The United States today has a larger immigrant population than any other country in the world. Immigrants and their U.S. born children make up 28% of the overall U.S. population according to the 2018 Current Population Survey (CPS) and this number is only trending upwards for the next decade.

It’s just a dress, just a skirt, just clothes. I could talk about what the qipao/cheongsam means to our culture, I could talk about the importance of our silk. You could argue that it’s just a piece of clothing, that it’s made from a synthetic fabric inspired by Chinese silk, and that you just thought it was pretty. It has nothing to do with cultural appropriation. But it’s more than that.

With a plethora of significant and influential women whose voices are never heard, I’m here to shed a small amount of light to reveal two wonderful yet unknown women from where I’m from, Turkey. At this present day, where the Western ideals and culture has spread more than ever, representation is crucial. I’m here to shed some light on a rather more unknown area of Asia, Turkey.

The word Uyghur was always met with a blank face. Every Uyghur person growing up in the West can attest to their little speech for the inevitable “where are you from?” question. Some skip it altogether and say they are Turkish, or Uzbek, or even Chinese.

When I was 5, I went on vacation to London. I was a talkative child, and said hi to everyone I walked past. Naturally, they cooed over me and asked me my name and where I was from. I said I was from Sri Lanka. Cue confused glances at my parents – Is that one of those African countries, they hesitantly ask.

In one of our first editions of Career Wise, we got the chance to chat with marketing professional Yin Woon Rani about her career and experience working in marketing as an Asian woman