AAPI Heritage Month Discussion

Wait, AAPI month is the USA event; thus it's not about Anti-Asian hate crime victims living in other non-Asian regions?

​I have friends and distant relatives living in Australia and Germany saying that they've been yelled at, pushed and threatened in the streets way more than before pandemic.

AAPI month is mainly celebrated in the USA, yes. Still, if it's about a national event.. well, I can't help but feel a little disappointed. I'm Asian-Asian so I don't belong in either case and not gonna steal their moment anyway. It's just, idk, disappointing.

We are concerned about the well being of Asian Americans, we know about the discrimination they have been through and how they are still villianised, especially since the rise of Covid. No one wants to steal their thunder. Especially when the USA have been presenting themselves as a place where you can come and start fresh, the land of dreams, where everyone is equal and you can be whatever you want, while they criticise the rest of the world, ignoring the things in their society that they could better.
All we asked is why isn't a site that knows of its international audience more inclusive? We don't ask for a whole month.
Or maybe it should be us to take the first step?

Exactly this. Rather than the overabundance of America-centric events, can't we have more globally inclusive ones? Or expand the America-centric ones to include global creators? It'd be super easy to do this for AAPI; just let people living in the Asia-Pacific take part, along with the Asia-Pacific diaspora in Western nations outside America. (Britain, Australia, NZ, etc.) Don't exclude them.

International Women's Day was good. St Patrick's Day was a huge missed opportunity - it could have been a fantastic spotlight for Irish creators, and potentially inclusive for those of Irish descent living abroad. (Who were still being treated abysmally just a century ago; that stuff leaves ripples into current generations. Sadly, my extended family are great examples of that.) If there is a global day celebrating indigenous heritage, that'd be an amazing one to do as well. Don't just focus on North American indigenous peoples, allow indigenous peoples globally to take part.

Obviously, Tapas can't accommodate the celebrations of every country. I'm not shouting for an Australia Day spotlight or anything. Just try to make the overall focus of events and spotlights more global.

I follow and participate in games, videos, etc that are made or created in other countries. If those people decided to celebrate/recognize a heritage, event, etc that is only for their country, then I would think that is pretty awesome and would support them 100%, even if their player/viewer base were majority in a different country.

Like if Tapas were based in Canada and they did some sort of Canadian-Asian celebration/recognition, that would not bother me. Would that also bother other people? Or is it just the fact that it's America? If it's just cause 'Merica, then there's probably another issue going on... Just a bit of food for thought.

If it were not Covid19, I'd agree with you, but this year is.. you know, different. It’s been awful for all Asians living in non-Asian nations.

I believe that the discussion itself is productive whether this month's celebration should be limited to Americans or not. It’s not diminishing the importance of it; it's showing more possibilities to respect people.

Bong Joon ho, the director of Parasite called Oscar “a local event”. AAPI month in Tapas looks like, yeh.. a local event. If Tapas wants to keep it that way, then well it is.

The main thing that turns this problematic, is the reason behind the event.

if it was just to celebrate the american exclusive event, that's cool.

but since they are doing this because of the increase of asian hate, something that isn't an exclusively american problem, it makes it look like they only care abou the American asian hate. aka, if asian hate happens outside of america, it doesn't concern them.

This surely isn't their intention!!
it's just what this approach implies when they are holding the event not to celebrate the american-asian culture (which is unarguably a unique experience to, idk, brazil, or italy, or south africa. seperating that would totally be fair) but, as they have stated, to do something in light of the asian hate.
because it says "we care about Asian hate, but only when it concerns asian-americans"

in the end they are a bussiness, so even charity or awareness campaigns, do boil down to business desicions and shouldn't be taken too much as a symbol of how much the company cares about its audience and users.

Hey, it's insensitive to call a minority group envies the other. They are both victims of hate crime in the first place. No one wants to be discriminated just to be featured on Tapas.

I'll only chime in once coz i have no desire to get in some back in forth but if there's truly such an issue then why not make your own asian heritage month threads?

