Co-design narratives with ESEA queer for more visibility in the wider UK society
“In the UK, especially in London, Asians are one of the fastest -growing ethnic groups. It seems that we still lack an understanding about these communities. Hence, I feel that it is hugely important that we bring more queer Asian representation to the public.”
Partner with
British Asian Queer Community for East and Southeast Asians(BAQC ESEA)
Services
Service Design, Ethnography Research, Workshop, Digital Experience
Website
Skills & Tools
Field Observation, In-depth Interviews, User Journeys, Workshop Facilitation, Narratives Building, Ecosystem Map, Business Model Canvas
The Challenge
How might we build a safe and inclusive community for the ESEA queers to get support and tell their stories to increase more visibility to the UK society?
The Process
To learn about the complex context of ESEA queers with multiple identity layers in the UK, I conducted ethnographic research and participatory design with 5 workshop observations, 18 in-depth interviews and delivered 3 workshops, integrating user needs into queer community service.
The Results
Responding to partner’s needs of understanding the British context of East and Southeast Asian(ESEA) queers, together we designed a digital platform, connecting both online and offline activities, to invite those who are struggling with identity to share personal stories and receive support from the community.
The impact
The project gives ESEA queer living in the UK a platform to create their own narratives and community. Meanwhile, it arouses social awareness of re-learning this group and re-depicting the images of ESEA queer in multi-cultural context. It helps to embrace them to be part of queer community in the UK.
Outcome - storytelling website
Outcome - event calendar
Outcome - Q&A forum
Background
It all begins with “What it means to be a queer with the mixed culture of Asian heritage in the UK?“.
After attending the first event “Coming Out“ of British Asian Queer Community for East and Southeast Asians, I spoke to the founder Kaycee and started the project together, with the support of Queer Britain, Queer China UK, Pink Dot Ldn, Bahaghari UK.
East and Southeast Asian queers’ narratives of their stories and struggles in the UK.
The diverse demographic of ESEA living in the UK has been largely out of public visibility for such a long time. The layer of queerness leads to more stereotype and misunderstanding because of the culture gap and public lack of knowledge. This marginalized group have been challenged to answer, “How to preserve my own voice in ESEA’s narratives within the British context?“
Step 1: Discover the context of ESEA queer
Understanding the audience through zooming in their personal experience
To quickly understand the ESEA queers with mixed culture living in the UK, I zoomed in the contextual narratives, spent 8 weeks participated in queer events in London to meet ESEA queers and built connection with related organizations.
Meanwhile, the conducted desk research on gender and queerness, showing the complexity and struggling. To approach personal circumstance closer, I used online channel like podcast, video, instagram, twitter, etc.
9 nationalities of queers and family value involved
5 participatory observation on queer events
18 in-depth interviews
Glimpse of the discovery
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Pride in London
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Talk with dancer David Kam - BAQC ESEA
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Talk with artist KV Duong - BAQC ESEA
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Visit Queer Britain
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Picnic with Pink Dot LDN
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Zine Making Workshop of Queer China UK
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Workshop in Book 28 Library
Step 2: Zoom in the targeted users’ life
“We are, undoubtedly, a part of British society yet when we see displays of queer history, we rarely see people that look like us and often walk away with the sense that it’s their history, not ours.”
Depicting ESEA queer journey with openness and trust
Large amount of communication was involved. With openness and trust, together we came up with 7 key insights and built up the user Persona and queer journey map. They shared the main concern on family relationship and needs of getting support from someone.
Step 3: Co-design with ESEA queer for ideation
“I really thought it would be useful and interesting to kind of leverage that, the basic premise of thinking about Asianess and how Asian people might connect with the idea of queerness. We need a space to allow those initial conversations to happen.”
Bringing the people into the conversation to build the community
Queer Britain provided the workshop space after my communication with Dan Vo. How can I make the participants feel secured and open to share their thoughts and stories with the others? I came up with narratives and scenarios building with characters that are easy to empathize and understand.
Engaging the audience at the co-design workshop at Queer Britain
The workshop day was inspiring and empowered 8 participants to validate the needs, identify pain points and gather ideas. Their personal experience, thoughts and understanding led to the importance of creating a space for them to be seen and listened.
““I had such a good time today! It’s so nice to meet fellow queer Asians! I find Asian queers have different experiences, one could be desexualised and the other could be hyper-sexualised. Queer is such a big terminology. I wish the workshop could be longer.””
Recruitment Poster
Workshop highlight
Tools and narratives
Queer Britain
Workshop
Persona & journey
Empathy & suggestions
Scenario ideation
Step 4: Prototype and iterate with stakeholders
Prototyping and iterating with the ones making social impact
How can we invite the UK society to learn about this group while maintaining their own space to support each other?
The online iteration on Instagram allowed me to collect at least 10 questions from non-queers and 5 personal stories from ESEA queers. I delivered the synthesized response through the 2nd co-design workshop to BAQC ESEA with 3 queer activists.
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Prototyping-1
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Prototyping-2
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Prototyping-3
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Iteration workshop
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Iterating with stakeholders
Step 5: Deliver the outcome online
Moving into the real world to increase their visibility with future vision
Over the period of 5 months, I designed a digital platform experience to enable ESEA queer to share personal stories, receive support from the community and have access to queer events. The narratives are built by the representations.
The reflection
The social attitude towards different culture and minority groups won’t be changed in one day. It has been a long and emotional journey and it’s challenging to make the ESEA queers open up based on personal choice. I put myself into their stories and tried to be an active listener. It’s all those supportive involved that makes the project happen.
ESEA Queer Journey will be continued to develop, allowing more conversation on queer and Asian identity to happen in the UK. Being seen is the first step to be understood.
For more about the project, please read the report.