Diasporic Bodies, Indigenous Land: A Decolonial Ethics of Asian Bodies in Protest

This paper examines the corporeality of diasporic Asian subjects in North America engaging in acts of public protest in solidarity with local or transnational groups experiencing displacement and colonial seizure of land. Examples of these range from NYC’s Chinatown protests against local gentrification to Asian-American and Asian Canadian protests in solidarity with Palestine against war and displacement. I first consider these protesting Asian bodies function as a counter-image to stereotypical conceptions of Asian bodies as invisible, apolitical, or subservient. Then, I draw from decolonial theology and decolonial theory to argue that these diasporic Asian embodiments serve as a site of decolonial ethical construction that bridges the theoretical chasms between diaspora theory and decolonial/Indigenous studies’ views of the relationship between body and land. A new ethics of diaspora-decolonial solidarity emerges in diasporic Asian bodies that serve as sites of protests against displacement.