I’m so excited to unveil the 2024 Asian Heritage Month clothing collection I collaborated with Edmonton business Zen Lion Design on, that celebrates Asian culture, visibility and representation while tackling anti-Asian racism and supporting Asian-owned initiatives.
This is the third year I’ve partnered with Sherrell of Zen Lion Design to put out an Asian Heritage Month collection and we’re so excited to share the new designs and statements!
May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada and AAPI (Asian Pacific American / Pacific Islander) Month in the United States.
Sherrell of Zen Lion Design and I first started our AHM collaboration back in 2022, following the significant rise in Anti-Asian hate crimes in North America as a result of the pandemic.
We followed up the inaugural collection with our 2023 AHM designs and I’m so thrilled to return for our third year with this 2024 Asian Heritage Month Collection.
Each year’s designs are meant to not only celebrate the Asian community but also highlight for allies the need to push back against racism. It’s generally designs, statements, phrases, things that I personally love or would love to highlight and I think Zen Lion Design’s platform is a great opportunity to do that—the Edmonton-based, Black, woman-owned business specializes in “Clothes that create a Conversation” (or “comfy statement apparel”). It’s diverse and inclusive!
This year, 20% of proceeds from the 2024 Asian Heritage Month collection will be donated to Togather Chinatown, an Edmonton-based organization working to uplift and revitalize Edmonton Chinatown through arts-focused initiatives like its Togather Chinatown Art Fair.
You can get these designs in all sorts of colours – Black, White, Ash Grey, Charcoal, Sand, Bright Pink, Light Pink, Golden Yellow, Green, or Royal Blue! And this year there will be Kids T-Shirt options you can order for most of the designs!!
Preorders placed before April 28, 2024 will be ready by May 10, 2024. Orders placed after that will have a 2-3 week turn around time. You can select shipping or local Edmonton pick-up.
There are 12 statements/designs to choose from and they all have a special meaning to me (which I elaborate on below). The majority of statements are meant to be worn by Asian people, however I did intentionally include statements that anyone / anti-racist allies could wear as well!
Preorders placed before April 28, 2024 will be ready by May 10, 2024. Orders placed after that date will have a 2-3 week turn around time. You can select shipping or local Edmonton pick-up. Depending on when you order you may not able to wear it during May however you can certainly represent year-round (as Asian heritage + pride + anti-racism should be represented year round anyway!) Remember you can also get most designs in Kids T-Shirt sizes too!!
These are limited time items so if you think you want one, get one as they may not come back after May. Thank you for your support!!
As she does each year, Sherrell did an amazing job bringing the statements to life with her designs. It was even as a result of our collaboration in previous years that she started offering two bright colours in her pieces—hot pink and yellow! Which are absolutely signature colours I love.
It is always such pleasure to collaborate with Sherrell on this collection. She writes more about our Asian Heritage Month collaboration over on her blog as well, which you can read here!
This year was actually our first time meeting (it’s amazing what you can do digitally these days lol) and it was an absolute honour to meet her and always such a joy when people’s online energy matches their in-person one. She’s a very genuine human that I’m happy to work with to create some pieces in this collection that will start some important conversations—or be important reminders—for those who see and wear them. It was also special including my mom in the photoshoot highlighting some of this year’s designs!
Check out some of the 2024 Asian Heritage Month Collection statement pieces and their meaning to me below, and shop these items on Zen Lion Design!
“I Am”
You know the BLONDE and BRUNETTE statement sweaters that were eveeeeeerywhere a few years ago? They always made me feel a little down because it wasn’t a relatable identifier for me. That’s what this ‘I Am’ series was inspired by. The text is customizable so you can input whatever ethnicity you are and wear it loud and proud! From a proactive micro-aggression perspective, wearing your ethnicity on your shirt should likely reduce the number of “what are you?” questions my fellow Asians / people of colour can relate to getting all the time.
You Are Unbelieva-BAO
This design is an ode to my son, my Miracle Baby Benjimin Sen Bao Brown, but also for all the dumpling lovers out there!
My baby’s Vietnamese name is Bao—which depending on inflection, can mean treasure or dumpling. Knowing just how many of us (Asian or otherwise) love Asian dumplings, I thought this was the perfect year to incorporate a bao design and Sherrell created the cutest one!
In the Mood for Noods
The food-related designs of the annual Asian Heritage Month Collection always do so well—obviously, Asian food is arguably the best (but I’m biased lol). This year I wanted to focus on our shared love of noodles and Sherrell came up with an excellent design to represent how our mood changes once we get noods in us! If you’re anything like me, you’re always In The Mood for Noods and you NEED this design!!
Always Craving Asian Food
This is a beautiful update to a design that’s been in all previous Asian Heritage Month Collections—because as I mentioned above, we love Asian food and for many (including me!) we’re ALWAYS craving it! If you can relate (who can’t?!) then this beautiful illustrative design is for you.
UnPHOgettable | UnPHOgettable King Noodle House Pho Hoang Version
Speaking of Asian food cravings, speaking of being in the mood for noods—I am so thrilled that the 2024 Asian Heritage Month Collection includes a pho-phocused (see what I did there lol) design! This design is an absolute nod to my growing up in a Pho Restaurant slinging soup using a recipe passed down three generations. There were a lot of different pho-puns we could’ve gone with for this design but I’m glad we landed on UnPHOgettable—whether you’re unPHOgettable or you think Vietnam’s national dish is—a slurp of this broth, noodles, meat, basil, lime, onions, cilantro, is one of the most comforting cuisines out there.
