Asian Canada Is Burning

Asian Canada is Burning invites us to trouble the mobilization of “anti-Asian hate” in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic.

Bringing together activists, organizers, academic, and artists, this book explores the historical and contemporary conditions that make theorizing “Asian Canadian” feasible. Grounded in a transnational queer and feminist lens, this book also aims to envision possible futures and solidarities. Ultimately, this collection is concerned with moments and places of tensions, confrontations, relations, and solidarity. We offer stories of insurgent encounters as people who identify as “Asian” navigate and implicate settler colonial nation-state to make new dreams, histories and intimacies.

Coly Chau has a Master of Education in Social Justice Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Her research interests include race, gender, sexuality, migration, anti-colonial thought and spirituality. They are interested in the unearthing and reclamation of knowledges for the purposes of imagining and working toward decolonial and liberatory futures. They are often working, organizing and learning in their communities.

Publication date: July 1, 2026

Acknowledgements

Notes on Contributors

1 Introduction
  Ian Liujia Tian, Coly Chau and Rose Ann Torres

Part 1
Situating Asia(ns) beyond Settler Canadian Nationalism
2 Tearing Down Walls: Rethinking White Domesticity in the Context of Cultural Domicide
  Shelly Ikebuchi

3 Unpacking the Festival of Diwali in Canada: Where Have Rama, Sita, and Lakshman Gone?
  Rajni Mala Khelawan

4 Seeking Pappy’s Approval
  Krystal Jagoo

5 Vulnerable Resisters: Decolonizing Voices of Asian Migrants in a Settler Colonial and Religious Context
  Hyejung Jessie Yum

6 Unboxing Our Narrative of Space and Place: An Unsettling Dance of (Un)Belonging
  Jose Miguel Esteban

Part 2
Gender, Sexuality and Other Intimacies
7 The Bee
  Elisha Lim

8 Labour, Intimacy and Diaspora: Queer Asian Studies in Canada
  Ian Liujia Tian

9 The Past in the Present: An Encounter between Gay Asians of Toronto and New Ho Queen
  Sam Yoon

10 Love Intersections: Queer Sensibilities and Relationality in Art and Cultural Production
  David Ng and Jenn Sungshine

11 Emergent Asian-Canadian Feminisms: Insights from Young Filipina/x Feminist Scholar-Organizers
  Monica Batac, Julia Baladad, Psalmae Tesalona, Chloe Rodriguez and France Clare Stohner

Part 3
Building Solidarities
12 The Butterfly Effect: Asian Massage Parlour and Sex Workers and Historical Chinese Laundries Fighting By-Laws and Organizing Towards Justice
  Coly Chau and Elene Lam

13 Asian Canadian Workers Organizing: The Making of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance
  Anna Liu

14 Love Letters to Asian Canadian Studies: On Ethical Solidarities and Decolonial Futures
  Janey Lew

15 Dumpster Fires, Burning Affects
  Malissa Phung

16 Internationalist Solidarity: Palestinian Liberation, bds , and the Struggle against Normalization
  Boycott, Divest and Sanction Toronto

17 Conclusion: Asian Futurism as Living Labour
  Ian Liujia Tian

Index