Crossword Genius

Asian has a place in a person's heart (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

malayan

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'asian' is the definition.
(I know that Malayan is a type of asian)

'a place in a person's heart' is the wordplay.
'place' becomes 'lay' (laying is a kind of placing).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'a person's heart' becomes 'man' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a'+'lay'='alay'
'alay' placed inside 'man' is 'MALAYAN'.

'has' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for malayan that I've seen before include "Language of SE Asia" , "Austronesian language" , "Asian" , "A layman (anag.)" , "Oriental language" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.
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