Asian Heritage Research Articles

The racialisation of British citizenship

The history of British citizenship is a history of state racism – from the differential treatment of ‘non-patrial’ citizens who acquired citizenship through a colony rather than through British ancestry, which led to the ‘East African Asians’ scandal of 1968, and the quiet withdrawal of British citizenship from former colonial citizens when their countries became independent, which led to the Windrush scandal, through the dilution of the right of citizenship by birth in the UK ( ius soli) in 1981, to current laws which apply the logic of deportation and exclusion to black and brown citizens. British citizens are divided into those claiming only British citizenship, who can never lose it whatever they do, and those who, although they may have been born here, have another citizenship and can lose British citizenship on the say-so of a minister. The latter group, with a second-class, disposable, contingent citizenship, are mostly from ethnic minorities – and the changes to citizenship law which have created these classes of citizenship were brought in to target British Muslims of South Asian and Middle Eastern heritage. While the government claims that only those whose actions pose grave threats to national security, or who have committed abhorrent crimes, will lose their citizenship, the division of citizens into those with secure and insecure status affects vastly more people.

Cortisol across preschool day relates to teacher ratings of executive functioning for children facing economic hardship

Experiences of poverty and racism in early childhood can overburden physiological systems that respond to stress with implications for the development of the prefrontal cortex and related executive functioning. The present study is unique in its examination of basal cortisol output across the preschool day in relation to teacher ratings of executive functioning. Participants were 310 children attending Head Start preschool in the United States, a majority of whom were Black, Hispanic, or Asian Heritage. Salivary cortisol was sampled in duplicate at 4 times across 2 days near the beginning of the school year, resulting in a total of 16 samples per child. Several weeks later, the BRIEF-P teacher rating scale assessed various components of executive functioning. Zero-order correlations suggested that basal cortisol output across the preschool day related to each assessed component of executive functioning, as well as to composite scores. Results of hierarchical linear modeling indicated that higher cortisol across the preschool day related to greater difficulties in overall teacher-reported executive functioning, controlling for child age, birth-assigned sex, race/ethnicity, and family income. Implications concern understanding the impact of stress on executive functioning in the preschool classroom and promoting positive outcomes for children facing adversity.

Tumor lysis syndrome following ifosfamide monotherapy in metastatic osteosarcoma: a case report and review of the literature

BackgroundTumor lysis syndrome is an oncologic emergency that involves multiple metabolic abnormalities and clinical symptoms such as acute renal failure, cardiac arrhythmias, seizures, and multiorgan failure, and may be fatal if not promptly recognized. Tumor lysis syndrome occurs most often in patients with hematologic malignancies, and relatively few cases have been described in patients with sarcoma.Case presentationA 64-year-old male of Asian heritage presented to his primary care physician with a right lower-extremity mass and was ultimately diagnosed with widely metastatic osteosarcoma. He was treated with one cycle of cisplatin and doxorubicin that was complicated by hypervolemia and hypoxic respiratory failure. Given concerns for volume overload, therapy was changed to single-agent, dose-reduced ifosfamide. After receiving one dose of ifosfamide 1 g/m2 (1.8 g total) intravenously over 1 hour, the patient developed renal failure, hyperuricemia, hyperkalemia, hyperphosphatemia, and lactic acidosis. The patient ultimately died from severe electrolyte abnormalities associated with tumor lysis syndrome.ConclusionThis is the first instance of tumor lysis syndrome described in a patient with osteosarcoma undergoing ifosfamide monotherapy. Clinicians must be vigilant in identifying tumor lysis syndrome regardless of the malignancy type or chemotherapy regimen in order to prevent potentially fatal complications.

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Fusion music and fault lines in Shoaib Mansoor’s Khuda Kay Liye

ABSTRACT This paper argues that while fusion music in Shoaib Mansoor’s film Khuda Kay Liye (KKL) (2007) serves to reclaim Pakistan’s South Asian heritage, there are moments in KKL when non-Muslim South Asians are othered. I examine these contradictory elements in the film with respect to two songs. I first look at ‘Bulleh Nu’, an anti-casteist ‘kafi’ attributed to the seventeenth/eighteenth century Sufi poet Baba Bulleh Shah, born in present-day Pakistani Punjab. I then contrast ‘Bulleh Nu’ with the film’s problematic representation of the Sikh as a ‘villainous’ other. Subsequently I analyze ‘Neer Bharan’, a ‘bandis ki thumri’ associated with the cosmopolitan ethos of the nineteenth century kingdom of Awadh, now located in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Alongside my analysis of ‘Neer Bharan’, I write about how KKL only partially distances itself from the conflation of religious and national identities in Pakistan. The minoritization of non-Muslims from the subcontinent in the film is consistent with how they are represented in certain Pakistani educational and cultural texts. Therefore the desire to embrace Pakistan’s pluralistic traditions in Khuda Kay Liye is juxtaposed with a relatively uncritical stance towards non-inclusive notions of citizenship.

