Welcome to the AVE Blog!
A home for stories, art, and activism from the Asian diaspora in Europe. Dive in for snapshots of AVE’s work, powerful interviews, exhibition reflections, and decolonizing critique — all amplifying voices that matter!
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AVE updates: 2026 Q3
☀️ This summer, we’ve continued working across policy, advocacy, and research to increase Asian visibility in the EU. For the first time ever, we hosted an in-person poster drawing workshop for FLINTA Asians in Berlin in May! In July,we released an open letter calling out racism in German public broadcasting. ✍️ We were excited to finally meet our community in person, while continuing to bring our work to the public, such as the 23rd IMISCOE conference or resistant theatre.
AVE Column “Small but Not Really” #2: how do I survive in an academic world that denies racism?
Small but Not Really is a new column hosted by AVE, where we will try to help address your dilemmas about living as Asians in Europe. What happens when racism is perpetuated by leaders who look like you and are dismissed by the very people you thought would understand it? In this second edition of AVE’s Small but Not Really column, an early-career researcher reflects on a painful encounter with a senior scholar of Asian descent, who claims to have never experienced Anti-Asian racism and would rather embrace the stereotypes rather than question its existence.. This account examines how internalized racism, power, and silence in academia, create the perfect storm for racism to remain unchallenged. It also shows the importance of solidarity and awareness of the influence and power that you have.
Digestible Asianness: Violence in Food Culture
‘I hope they bring some satays for us’
What happens when an entire identity is reduced entirely to food, and its people, histories, and cultural significance are purposefully cast aside and forgotten? In Newsletter #6, Gabriëlle explores food as something that shapes identity, connects communities, and carries heritage. She also examines why and how food is weaponized against the very communities it belongs to. 🥡
Look back at the IMISCOE 2026 workshop “Racialised Positionalities in Research on Asian Diasporas”
The 23rd Annual IMISCOE Conference took place in Girona, Spain on June 29th - July 2nd, 2026. IMISCOE, the International Migration Research Network, is the largest interdisciplinary network of migration researchers. Alison (she/her) had the opportunity to help organize “Racialised Positionalities in Research on Asian Diasporas: Reflexivity, Methodology, and Collaboration”, a workshop dedicated to creating a space for open dialogue on how a researcher’s racial identity shapes their research design.
![[AVE Interview #3] Mary Lee — From Books to Encounters: How a Bookspace Became a Collaborative Space for Asian Diasporas](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/67361f4474b2874f1cb3cd51/1786464149149-J4FFKSZWIURX8B6XA3B6/E6Interview1.png)
[AVE Interview #3] Mary Lee — From Books to Encounters: How a Bookspace Became a Collaborative Space for Asian Diasporas
In May, AVE gathered at encounters.hongkong, a bookspace in Berlin, for our very first in-person poster drawing workshop. What struck us wasn't only the books, but the feeling that this was a space where conversations could happen organically. In this newsletter edition, Mary Lee shares the story behind the space and what it takes to keep it alive 📚
AVE updates: 2026 Q2
Is it summer where you are? We sure hope so! With 2026 wellhalfway, we’ve been busy kicking off our long-awaited community projects, thanks to funding by filia.die frauenstiftung. For the coming year and a half, we’ll be hosting poster workshops, making a book, and conducting a legal review on sexual violence against the Asian FLINTA* community. Follow us on Instagram and our newsletter to hear the latest!
Celebrating 6 years of Asian Voices Europe
Over the past 6 years, Asian Voices Europe has grown. From meeting up as an ad hoc peer support group on Google Meet during the COVID-19 pandemic, officially registering as a charity organization in the Netherlands, to becoming the first Asian-run organization to consult the European Commission on anti-racism, our work has developed into a permanent project.
CinemAsia 2026: Finding Common Ground
CinemAsia: “shared ground, history, and humanity”
CinemAsia 2026 highlighted diverse Asian voices through film and dialogue in Amsterdam. From queer Asian narratives and historical memory to chosen families and diaspora experiences, this year’s festival featured authenticity and plurality. At a time when spaces for connection and cultural expression are increasingly important, CinemAsia continues to create meaningful ground for community and storytelling.
