was to turn Coburn's mediocre caveman script into a vehicle that would hold viewers' attention from the pilot, Unearthly Child, until The Daleks.

Above: Waris Hussein. Below: Sacha Dhawan and Jessica Raine as Waris Hussein and Verity Lambert in An Adventure in Space and Time.

Ten years ago, we got a historical docudrama paying homage to Doctor Who's difficult beginnings, when it was punted to a young minority producer and director expected to fail.

Last spring, the Radio Times published what I assume was one of its primary sources:

The 1963 Doctor Who diaries of Waris Hussein - part 2 - part 3

They're a fascinating read.

But while he's tactfully grateful to Doctor Who for helping launch his career, Waris Hussein has had a long, successful career since then, earning an Emmy, a BAFTA, and a slew of nominations, including one for the 1974 historical miniseries Shoulder to Shoulder (Youtube) on British suffragettes.

Here's a link to a good print interview with him. I also recommend listening to the beginning of this podcast interview, as his voice conveys the thoughtfulness he puts into everything:

(SNS Online is a podcast on all the usual platforms, if you want to look up pt 2.)

*Trivia note: Ian McKellan credits Waris Hussein with his first film role. The young director cut his teeth directing Cambridge peers McKellan, Derek Jacobi and Trevor Nunn (the token straight).

[moonlightsapphic]

Uh guys, in case you aren't all caught up, the graphic novel that started as a little queer comic on Tumblr by ND Stevenson (creator of Shera: Princesses of Power) has been adapted by Netflix into an adorable movie about the contemporary genderqueer experience. Go watch Nimona. RIGHT NOW. (Also read the book!)

The movie also features an API gay couple. Ambrosius Goldenloin is an Asian American descendant of the revered knight, Gloreth, and he dyes his hair blonde to match hers and fit the white saviour image that the public expects from him. He is manipulated golden child of a conservative white woman trying to assert control over the kingdom. Ballister Boldheart is a darker-skinned (desi! muslim!) British Pakistani sweetheart who had to bootstrap his way to the top and still couldn't win model minority status with the head of the institute, and is framed for crimes he didn't commit and condemned by the state. The character designs are both modeled after their voice actors, Eugene Lee Yang and Riz Ahmed. Both actors have done extensive DEI work for the API LGBTQ+ community and visibility!

They are archenemies. They are lovers. They are husbands but also kind of divorced. They will find their way back to each other because they are simply victims of the same system, and they are just so soft for each other and what they want to protect. They are also Nimona's dads. They're slightly different from how they were in the book, but I'm so glad for the changes. And I'm so glad for what remained exactly the same as ND Stevenson envisioned years ago:

[yourdailyqueer]

Mobeen Azhar

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

DOB: Born 1980  

Ethnicity: Pakistani

Nationality: British

Occupation: Journalist, presenter, producer

[starlightshadowsworld]

The concept of birthright is wild because that logic doesn't work when applied to other cultures.

Pakistani's from Pakistan would consider me a foreigner. Hell they'd see my parents as foreigners, and they were born there.

But somehow that logic doesn't apply to Israel?

They'll accept foreign settlers as their citizens but won't accept the indigenous population of Palestinians... Or see them as human?

It's crazy how in any other immigrant culture Netanyahu would be considered a foreigner in his home country.

Because yeah he was born in Tel Aviv but he was raised in America.

But no ones like oh he's turned American, he's not Israeli enough.

That is insane.