Keanu’s late style: the ubiquitous art of short-form celebrity

ABSTRACT Over the course of his Hollywood career, Keanu Reeves’ stardom has elicited contradictory appraisals. A well-documented history of personal struggle has facilitated a collective engagement with the lived reality of the star, fostering the public construction of an emotional interiority. Yet, these efforts at authentication seem to be obstructed by the enigmatic star’s commitment to a form of privacy that eschews the conventions of celebrity access . Following a discussion of the longstanding contradictions around his celebrity subjectivity, this article focuses on transformations in Reeves’ persona over the past decade. Since 2010ʹs ‘Sad Keanu’ meme, the star’s popularity has exploded into ubiquity, creating new fantasies of communicative disclosure. I unpack this late career ubiquity by focusing on the figurations of his celebrity identity across the ‘short form ephemera’ of memes, selfies, and film cameos. This article shows how these ephemera create new mediations of celebrity proximity, including his cameo in the romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe, where the articulation of Keanu’s Asian heritage marked an important intervention into the public life of the star. Working across celebrity studies paradigms including reluctance and confession, this article traces an emerging short-form media ecology unfolding serially across new arrangements of celebrity interaction.

Differences in total and regional body fat and their association with BMI in UK-born White and South Asian children: findings from the Born in Bradford birth cohort.

Background: Body mass index (BMI) is commonly used as a proxy to determine excess adiposity, though this may underestimate fat mass (FM) in individuals of South Asian (SA) heritage. SA tend to have greater central adiposity than white people, which is associated with a higher risk of cardiometabolic disease. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to determine the differences in total and regional FM using Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and to see if any differences in FM varied by BMI category in UK-born white and SA children aged ~9 years. Methods: Anthropometric measurements and DXA scans were undertaken from 225 white and 269 SA children from the Born in Bradford cohort study. Linear regression was used to assess ethnic differences in total body fat percent and total and regional FM. Results: Although mean BMI was similar, compared to white children, the proportion of SA children who were overweight or obese was ~10% higher, and the proportion with > 35% total body fat (TBF) was 22% and 16% higher in boys and girls respectively. Mean TBF% was greater in SA children compared to white children in the same BMI category. Fat mass index (FMI) was higher in all body regions in SA children in all BMI categories; as was total and truncal FMI in healthy and overweight, but not obese, SA children. Conclusions: Greater TBF% and total and regional FM in SA children suggests they may be at greater risk of future cardiometabolic disease at a BMI level below the obesity threshold. However, our sample size was small, and results may be influenced by selection bias and confounding; our findings need to be replicated in a larger study.

The beneficial role of family enmeshment among South Korean immigrants in the United States.

Enmeshment is considered inimical to healthy family dynamics among European Americans. However, recent studies have failed to show negative associations between family enmeshment and individual outcomes among Asian Heritage families. Using structural equation modelling and multiple group analysis, this study examined whether enmeshed relationships are dysfunctional in Korean immigrant families in the United States and whether degree of acculturation moderated the associations between enmeshment and children's socioemotional functioning and academic performance. The sample consisted of 98 South Korean immigrant families with children between 9 and 14 years of age residing in the Greater New York City Area. Results showed that enmeshed family relationships tended to be beneficial to child socioemotional functioning and the association became more evident with lower than higher degree of acculturation. Findings are discussed in terms of the meaning of enmeshment when working with Korean immigrant families in the United States.

Bilateral benign isolated choroidal melanocytosis

Isolated choroidal melanocytosis is a congenital, typically unilateral melanocytic hyperpigmentation involving the choroid without any other features of ocular melanocytosis. It is a distinct clinical diagnosis that must be distinguished from an expansive list of choroidal pigmentary disorders. We present the rare case of bilateral isolated choroidal melanocytosis in a 40-year-old female of Asian heritage. The patient had no systemic illnesses or systemic symptoms and no dermatologic findings. On dilated fundus examination, she was found to have extensive bilateral choroidal melanosis.

