Image credit: Leung Yattin, Unsplash

What is Diasporas?

Growing up, one of the "prides" of being an American was not our supposed inheriting of the nation's history or the bald eagle that held the olive branch of peace in one talon and the arrows of war in the other. Rather, it was that hyphenated identity that came before the title of being an American. When I was younger, I didn't think the term American can stand alone unless it followed a term like Filipino or Persian, first-generation or second-generation. I simply could not construct an identity if I didn't acknowledge perhaps one of the most important aspects of my identity; there was no "me" if I couldn't identify myself as part of a greater diaspora. The purpose of this blog is to explore the ways that that feeling of diaspora is conveyed through protest and activist art in Asia, and how the digital communications revolution of the past thirty years has created a new mode of identity and global civil society. By analyzing art and film, I hope to deconstruct the traditional framework of nationality, and in its wake leave the reader with a new lens to see social justice movements and transnational identity. Enjoy!

(Image credit: Joseph Chan, Unsplash)