Rt. Hon Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC MP

The Prime Minister

10 Downing Street

London

SW1A 2AA

Dear Prime Minister,

We write to you as a diverse community of East and Southeast Asian creatives, authors, actors, mental health workers and experts, members of the Anglican and Catholic dioceses, activists and advocates, educators and entrepreneurs.

We call on you, as Prime Minister, to make a government-wide commitment to prioritise the role that publishing and the media play in the representation of East and Southeast Asian communities on the page, screen and behind the scenes.

Evidence shows that representation matters, being seen on the page and screen has a positive impact on people’s self esteem and sense of identity. Representation also develops cultural awareness and appreciation and this is often developed through books and films. Prioritising East and Southeast Asian representation would increase the visibility of an otherwise invisible demographic; a demographic that has consistently faced discrimination and prejudice, especially during the pandemic as seen with the steep rise in hate crime reporting in 2020.

We ask the government to make an investment in the inclusion of the ESEA communities in publishing and the media. A community that has also consistently been part of the UK’s nation-building endeavours and policies since the 1900s, and perhaps even before. This vital step in inclusion is in turn a step towards equity in representation on the page, on the screen, in the genuine storytelling of this community. It is an investment in our communities’ mental health and wellbeing, sense of self and purpose, social mobility and life chances, ensuring that there is equitability so that we can all be part of the prosperity and success of the UK. This will further enhance your personal commitment to a decade of national renewal and add to the fulfilment of Labour’s missions of growth and achieving opportunities for one and all.

A current report — the Excluded Voices Report — commissioned by Inclusive Books for Children shows that in the past 10 years in the UK, there is a consistent lack of representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups in children’s books. This dearth of representation is particularly pronounced in the representation of East and Southeast Asian characters in books published in the past 10 years and by authors and illustrators of East and Southeast Asian heritages.

We also refer to the Lit in Colour Report by Penguin Random House UK and race equality think tank, The Runnymede Trust. The report highlighted that “82% of young people did not recall ever studying a text by a Black, Asian or minority ethnic author”, and the research findings of the National Literacy Trust’s Research on Diversity and children and young people’s reading in 2020 tell us that “32.7% of children and young people aged 9 to 18 say that they don’t see themselves in what they read”.

Subsequent responses to this report by Pearson with the Lit in Colour Pioneers Pilot and the National Literacy Trust response with Puffin World of Stories are just some initiatives in response to this report. You may know that publishers, authors and charities and parents on PTA’s have worked with schools, libraries, local authorities and other bodies to plug the policy and funding gap under previous governments, to share cultural knowledge in storytelling and festivals of diverse representation but this is not enough. Our children deserve better access to literature that is truly representative of diversity on the page. This is a challenge and opportunity that reaches across government departments, contributing to policy ambitions in education, culture, health, local government, employment and more. We ask you to mandate your ministers to work with us to build a national curriculum that includes books and media by British East and Southeast Asian creators.

We understand that as the new Prime Minister of our country, there are already many demands made on your government in this very challenging fiscal climate. However, we ask that the Labour government make an investment in the East and Southeast Asian communities because these communities are also part of the fabric of British society.

The government’s investment in the East and Southeast Asian communities in publishing and the media would benefit the entire nation because children and people of all ethnicities deserve to be seen and heard.

We look forward to working with your government.

Yours sincerely,

CARG UK