Letter from the curator #5: If ruins could talk
In our fifth Letter from the Curator, Jeongwon Seo invites us to explore the question of architecture, development, and community. Why are some buildings hailed as “the future”, and then left to fall into ruins? What can we learn from the traces of the past? Join us on a walk down the Mosquito Halls (蚊子館) of Taiwan.
AVE updates: 2026 Q1
Happy new (lunar) year from all of us at Asian Voices Europe! 🌝 To welcome in the new year, we’re here with our latest updates, a reflection on how colonialism has shaped how we perceive traditional arts and crafts, as well as our opinion on the EU’s inaugural Anti-Racism Strategy (released this January).
EU Anti-Racism Strategy 2026-2030: A Toothless Strategy?
Racism is not only a matter of hate speech or individual prejudice. It is embedded in institutions, laws, healthcare, education systems, housing, and labor markets. We examine the European Commission’s new EU Anti-Racism Strategy 2026–2030. As youth participation fades and anti-Asian racism remains peripheral, we ask: what does a strategy mean if it names inequality without transforming it?
AVE Column “Small but Not Really” #1: should i leave my choir?
Small but Not Really is a new column hosted by AVE, where we will try to help address your dilemmas about living as Asians in Europe. To kick things off, we’re sharing a query sent in by one of our own members. Do you have some helpful advice for them? Simply respond to this email and share your thoughts.
Letter from the curator #4: Tikar and an active intervention into colonial order
In our fourth Letter from the Curator, Jeongwon Seo invites us to explore Yee I-Lann’s TIKAR/MEJA, where traditional woven mats embroidered with tables invite us to rethink height, hierarchy, and modernity. From the ground level, the work asks how colonialism reshaped not only our living spaces, but the way we see and value the world.
AVE updates: 2025 Q3
AVE in Action in Autumn 2025.
We are taking a moment to look back on the past few months as we step into November. 🍂 From new campaigns to continued collaborations, and even our very first grant, this season has been full of movement and growth. Here’s a glimpse into what we’ve been working on at AVE, and thank you to everyone who’s continued walking this journey with us. 💛
Blog: When services turn racist, know your right.
Racism happens everywhere; at the gym, restaurant, museum, and public institutions, too. Our latest blog unpacks how discrimination shows up in services and what you can legally do about it in Germany.
Letter from the curator #3: A Story of Oseonbo: Sounds Lost in Translation
In our fourth Letter from the Curator, Jeongwon Seo invites us to explore YoungEun Kim’s work, A Story of Oseonbo: Sounds Lost in Translation, by tracing Korean traditional music transcribed into Western notation. Through this work, we ask ourselves how sounds and ways of hearing were transformed, translated, and lost in the tides of colonial modernity.
AVE Interview #2: Voies of Inclusion: Prof. Linda Juang on Diversity, Migration, and Education
Our second AVE interview series features Linda Juang, Professor of Inclusive Education at the University of Potsdam. She is a scholar and educator whose academic work and personal journey guide us on key issues of diversity, ethnicity, migration, education, and anti-Asian racism in both academic and social contexts. We interviewed Linda to hear more about her experiences as an Asian American female scholar, educator, and mother of two living in Europe.
Celebrating four years of NewGen Festival
This article features the Berlin NewGen film festival, now in its fourth edition. This independent, community-led festival carved out a space for Asian diasporic cinema and filmmakers to gain visibility in Germany. We spoke with co-founder and director Huangdan Zhao about what it takes to sustain an Asian film festival in Berlin, and why representation on screen matters
Street harassment is illegal, did you know?
For many of us in the Asian diaspora in Europe, street harassment is a daily reality—whether it’s “sambal bij” from a car, “nihao” on a bike, or “ching chang chong” on the street. The impact is real. But here’s what many don’t know: in several European countries, it’s a crime—punishable by fines of up to €750 or even a year in prison. When AVE members finally met in The Hague, our weekend of connection was interrupted by blatant street harassment. We turned that experience—and what we learned from the police—into a practical guide for reporting and dealing with racist abuse in public.
AVE updates: 2025 Q2
As summer winds down, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the past three months at AVE. From the open letter, policy advocacy to funding efforts, here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been doing. Thank you to everyone for your heartfelt support us along the way.