The Heaviest Drop of Blood: Black Exceptionalism Among Multiracials

We leverage the emerging multiracial population to reexamine prominent theories of the American color line. A Black exceptionalism hypothesis suggests that Black heritage will be more restrictive of biracials' social and political assimilation prospects than Asian or Latino heritage. Black exceptionalism better explains biracials' sorting into the racial hierarchy than does classic assimilation theory or a people‐of‐color hypothesis. In the American Community Survey, Black heritage dominates subjective racial self‐identification among biracial adults and identity assignments to children of interracial marriages. In the 2015 Pew Survey of Multiracials, Black‐White biracials' social identity, social networks, perceptions and experiences of discrimination, and political attitudes relevant to race resemble those of monoracial Blacks, whereas Latino‐Whites and Asian‐Whites are more similar to monoracial Whites than to their minority‐group counterparts. Results suggest that even in a more racially mixed future, Black Americans will continue to be uniquely situated behind a most impermeable color line.

Supplemental Material for Within- and Between-Group Heterogeneity in Cultural Models of Emotion Among People of European, Asian, and Latino Heritage in the United States

Supplemental Material for Within- and Between-Group Heterogeneity in Cultural Models of Emotion Among People of European, Asian, and Latino Heritage in the United States

Challenges in decolonizing linguistics: the politics of enregisterment and the divergent uptakes of translingualism

Abstract This article traces the roots of translingualism in the Global South, with particular relevance to the author’s South Asian heritage. After narrating his attempts to practice this orientation in his research and scholarship, the author analyzes the problematic ways in which translingualism is appropriated in the academic, economic, and political contexts in Global North. Employing the conceptual orientation of enregisterment, the article theorizes the challenges for decolonizing discourses in negotiating a critical and transformative uptake. It concludes by outlining some strategies that can help in entextualizing translingualism to preserve its decolonizing potential. It identifies areas of research that will expand the communities, contexts, and communication that will facilitate more pluriversal epistemologies and practices.

Muslim Woman/Muslim women: lived experiences beyond religion and gender in South Asia and its diasporas

ABSTRACT Images of the ‘Muslim Woman’ – passive, cloistered, and oppressed – have a long and inglorious history and have often been deployed in wider political debates in South Asia and beyond. The ground realities, however, tell a different story: there is no such person as the ‘Muslim Woman’ and this Special Issue presents papers that highlight the diversity of Muslim women’s lives within South Asia and among Muslim women of South Asian heritage in the diaspora. Muslim women often live in economic and political contexts that are hostile to their wellbeing and their experiences are also shot through with their own intersecting identities – region and residence, class, educational and employment opportunities, marital status, stage in the life course, and so forth. Our contributors focus on different arenas to highlight the diverse complexities faced by Muslim women grappling with the exigencies of daily life: engagements with the legal system in relation to marriage and inheritance; performing ‘claims work’ in order to obtain their entitlements from the state; involvement in income-generating work; and the impact of male outmigration on ‘left-behind’ wives.

Curriculum theorizing of self‐other for change: To see, to observe, and to contemplate through I‐Ching (The Book of Change)

AbstractThis study is about the curriculum theorizing of self‐other and transformation. The two authors, both of Asian heritage, share their lived experience and interpretations of Chapter 20 of I‐Ching. This paper revisits a conventional, humanistic division of self‐other as a launching pad to challenge the current discourse on cultural diversity and curriculum change. Mainly, the authors revisit the dichotomous understanding of self‐other and challenge modes of curriculum change that are operated by the logic of meritocracy and individual effort. This investigation of I‐Ching opens up its landscape through a conversation about personal and social change, with an epistemological shift from the self‐other binary, thus imagining curriculum implications for a different society. The process of writing narratives is an epistemological healing process in that writing as inquiry helps revalue indigenous intellectual treasures that have been denigrated by Eurocentric ideologies both historically and politically. This examination of I‐Ching, specifically hexagram 20, will provide educators with an innovative epistemological frame that will allow them to review, rethink, challenge, and possibly advance discourses on seeing, change, and self‐other in curriculum and cultural studies.

