February 12, 2021 marks the start of the Chinese New Year–the Year of the Ox.  It is an important celebration for many people, not only Chinese.  More than 1. 5 Billion people celebrate this holiday in mainland China and Hong Kong,  in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, the United States, and around the world.  And there are different names for the celebrations.  Many believe that what they do on the first day of the new year will affect their luck into the year, so today is a good day to reflect on Afro-Asian solidarity, its past, present, and future all around the world.

For many, the concept of Afro-Asian solidarity calls to mind the collaborations between Jackie Chan and Christ Tucker’s Rush Hour movies, or the martial arts classic, “Enter the Dragon” (1973) that featured Bruce Lee and Jim Kelly.

But as Keisha N. Blaine explains in “The Deep Roots of Afro-Asia,”  the history of peoples of African and Asian descent is centuries old.  She cites Fred Ho and Bill Mullen’s book, Afro Asia:  Revolutionary Political Connections between African Americans and Asian Americans (2008),    ““Africans and Asians in the Americas have been linked in a shared tradition of resistance to class and racial exploitation and oppression.”[3] In a 1905 speech, civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois acknowledged the link between the “color line” and ‘Yellow Peril.’[4] The racist ‘yellow peril’ ideology of the late nineteenth century, which stemmed from white fears and anxieties over Asian immigration, persisted well into the twentieth century and extended beyond national borders. The negative images and stereotypical depictions of Asian cultures that dominated Western mass media mirrored the pervasive global racist attitudes towards African Americans, and other people of color.[5] Du Bois understood this connection and during the early twentieth century, he advocated political collaboration and solidarity between peoples of African and Asian descent.”

Watch and Listen:  “Fred Ho: Free New Afrika!  Boogaloo” (2011)

Shauna Collins, of Voice of Young Dreamers,  created this Guide to Afro-Asian History, to show how African and Asian diasporas are connected.  For example, Chinese and other peoples of Asian descent have histories in Guyana, Trinidad, Cuba, Jamaica, Panama, and Brazil.  They describe, “Key friendships such as the bond between Malcolm X and Yuri Kochiyama, as well as the marriage between Grace Lee Boggs and James Boggs” to  show “the radical Afro-Asian solidarity of the past, while cultural collectives such as NYC-based BUFU (By Us For Us) builds on the futurity of Black-Asian collaboration.”