For Asian Heritage Month, we're celebrating Asian identities through art

For Asian Heritage Month, CBC Saskatchewan connected with Asian Canadian artists to allow them to express their own stories through art.

Throughout the month of May, we will showcase four to five different stories, with one artist or group's original work profiled each week, through song, sculpture and dance. These works were created under the theme, "Finding strength in our (hi)stories."

We've got artists representing the breadth of Asia, including India, Cambodia, Iran, China and the Philippines. We thank each of these people for inviting us into their homes and workspaces, and sharing their stories with us.

Here are the pieces we're featuring so far:

WATCH: Iranian sisters explain more onthe art piecethey've created for CBC Saskatchewan:

Iranian sisters living in Regina use art as form of protest

5 months ago

Duration 2:50

Shamim and Shima Aghaaminiha may have left their home country of Iran, but the sisters say they've found a way to reflect the struggle of the Iranian people through art in their new home in Regina. For Asian Heritage Month, they created this original work for CBC under the theme, Finding strength in our (hi)stories.

WATCH: Filipino artist shows CBC Saskatchewan his process:

Filipino-Canadian retiree shows respect for elders with sculpture

5 months ago

Duration 2:46

Pepito Escanlar, 73, who lives in Regina, created a sculpture for Asian Heritage Month that reflects a common Filipino gesture called mano po, in which younger people kiss the hands of the elderly.

WATCH: Bhangra Crew Regina spreads joy and positivity:

Bhangra Crew Regina dancers show off their moves

5 months ago

Duration 2:10

For Asian Heritage Month, Bhangra Crew Regina members put together a dance that represents some of the steps of bhangra and the origins of the dance in the north Indian state of Punjab, where men would dance by the river and the growing crops.

WATCH: Rich tradition of Chinese opera returns to Regina

Regina couple highlights Chinese cultural history through long-running opera

5 months ago

Duration 3:49

When David Ling and his wife Jenny Lee moved to Canada in 1981, they brought their love of Chinese opera with them. Their long-running ensemble in Regina is regrouping after a four-year pandemic-related hiatus.

Watch: Song details parents' escape from Cambodia

• Musician pens song reflecting parents' escape from Cambodia and his own struggle over identity

From Cambodia to Canada, Regina singer pens song about family's journey

4 months ago

Duration 2:27

While his parents faced physical war as refugees from Cambodia, Savan Muth said he struggled with his own internal conflict once his family arrived in Canada. He wrote a song that addresses the external and internal wars that people face. Lyrics by Savan Muth. Sound mixing by Walter Jeworski.

Keep checking in!Come back tothis page each week this month as new stories are added.

Marvin Chan (Merv xx Gotti)

Marvin Chan, otherwise known as Merv xx Gotti, is a multi-genre artist, singer-songwriterand community builder from Regina, who served as a consultant on the project. He believes it's important to give artists a platform to express themselves purely and directly with their own work, instead of having a journalist filter their thoughts in a story.

"Sometimes taking out that middle person or the middle voice interpretation actually gets more to the truth of it, and the truth can speak to the people of that community too," he said.

Please enjoy this curated Asian Heritage Month Spotify playlist we created for you!