Black creators made their own threads after the creators of color and black history month threads/banners (even before iirc) so if you'd really truly like to see promo threads for general asian diaspora creators then there's no harm just making one of your own and maybe asking mods to pin it alongside the main one they have officially

like i don't think anyone's trying to make accusations of oppression olympics but it's the way we're making complaints because they're highlighting just one specific region although that's where the company is based. Like there's no harm raising concerns but like someone else said its not that deep and like i'd said if your going to be so pressed then make the effort to do some boosting on your own than badgering a company that will make their own decisions (in some cases regardless of community opinion)

I'm hopping in here from the other thread. Looks like I missed it.

I think everyone here understands the point about Tapas being an American Company, and I don't mean to speak for everyone as well, so I'll just add that this is my opinion. But it's hard to call Tapas a localized American Company, yes? I spend ink on a lot of novels/comics I read on the site, as a non-American resident. I'm sure they have a spectacularly global audience. And likewise, they have a spectacularly global creator base as well. In many ways, this makes Tapas a global community/company. Don't get me wrong. I don't think it's feasible to keep track of all the holidays/celebrations across the world, but in moments like these, there is a unique opportunity to make this a global phenomenon. More than a localized phenomenon.

What about Asians in other non-Asian countries, and even Asians in Asian countries? I've been featured twice on Tapas in my one year here, and it's still hard to explain that it's a win/success to my family. There's always this unyielding pressure to do something stable, to avoid creative pursuits, to avoid art as a passion, and much more along those lines. I have a job, but I do toy around with the idea of maybe doing this full-time someday.

A few of us (and recently many more) do overcome these pressures to dare, to dream. It's not comparable to racism and hate, but it's a kind of suffering in its own way. I know someone personally, who had to quit the saxophone to become an engineer, or risk being removed from his family. I'm talking about urban, cultured family people.

It's not about exposure. But more about an acknowledgement for some people. We're fighting different battles, and being acknowledged for your story (personal and created) means different things for different people. It doesn't always have to tie into the worst possible thing, in my opinion. It can be to help an Asian in Vietnam, or India believe that they can create stories on par with the West, on par with countries like Japan, South Korea, and China with their light novels. I absolutely loved Black History Month being a global event for Tapas. I know multiple countries observe the month, but still. It became this amazing that united people from across the world. AAPI can be that, too.

We live in that kind of world. We live in a digital world. We can form opinions, and we can be influenced depending on stories we read on Twitter/Facebook now. Access to information is so much more powerful. And with Tapas being in such an influential position, isn't this a modern, cool way to push through for their Asian creators/audience in a global level? To connect and celebrate together?

It's more a, "Why not?" question. I don't know. It's a thought.

Then there's me who chimed into the promotion not realizing AAPI was specifically for Asian-American people, which I am not - I do not live in America. I thought it was a blanket term for all Asian people but it just happens to be used by Americans. Woops.

Although I wish AAPI also incorporated Asians outside of the US - I'm kinda just glad it's there to amplify Asian voices in general. Maybe I'm just used to getting what I can (I'm Filipino, we really don't get noticed by the west often, if at all), but if it lets people listen to Asians, then I guess I'd be fine with it.

Hello there~ Just wanted to put my two cents here... like many have said, I believe these events isn't to exclude anyone out. I don't think anyone is going to stop you from posting your novels/ comics on the pinned post strictly because you're not Asian American. I certainly would love to see works created by fellow Asian and Pacific Islander creators!

It's not just America that has been seeing this increase in Asian hate crimes; it's happening in almost every part of the globe right now! Also, just want to point out that racism and discrimination exists everywhere in the world and everyone is always going to have to fight against these negative stereotypes. Instead of arguing how the AAPI heritage month is strictly for Asian Americans and how Tapas is not being inclusive, why don't we all just come together as one big community and support one another? I feel that that will be much more productive than quarreling and being negative about Tapas' efforts for inclusivity. Many other platforms don't even bother to do something like Tapas does; why can't we just be thankful about that? At least it shows that they're trying!

However, if you don't feel comfortable because it is, indeed, an "American" thing, then please feel free to post your links to the thread I have created, which @joannekwan has graciously mentioned! Or, like @VibrantFox has suggested, make one of your own! I'd love to support each other and have our works grow as a community!