East and South East Asian (ESEA) Heritage Month

What is ESEA Heritage Month?

ESEA (East and South East Asian) Heritage Month was established in the UK to honour and celebrate the culture, diversity, history and contributions of East and South East Asian communities across the UK and raise awareness for those who are not East and/or South East Asian.

When is East and South East Asian Heritage Month?

ESEA Heritage Month takes place every September across the UK, with both online and in-person events hosted by businesses, charities, community organisations as well as individuals!

Which places are in East and South East Asia?

Here is a list of places in East Asia:
• China
• Hong Kong
• Japan
• Macau
• Mongolia
• North Korea
• South Korea
• Taiwan

Here is a list of places in South East Asia:
• Brunei
• Cambodia
• Indonesia
• Laos
• Malaysia
• Myanmar
• The Philippines
• Singapore
• Thailand
• Timor-Leste (East Timor)
• Vietnam

When did ESEA Heritage Month start?

The first ESEA Heritage Month in the UK took place in September 2021. It was created by besea.n (Britain’s East and South East Asian Network), a volunteer-led grassroots community-focused organisation that aims to empower, educate and embrace East and South East Asian (ESEA) communities across the UK.

ESEA Heritage Month isn’t ‘officially’ recognised by the UK government yet. Besides it being the right thing to do, to recognise and celebrate ESEA heritage, culture and contributions in the UK, organisations also have the unique opportunity to take action and lead in best practice on marking ESEA Heritage Month across workplaces.

Our member’s factsheet is coming soon!

Why is ESEA Heritage Month important?

ESEA Heritage Month creates space for people of ESEA heritage across the UK to celebrate their identities, cultures, background, as well as reclaim their history by sharing their own stories and experiences. It also provides learning opportunities for others, and opportunities for growth for all allies.

What does it mean to people of East and South East Asian heritage?

Nozomi Tolworthy 雷希望 – Inclusion and Diversity Consultant
“Celebrating ESEA Heritage Month in the UK has been really important to me since it began in 2021 and has enabled me to find a sense of community.
Since moving to the UK from Hong Kong for my university studies, I had found it challenging to find others who share my cultural identity. There was a sense that my Mixed East Asian heritage meant I was ‘too Asian’ for my white peers, yet ‘too white’ for my Asian peers. Living away from home, from my culture, meant I also felt a heightened desire to connect with my cultural identity.
Roll on a couple of years later, and we were faced with the covid-19 pandemic. This was obviously a turbulent time for us all. Particularly, it also brought to the forefront of mainstream dialogue racial inequalities, discrimination and oppression, still present in the UK now. We saw the disproportionate effect of covid-19 on Black and Global Majority frontline NHS staff, the huge resurgence of a global Black Lives Matter movement in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, as well as protests across North America and the UK demanding action against the increase in anti-Asian hate crime brought on by how some leaders, and the media, were talking about covid-19. I won’t go into it here, but there are articles and research such as this here, that explore the racial violence that was experienced in the last few years in the UK.

A variety of ESEA community organisations were founded out of this, #StopAsianHate, besea.n, Racism Unmasked Edinburgh, On Your Side, to name a few. Many of these were launched digitally on social channels and hosted safe spaces for conversations during these times. As we emerged from the pandemic, these community organisations continued their advocacy work alongside social and community-focused events. And of course, the founding of ESEA Heritage Month which is all about awareness raising, education, as well as creating room for ESEA celebration and joy.

Over these last few years, I’ve had the privilege to feel welcomed in some of these spaces, where there’s always been an understanding that there are many ways to be, as well as look, East/South East Asian, and all these are valid, valued and celebrated.

I feel grateful to have found a sense of community, and made some friends through ESEA Heritage Month events. Which of course, isn’t the only reason why ESEA Heritage Month is needed and important, but is what’s meant a lot to me.

So I’m really looking forward to getting to share this ESEA Heritage Month with my colleagues at Inclusive Employers, our members, and any organisation that is also looking to bring ESEA Heritage Month into the spotlight for their workforce this September too!”

How to celebrate ESEA Heritage Month in the workplace?

1. Allow the space for colleagues to share their lived experiences

Ask your staff networks or staff of ESEA heritage if they would like to share their experiences if they are comfortable with this. Co-ordinate with your communications teams and staff networks/employee network groups to plan events and activities that your staff would like to see. This allows people to learn more from lived experiences and grounds the importance of ESEA Heritage Month.

2. Learning more!

Share information about ESEA Heritage Month – like this awareness day page! Start the conversation in your organisation about ESEA Heritage Month, its importance and why it’s matters to those of East and/or South East Asian heritage in the UK.

Be sure to include all the relevant teams to make these events meaningful and representative, as well as communicated far and wide for all your staff!

3. Training

Your organisation could gain valuable insight into the significance of ESEA Heritage Month by committing to learning new things about the diversity of ESEA cultures, heritages and histories in the UK this month. Training is an excellent way to broaden your team’s knowledge while also celebrating the month.

Inclusive Employers provide bespoke training, workshops and consultancy on a variety of topics (Inclusion Allies, Unconscious bias etc) to suit the needs of your organisation, as well as hosting regular webinars across all areas of inclusion and diversity.

We are running an event webinar on this topic: ‘Celebrating East and South East Asian (ESEA) Heritage Month’