From Racial Melancholia to Somatic Healing: A Journey With Chinese Calligraphy

• In Event: Confronting Colonial Legacies: Healing and Justice in Environmental Education

Abstract

This arts-based autoethnographic study explores a Chinese American environmental educator's journey of identity negotiation and land relationship within a settler colonial context. The research uses Chinese calligraphy and the VIMBASI method to investigate how embodied artistic practices facilitate an understanding of cultural translation and decolonial critique. The study integrates racial melancholia, AsianCrit, and Indigenous land-based pedagogies to analyze the complexities of Chinese American identity and trauma. Findings reveal the potential of calligraphy as a form of somatic racialized healing and highlight the "in-between" (Bhabha, 1994, p.1) space as a site for transformation. This research contributes to environmental education and Asian American studies by amplifying underrepresented voices and offering innovative approaches to ethical self-positioning and cross-racial solidarity.

Authors

• Peng Liu Nelson, University of Minnesota

• Betsy Maloney Leaf, University of Minnesota