The Asian Arts Award was founded in 2014 to promote Asian artists and art forms at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Fringe participants can nominate themselves for entry into the Awards if they fulfil one of the following criteria:

1. The applicant is of Asian origin.

2. The applicant is working in the field of Asian arts.

3. The performance is inspired by an Asian theme or genre.

4. The performance has a strong and clear link with Asian culture, e.g. an adaptation of a classic Asian story.

(Please note: no stand-up comedy.)

What is the award process?

The award process is overseen by a responsible person selected by the trustees of the Asian Art Fund Scotland (AAFS). From 2024 this person is Chelsea Yang Zhou, a linguist and cultural consultant who is a fellow trustee of the AAFS. The awards decision process starts with our team of reviewers. They schedule a visit to each show and award each show a rating with a written commentary.

In advance of the award ceremony, the responsible person (Ms Yang Zhou) then convenes a meeting of the reviewers to discuss the performances in the light of all the reviews and ultimately take a decision on who the winner should be for each award.

The award categories are as follows:

Outstanding Show

Outstanding Production

Outstanding Male Performer

Outstanding Female Performer

Outstanding Young Performer

Asian Arts Special Award.

The reviewers are looking for acts that display outstanding originality, creativity and innovation in their work. It should be noted that shows which do not win an award may still be awarded “Highly Commended” status in the final announcement. For the Asian Arts Special Award, the decision on the winner of this award is led by the founder of the Asian Art Awards.

At Asian Art Fund Scotland we always welcome interest from prospective new reviewers. We are particularly interested in those with a professional arts background and of course those of Asian ethnicity but a strong interest in the arts is a necessity. We have no upper limit on the number of reviewers which we use and we work around the availability of the reviewers to utilise them as well as possible whether they can do a lot of reviews or just a few. Reviewers also have the opportunity to express a view on which shows they see.