[lonelylesbian2]

I remember when I was younger people would ALWAYS make fun of me when I talked about my family because of what I called them. My family is Indian (punjabi to be exact) so I was subject to LOADS of mockery anyway. But when we did family trees in primary school I got laughed at so badly and so many people told me I had the 'wrong' names because my maternal uncle wasn't called 'mama', that was what my mother was called. When I tried to explain that that's what I called them in my culture I got told I was wrong. 8 year old me thought that my family tree was supposed to be filled with my family. What they were called to me. 8 year old me got told I was wrong. My teachers gave me sheets to fill out with 'uncle' and 'aunt' and 'grandma'. I grew up like that and when I was 10 years old we went to go and visit my mums family in Delhi. I called my mothers mum grandma. Now, when I visit I'm older, now I call my mother sister 'mausi', I call people who aren't related to me closely but are still very close 'mausi'. Because that's my culture. I am an only child but I have people I call 'didi', I have people who call me 'didi'. My older relatives call me 'beta'. I am not their daughter, but that is our culture. Now, I don't let anyone tell me what I can and can't call my family. Because they are mine. Now when people ask who's visiting, i tell them my 'chacha'.

I hate that I ever let anyone tell me my culture was wrong, that I had to leave my blood and roots behind in favour of what other people knew. But I was young and that was the reality of it. Everyday, my heart goes out to the little 8 year old girl sitting at the dining table, wishing she could change the colour of her skin and the blood in her veins.

[crazyrichxplainr]

Joy Crookes for Net-A-Porter (ph: Tami Aftab)

[teenagesequence]

Teenage Sequence : “D.I.S. Connect”

Out 8 November 2022 on Spotify • Bandcamp • Soundcloud t-shirts available here

Get Better Records (US) Everything Sucks Music (UK)

[izamicosplay]

dk what to put here follow me !!

[rumade]

Little English is out now!

Check out the website for showtimes

Why this film matters- it was made in my home town by people from here and is a rom com about a Punjabi family who bring over a bride from India, smack bang into their dysfunction.

British Asians are massively underrepresented in British film and TV, despite there being a huge population in many parts of the UK (and our prime minister being one). The film touches on many topics including men's mental health, human trafficking, and traditional families.

The people who worked on this film are all from a working class background and have busted their arses working in film and the arts over the years. They really struggled to get this film distributed because it's seen as a "niche audience"

[not-your-asian-fantasy]

M.I.A. British Vogue 2010

[georgefairbrother]

On 18th September 1972, BBC News reported that the first 193 Ugandan refugees, fleeing persecution by the country’s military dictatorship, had arrived at Stansted Airport, Essex. Over half of the arrivals had British passports, and housing and immediate needs would be overseen by the Ugandan Resettlement Board.

Uganda’s Asian community, numbering around 55 000, many of whom ran family businesses and small enterprise, were ordered in August 1972 to leave the country within 90 days by President Idi Amin. Amin had publicly denounced Ugandan Asians as ‘bloodsuckers’, threatening that any who had not left by the arbitrary deadline of November 8th would be interned in military detention camps.

Many of the initial flight of refugees had endured frightening experiences prior to their departure from Uganda, at the hands of Amin’s troops. 'On the way to the airport the coach was stopped by troops seven times, and we were all held at gun point,' one refugee told reporters. Another stated that he had been robbed of personal valuables and Ugandan currency on the way to Entebbe airport.

News reports at the time cited some opposition within the UK over the acceptance of the Ugandan Asians. The Leicester local authority mounted a newspaper campaign urging refugees not to come to their region seeking jobs and housing. The BBC asserted that, in hindsight, the resettlement programme was seen as ‘a success story for British Immigration’.

The loss of the hardworking and successful Ugandan Asian community devastated Uganda’s agriculture, manufacturing and commerce. Idi Amin was deposed in 1979 and died in Jeddah in 2003, having been responsible for the deaths of as many as 300 000 Ugandan civilians during his reign of terror as President.

In 1991, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni invited the expelled community to “return home” to help rebuild the economy.

(Source; BBC reporting and history.com. Photo Credits; BBC News)

[starlightshadowsworld]

Few things make me feel as seen as both a Pakistani and an English person as hearing Atsushi, in the middle of battle with Fitzgerald ask Akutugawa if he wants to take a tea break.

[claudiawebbe]

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