Evaluation of an ancestry prediction strategy for historical military remains using a World War II-era sample and pedigrees with family-level admixture

ABSTRACT Errors in ancestry prediction for historical military casework result in soldiers unable to be interred to the country they fought and died for. Australian WWII soldiers with varying degrees of European and Asian heritage are expected in the remains recovered in the Asia-Pacific, representing the greatest risk of error for Unrecovered War Casualties-Army (UWC-A). Previous research using the Ghaiyed population-specific panel (GPSP), on a modern British sample, demonstrated less variation in family-level admixture compared to four global ancestry panels. This suggested that the targeting of specific populations of interest may improve accuracy, although an evaluation using a sample of WWII-era European-Australians (W2A) with varying degrees of family-level admixture was required. This paper outlines the development of an ancestry prediction strategy using a W2A sample (non-admixed), and simulation of 4,000 genotypes representing Australian pedigrees with one Japanese ancestor (great-great-grandparent, great-grand-parent, grandparent, and parent). All great-great-grandparent to grandparent profiles were accurately predicted as W2A individuals, and although admixture at the parent level could not be resolved, no profiles were incorrectly assigned Japanese ancestry. The GPSP provided more informative predictions in contrast with the mitochondrial DNA/Y-chromosome lineage approach currently used by UWC-A as the GPSP provides an approximately 75% improvement.

Differences in total and regional body fat and their association with BMI in UK-born White and South Asian children: findings from the Born in Bradford birth cohort

Background: Body mass index (BMI) is commonly used as a proxy to determine excess adiposity, though this may underestimate fat mass (FM) in individuals of South Asian (SA) heritage. SA tend to have greater central adiposity than white people, which is associated with a higher risk of cardiometabolic disease. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to determine the differences in total and regional FM using Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and to see if any differences in FM varied by BMI category in UK-born white and SA children aged ~9 years. Methods: Anthropometric measurements and DXA scans were undertaken from 225 white and 269 SA children from the Born in Bradford cohort study. Linear regression was used to assess ethnic differences in total body fat percent and total and regional FM. Results: Although mean BMI was similar, compared to white children, the proportion of SA children who were overweight or obese was ~20% higher, and the proportion with &gt; 35% total body fat (TBF) was 22% and 16% higher in boys and girls respectively. Mean TBF% was greater in SA children compared to white children in the same BMI category. Fat mass index (FMI) was higher in all body regions in SA children in all BMI categories; as was total and truncal FMI in healthy and overweight, but not obese, SA children.. Conclusions: Greater TBF% and total and regional FM in SA children suggests they may be at greater risk of future cardiometabolic disease at a BMI level below the obesity threshold. However, our sample size was small, and results may be influenced by selection bias and confounding; our findings need to be replicated in a larger study.

Predictive Assay for Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Associated with Vinca Alkaloids in Lymphoid Malignancies

