Voice ESEA’s CFO Choon speaks with Xindi about an upcoming exhibition that resurfaces forgotten currents of British East and Southeast Asian history—from shipwrecked silence to shared memory.
Some histories drift like whispers on the wind—unheard, unremembered. E.C.H.O (ESEA Collective: History, Over Here), an exhibition by the anti-racist non-profit group Voice ESEA, gathers these echoes and brings them back to light.
Held in London on May 1st and 2nd at Second Home in Spitalfields and in Manchester on May 24th at SEESAW, E.C.H.O unveils stories from British East and Southeast Asian communities that have long lingered in the shadows of history.
One of the exhibition’s most haunting stories surfaces from the wreck of the Titanic. Among the more than 2,200 passengers aboard that fateful voyage were nine Chinese and Japanese men.
Six of the Chinese passengers and one Japanese man survived.
Yet their survival did not grant them recognition or sympathy. Instead, they faced suspicion and, in the case of the Chinese survivors, immediate deportation under discriminatory immigration laws.
Their names faded, their stories untold. E.C.H.O seeks to retrace their journey—why they were on board, how they survived, and what became of them.
Drawing from Arthur Jones’ documentary The Six and Steven Schwankert’s book of the same name, alongside independent research, the exhibition exhumes these lives from the ocean of forgetfulness, restoring them to history’s gaze.
“We know many people – both ESEA and non – had never heard about these men being on the Titanic both back then and now so it goes to show how narratives can effectively erase and reshape so much history,” says Chief Operating Officer Choon Young Tan who also heads the Manchester event.
“With this exhibition we want to help their stories reach more people and spark open, honest conversations about what’s next for British history – how do we not only rewrite these Asian passengers back in but other ESEA stories too? Our history is British history yet so few know about them.”
Beyond the Titanic, E.C.H.O sweeps across centuries, mapping forgotten journeys and quiet struggles. The exhibition traces the footsteps of the first Asian travelers to reach Britain in the 16th and 17th centuries, the forced repatriation of Chinese seamen after both World Wars, the perilous crossings of Vietnamese refugees, the legal shadows cast over stateless Malaysians in the UK, and the unseen lives of Filipino domestic workers.
These stories, though rooted in the past, continue to inform the present, shaping how ESEA communities navigate identity and belonging today.
Once known as YPAD (Yellow Peril Awareness Day), E.C.H.O has grown into something more—a reclamation. With funding from LUSH Charity Pot in 2024 and Ardonagh Community Trust this year, it continues to expand, drawing over 200 attendees in both cities last year and earning features in The Independent, Yahoo News, and London Evening Standard.
More than an exhibition, E.C.H.O is a conversation across time. Screenings of The Six, an online Q&A with its creators, and panel discussions with historians, journalists, and cultural experts open a space for reflection. It is an invitation—to listen, to question, to remember.
By resurfacing these long-forgotten narratives, E.C.H.O ensures that history does not remain a tide that washes stories away, but a sea that carries them forward.
Please check the event page for ticket information.
