What comes to mind when you think of an Asian woman?

That was the question that the Pan Asian Women’s Association asked at their inaugural launch event last night.

PAWA (sounds like “power”) was created by a group of UK based Asian women with backgrounds from the Indian sub-continent, Korea, Malaysia and more and its tag line is “Empowering Asian Women Worldwide”. The event took place at the lovely premises of Asia House and was packed with high-powered, high-achieving professional women and entrepreneurs - they were mainly of Asian origin but the organisation is also open to men and non-Asian women with an interest in the region. I was delighted to have been invited and it was so energising to chat to so many dynamic women representing 30 countries ranging from Iran across to Japan.

The high aims and global vision of this association was signalled from the start with an opening addres by Baroness Lydia Dunn who had been a member of the the Cabinet in Hong Kong and is a leading light on the international business stage.

The evening began with a short vox pop film asking ordinary people in one London street “What comes to mind when you think of an Asian woman?” There were young white men, Asian men, older men, white women and young Asian girls, a young Chinese boy so the answers were many and varied. But there were some themes that kept recurring: charming, strong, outwardly subservient, sexy, strong mothers, good wives. When asked about role models, the answers ranged from Indira Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi, Benathir Bhutto and Michelle Yeo to “don’t know” to one lovely man who said, “My wife.”

But there was not among the stereotypes in the vox pop an image that described many of the women in the room. Business woman. Lawyer. Accountant. Entrepreneur. TV executive. Journalist. Sure, many of us there were charming, strong, sexy, mothers and spouses and perhaps outwardly subservient when we needed to be but we were - are - also engaged in the business and professional world. There was a lively panel discussion following the film where a consultant psychiatrist Dr Ghazala Afzal Hameed, an acclaimed choreographer Gauri Sharma Tripathi, a formidable financier Sonia Lo and a policy advisor on women’s issues Anni Marjoram discussed the stereotypes and their own experiences of being an Asian woman in their respective fields.

The formal part of the event came to a close with some remarks by the Founder and President of PAWA, the striking SungJoo Kim, a leading entrepreneur who built her billion dollar business from nothing.

I had been invited along with my co-author Silvia Cambie by Mei Sim Lai and also Betty Yao, two lovely women whom I’ve recently got to know. When we first met, I liked them immediately - they are down to earth, charming and friendly. It was only later, when I Googled them (as you do these days!), that I discovered that Mei Sim is an OBE and Betty is an MBE and they are both amazingly high achieving in the field of finance (Mei Sim) and Asian culture and arts (Betty).

For me, the power (ha ha) of yesterday evening was seeing all these extraordinary - and also in many ways, ordinary - women all gathered in one place. In my daily life, I mix quite happily with a primarily English crowd and a range of international friends. I have Malaysian and Asian friends but they are often dispersed around London and the UK. In the daily news and public media, it’s not often that an Asian woman makes the news - other than sad stories about poor Indian/ Pakistani women murdered by their families or Chinese migrant women (and men) found dead in the back of a lorry and other disempowered images. So in my daily consciousness, dynamic Asian women don’t really feature. Which made the impact of last night all the stronger for me - I had a sense of relaxing, that these women understand some of the challenges that I’ve faced being a Malaysian-Chinese woman in the UK and I also felt inspired by the vibrant energy buzzing around the room!

So, yeah, I’m going to be signing up as a member of PAWA - I’m off to fill in my form now!

If you check them out because of this post, do mention FusionView.co.uk and also come back and let me know and we can keep an eye out for each other at their next event.