East and Southeast Asian Heritage Month should be ‘household name’ – co-founder

The co-founder of a British East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) advocacy group said she has dreams of ESEA Heritage Month becoming a “household name” as it reaches its third year.

Mai-Anh Vu Peterson, 34, based in Edinburgh, is one of six co-founders of the British East and Southeast Asian Network, also known as besean, the organisation that started a heritage month to showcase and celebrate the ESEA community in the UK.

She said she wants to “see posters everywhere” about the month-long celebration and hopes raising the profile of the ESEA community in the UK will enable ESEA Heritage Month, which runs throughout September, to become a regular part of TV, film and popular culture.

ESEA Heritage Month began in September 2020 amidst the rise of hate crimes against the ESEA community during the Covid pandemic.

The heritage month will see members of the ESEA community host food festivals, summer parties, walking tours of London’s Chinatown and panels with writers and academics such as Angela Hui, author of Takeaway: Stories From A Childhood Behind The Counter.

Ms Peterson, who is British-Vietnamese, told the PA news agency: “My dream is I want to turn on my TV and see that Disney+ is organising the September offering of films and TVs into an ESEA heritage month gallery; I want to walk into a bookshop and see posters everywhere.

“We want this to be a household name.”

The advocate for ESEA communities said heritage month is a chance for people with similar backgrounds to “come together” and recognise their contribution to British society.

She said: “It’s an opportunity to celebrate the numerous ways in which our different, multitude of communities have contributed to the Britain that we know today.

“On a personal level, I would say that it creates a space for me to just hang out with other people who share similar heritage to me and to learn from those people to all come together.”

She hopes the heritage month, which focuses on “joyful advocacy”, will help future generations find a sense of identity as an ESEA person in the UK after grappling with her own struggles with identity growing up in London.

“I think a lot of us almost wanted to reject this part of our heritage and now we’re really making up for lost time and being quite loud and joyful in our renovation of our heritage,” she said.

“My hope is that by (organising ESEA heritage month), very unapologetically and very joyfully, means something for future generations or other people who maybe are still in that place of discomfort or not knowing who they are, or not knowing how to be proud of who they are, to see the example and grow from it.”

Ms Peterson described spreading joy as “infectious” and hopes to inspire others to become involved in highlighting ESEA culture.

She said: “Bottom line is that joy is infectious. We see people thriving and loving who they are and what they do.

“It’s inspiring. It makes you feel like you want that too.”

The besean co-founder said the heritage month will be a “big community party” which will observe the theme of roots/routes exploring cultural identity and belonging.

She explained: “I had this dream of having a big community party with lots of different stalls and activities and a nice space for lots of different people to come together.”

She admits the heritage month started as a “throwaway comment” before it came to fruition and hopes to create a “nationwide space” celebrating ESEA heritage.

“We have this joke (at besean) that we tend to make throwaway comments that actually turn into action… something that we are really striving for is recognition,” Ms Peterson said.

“I want to be clear that I don’t think that we started ESEA community organising.

“Lots of people have been doing lots of really cool things – we’ve just never really had a nationwide space for it”

While besean is the current organiser, Ms Peterson hopes other community organisations will take part in the heritage month and ensure the celebration remains a sustainable, long-lasting venture.

She explained: “At the moment we’re the organisers of the (heritage month) itself, but by and large the shape of the programme really depends on the people who put on the events.

“It may be that one day, we’re not the organisers of this space and somebody else is, and that’s totally OK – it’s about creating long-term, sustainable community efforts.”

To find out more about ESEA Heritage Month and the events on offer in September, visit the website: https://www.eseaheritagemonth.co.uk/