There are two versions of this UnPHOgettable design including one for my King Noodle House Pho Hoang lovers out there. This piece celebrates my mom and dad’s restaurant—serving our three-generations Vietnamese pho in Edmonton for nearly 30 years (since 1995). A portion of proceeds from this specific design will be donated to my parents business!! This idea was entirely Sherrell’s and I’m so grateful for that. It also looks REALLY cool!
Powered by Bubble Tea / Bubble Tea is Life
We wanted to give the popular bubble tea designs from previous collections an update and went with this statement “Powered by Bubble Tea!” I probably have at least 2 bubble teas a week (at minimum lol) it’s probably a problem (but is it really?) and I know that I’m not alone in this boba obsession. Stay tuned for a future guide with some of my favourite Bubble Tea Drinks / Spots in Edmonton! In the meantime, pick up this design to let people know what’s swishing around inside of you (bubble tea lol). We also brought back the popular ‘Bubble Tea is Life’ design because—well it is! Turns out National Bubble Tea Day is April 30 just before AHM so if you get this you can wear it back to back next April 30/May 1! ha.
Support Your Local Chinatown
This is a beautiful update to a design we first shared in the 2023 Asian Heritage Month Collection, first created as a reminder that Chinatowns (locally and across Canada) need our help. And if we don’t get more traffic to Chinatown, it’s really at risk of being lost.
Edmonton’s Chinatown has played a huge role in my life. I’ve spent a lot of my years there. My parents’ home and Vietnamese restaurant King Noodle House Pho Hoang, which has been operating for nearly 30 years, is still located in Chinatown.
Many Chinatowns—including Edmonton’s—is going through revitalization, and we need support from the community to ensure these special pieces of our cities don’t get forgotten. So this is a great reminder to anyone who wears it and sees it—support your local Chinatown!
Proud Child of an Immigrant
As with many designs in this year’s and past year’s Asian Heritage Month Collection, I am constantly inspired by my mom and dad. They have given so much for me to be able to live the life I have today. Boat People. Refugees. They faced so much uncertainty, so much racism, so much period—to start a new life in Canada. I may not always agree with their beliefs but I am very much proud to say that I’m their child. I’m a Proud Child of an Immigrant and if you are too—this might be the design for you.
It’s An Honour Just To Be Asian – Sandra Oh
We had to bring back this popular statement from the 2023 AHM Collection—Queen Sandra Oh’s quote “It’s an Honour Just To Be Asian.” Because it absolutely is! I looooove this updated design from Sherrell—basically part of our process is me sharing statements and also links to Sherrell’s other clothing designs that I really like and she gets into creativity mode with new original designs as well as slightly new takes on other designs she’s created so this huge graffiti style text on back is something she’s sold for other statements before but I really wanted it to be incorporated in the 2024 collection and I’m happy it ended up being for this statement.
Stop Race Based Hate
Because while celebrating Asian food and being Asian is great—I also wanted to make sure that we’re using Asian Heritage Month and this collection to, as I’ve mentioned, Create Conversations and a conversation that should be happening year-round is ways to be anti-racist, calling out racism, and stopping race-based hate.
This term is lifted from the anti-racist education tool I founded: Stop Race Based Hate, which aims to give people the words and confidence to properly articulate why something is wrong / racist, because if they had these words, they’d be more likely to call it out in their everyday life and within their networks, ultimately working to reduce and eliminate racism in our communities.
I’ve been using my platform increasingly to speak out on social issues and highlight racial injustices, and it really was feedback from others on how they appreciated when anti-racist education was articulated in simple ways, that drove the idea behind this tool.
While most of this collection is Asian-specific, ultimately, we want to Stop All Race Based Hatred.
This 2024 design is actually an additional collaboration created by local artist Justine Ma Design!! She’s an awesome human and super talented, so we’re grateful for her lending her lettering for this particular piece.
I also wanted to shout out to the #ProudlyAsian local Asian Heritage Month design from The Serenas (Serena Mah and Serena Tang)—they’ve returned this May 2024 with a beautiful new design as well, along with Asian Heritage Month pop-up events throughout the month.
Loving the momentum that’s being built around Asian Heritage Month locally in Edmonton.
Please do check out the Serenas on social media for most updates about AHM 2024 local events you can participate in—while potentially wearing their design or one from my collection!
Personally, I’ve never experienced more overt racism than I have since I started using social media as a platform to call out racism and raise awareness about social issues. It’s been a truly disgusting experience, particularly over the last few years and especially during the early days of the pandemic. My entire life I’ve dealt with subtle racism and harmful stereotypes (not-so-micro-aggressions), and for too long I’ve been quiet about it—shrugging it off or laughing it off in order to avoid an awkward conversation). But ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away.
So I hope you’ll join me in being loud about anti-racism in all areas of your life—and to help celebrate Asian culture and representation—with a little extra help from this statement apparel!
Remember preorders placed before April 28, 2024 will be ready by May 10, 2024. Orders placed after that date will have a 2-3 week turn around time. You can select shipping or local Edmonton pick-up. Depending on when you order you may not able to wear it during May however you can certainly represent year-round (as Asian heritage + pride + anti-racism should be represented year round anyway!)
You can order these in various colour options and most designs have Kids T-Shirt sizing too. PLUS: 20% of the 2024 collection proceeds will be donated to Togather Chinatown to support their Chinatown arts-focused intiatives!
Thanks again to Sherrell of Zen Lion Design for collaborating with me on this collection!
Linda
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