Introduction: Vinca alkaloids, such as vincristine, are important anticancer agents mainly employed in the treatment of hematological cancers. The principal mechanism for the antineoplastic activity is microtubule disruption. However, these agents also cause damage to mitochondria which leads to oxidative stress and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Other chemotherapeutic drugs that are suggested to cause peripheral neuropathy by this mechanism, i.e., increased oxidative stress, include taxanes and platinum compounds. Oxidative damage to peripheral neurons can cause damage to myelin sheath, mitochondrial proteins, and other antioxidant enzymes, resulting in hyperexcitability of peripheral neurons. This nerve damage results in the commonly seen dose-limiting neurological side effect chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). Hence, assessment of biomarkers for peroxidation, myelin repair/maintenance, and red-ox balance (glutathione recycling) can be helpful in monitoring the on-set and course of peripheral neuropathy. We hypothesize that chemotherapeutic agents with similar effects on mitochondria (vinca alkaloids, taxanes and platinum compounds) will produce a specific pattern of glutathione recycling in patients prone to CIPN.Methods: Patients who had given written consent to participate in this exploratory single-centered, prospective IRB approved study contributed a blood sample prior to each treatment cycle. At each visit, the Rotterdam Symptoms Check-List (RSCL) was filled out and reported symptoms confirmed by comparison to notes in medical records.Whole blood was analyzed for glutathione recycling capacity using the bioactive probe hydroxyethyldisulfide (HEDS) and incubated at room temperature for 2 hours with gentle mixing. Prior to spectrophotometric determination, blood cells and proteinaceous thiols will be removed from the sample by acid precipitation and centrifugation. The final spectrophotometric reading will be converted into ME produced using the conversion factor provided in the assay kit Rockland Inc). Recycling capacity was compared to self-reported grade of CIPN.Results: Thus far we have enrolled 276 patients with an average age of 63.69 years (±12.85 STDEV; Range; 25-91). Patients are predominantly of Caucasian heritage (80.8%) along with 18.1 % African American and 1.1% Asian heritage. Females constitute 53.26 % of the cohort. To date we have 150 patients with more than 24 months of follow-up and among these patients, 5.5% had no reported symptoms of CIPN. Of those with severe CIPN (NCCN grade 3) neuropathy, 71% had a reduction in GSH recycling of greater than or equal to 40% from pre-treatment level. The reduced glutathione recycling capacity preceded on-set of symptoms by approximately 4 weeks. The majority of patients demonstrating this pattern of glutathione recycling had persistence CIPN that lasted for 6-18 months before an improvement was noted in medical records. We are currently assessing the value of adding biomarkers for lipid peroxidation and/or myelin formation/maintenance to further improve the likelihood ratio and AUROC values for the test.Conclusions: This data suggests the importance of GSH recycling in the ability to predict risk of CIPIN. Patients whose pre-treatment baseline was less than 1 or progressively dropped by at least 40%, seem to be at most risk for CIPN. Further, this may predict persistence of CIPN even after cessation of chemotherapy. Most patients in this cohort received taxanes or platinum therapy. However, given the similarity in mechanism and results from an early assessment of lymphoma patients treated with vinca alkaloids that resulted in similar outcomes with reduced glutathione recycling capacity suggest the possible use of this test to predict CIPN among lymphoma patients. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

COVID-19 and viral anti-Asian racism: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of memes and the racialization of the COVID-19 pandemic

This article examines how internet memes both enacted and reproduced racialization of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were motivated to undertake this work by a surge in hatred towards and violence against people with East Asian heritage following the outbreak of COVID-19. We focus on memes because of their ubiquity in contemporary culture and their capacity to both reflect and shape discourses. We conduct a multimodal critical discourse analysis of two prominent memes – juxtaposing a ‘top-down’ process of meme selection and distribution (the sharing of ‘The Kung-Flu Kid’ meme on Instagram by Donald Trump Jr) with a ‘bottom-up’ process (the ‘Corona-chan’ meme that originated on the website 4chan). We situate our study in a growing literature on politicized memes, challenging an emerging consensus that lauds ‘bottom-up’ memes as a democratizing force enabling resistance to hegemony, inequality and injustice. While we do not reject this characterization outright, we add nuance, showing that racialized memetic discourses around COVID-19 were propagated both from the top-down and from the bottom-up. We conclude that memes are particularly powerful communicative tools in racialized discourse because their use of polysemy, humour and cultural reference allows them to subvert the mechanisms that sanction openly racist statements.

Introducing the Special Issue on the Experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Children and Families in the Welfare Context

This Special Issue explores papers on the experiences of children, young people and families of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) heritage who come into contact with the criminal (youth) justice systems in the UK [...]

Children with systemic autoinflammatory diseases have multiple, mixed ethnicities that reflect regional ethnic diversity.

To evaluate the ethnic diversity of children with a systemic autoinflammatory disease (SAID) in a multi-ethnic Canadian province. Self-reported ethnicity of 149 children and adolescents with a SAID in British Columbia, Canada, was analysed for ethnic representation among individual patients, across the cohort, within particular SAIDs, and compared to provincial census data on ethnic diversity. Half of reported cases had a diagnosis of either PFAPA (23.5%) or an unclassifiable autoinflammatory syndrome (31.5%), with a monogenic SAID diagnosed in only 12.8% of cases. The majority of participants (73.1%) were mixed ethnicity with European and Asian heritage reported most frequently (57.0% and 23.0% of all responses, respectively). Ethnic diversity reflected regional diversity except for West Asian, Arabic, Jewish, and Eastern European heritage, which were over-represented in SAID patients, and Chinese descent, which was under-represented in our cohort compared to the general population of British Columbia. Results from this study show extensive multi-ethnic diversity in individual patients and across the various SAIDs inclusive of monogenic SAIDs that are frequently associated with particular ethnicities. Although not disproportionately represented, this is the first report of systemic autoinflammatory disease in Canadian children of Indigenous heritage.