Exploring Asian Heritage with The Ubyssey

Find Creation, our 2024 AHM supplement, on stands and online!

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The Ubyssey, Aisha Chaudhry, Elena Massing & Iman Janmohamed
May 28, 2024

Being Asian, especially while growing up or living in a different culture, can sometimes lead to feeling lost, disconnected from your heritage and the country around you.

What does it mean to be connected to your roots? Does food play a role in connecting you to your culture? Is religion part of it? Do you know your mother tongue, or wish you did?

Whether it’s through music, writing, film or other forms of media, people turn to art to decode these tricky questions — and we explored that in The Ubyssey’s 2024 Asian Heritage Month supplement, Creation.

But creating art isn’t just a way to find answers — it connects us to our pasts and allows us to look toward the future. Art recognizes where we began and builds off those cultures to create new ways of experiencing our heritage.

While searching for home — whatever that means to you — we build new communities. And we’re happy you’re part of ours.

— Elena Massing, Iman Janmohamed & Aisha Chaudhry
2024 Asian Heritage Month Supplement Editors

The first issue from the 106th masthead!

Creation, 2024 AHM Supplement

Through the portals

My mom is packing a suitcase / before her 23-hour flight to Vietnam.

Words by Vicky Nguyen | Illustrations by Ayla Cilliers

Being Asian Canadian is learning to treasure coexistence

I’ve never understood Gurbani. I’ve spoken Punjabi my entire life, albeit not well, and I thought I had a good grasp on the language I considered my first. When I looked around, I saw people who could understand it and people who didn’t care to understand it. I didn’t fit either of those, nor did I fit a lot of the ideas that constitute being Punjabi.

Words by Shubhreet Dadrao | Illustrations by Ayla Cilliers

NEWS

One month of the Palestinian solidarity encampment

Here's what's happened on campus this past month.

Words by Aisha Chaudhry, Iman Janmohamed & Spencer Izen
Photos by Iman Janmohamed

AMS projects surplus for 2024/25 fiscal year

On April 25, the AMS passed its 2024/25 budget and this year it is expecting a budget surplus of $1,438.69.

Words by Raunaq Nambiar | Photos Isa S. You

CULTURE

New mural reminds UBC that the clock is ticking on the fight against rising sea levels

In the Nest’s sustainability corridor, a new mural by UBC students Josianne Assignon and Ana Julia Leon showcases how rising sea levels might appear at UBC.

Words by Jenykha Sangha | Photos retrieved via Instagram

FEATURES

Queering gears

At UBC, changing perceptions about Queerness in engineering frequently falls on the shoulders of students or student-run clubs like Gears and Queers.

Words by Iman Janmohamed & Nathan Bawaan
Illustrations by Iman Janmohamed

‘There’s life spreading out behind the story’: Nobel Prize–winning former UBC writer–in–residence Alice Munro dies at 92

Munro began to write in the pockets of silence she found in her days as a stay-at-home mom while her children were asleep. By 1968, she had written enough to publish her first collection of short stories, and she received her first Governor General’s Award for it.

Words by Fiona Sjaus | Photos Courtesy CanLit Guides

OPINION

‘Blood is Thicker’ — What I wish I knew about maintaining sibling relationships as an international student

I’ve always felt that the international student/parent dynamic gets a lot of airtime in university discourse, with reluctant updates on grades, finances, housing and relationships. But today I want to focus on everyone’s favourite middleman: the sibling you left behind.

Words by Heidi Collie | Photos by Isabella Falsetti

HUMOUR

Unique wedding spots at UBC that will make your guests mutter, ‘wow…’

Getting married in the Nest or the Rose Garden is tried and true — aka boring and unoriginal. So, to make sure your special day is truly special, I’ve painstakingly composed this list of better places to get married on campus.

Words by Aisha Chaudhry | Photos by Isabella Falsetti

SPORTS

Football program has historic NFL, CFL drafts

The UBC football program had some incredible successes this year — an undefeated record for home games, their 17th Hardy Cup win and their first Vanier Cup appearance since 2015. But none are larger than the 2024 NFL and CFL drafts.

Words by Lauren Kasowski | Photos by Saumya Kamra

SCIENCE

Indigenous in STEM: How a UBC program is planting the next generation of Indigenous scientists

A UBC program is embracing the call to equity, diversity and inclusion to better serve local Indigenous youth in STEM.

Words by Vicky Nguyen
Photos Courtesy Cheryl Niamath / ICORD

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