Not long ago, an incident happened in Japan due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In this incident, a Chinese woman was forced to leave a restaurant in Japan, the sever of the restaurant repeatedly shouted “Chinese out”. The restaurant responded that it was refusing customers from China and Southeast Asia because the owner was worried about the COVID-19. Then, in Sri Lanka, a Twitter user posted a picture he said was of door of a restaurant in the country with a sign saying: “Temporary we have stopped providing services to Chinese citizens.”
Many non-Chinese people blamed Chinese people and China. On social medias, you may saw pictures of cooked bat soup, with the caption: “If we could all agree not to eat this, things like the Coronavirus in China wouldn’t happen.” You may also saw a cartoon depicting a Chinese flag with the yellow stars normally found in the upper left corner replaced with drawings of the new coronavirus, which was posted by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
from https://mothership.sg/2020/01/danish-newspaper-china-flag/
Above, is just the tip of iceberg. Many terrible opinions came out on social medias worldwide, blaming China. Many of them were disrespectful and rude. People have died and are terrified for their loved ones during the biggest festival of the Chinese calendar, and these things made the situation even worse.
Five months ago, when I was still in Columbus, I was really frightened by this, and even heard that in the States, some Asians were beaten because of the pandemic. I was afraid of going out of the house that I lived in. Though I did not experienced violence for the discrimination, but it left a mark on my memory.
Though the discrimination was obvious and widespread, Chinese people responded to it positively and peacefully. Some Posted responding posts on social medias using “I’m not a virus” hashtag. There was also a warm scene happened in Italy, where a Italian-Chinese man stood blindfolded in the middle of Florence next to a sign reading “I am not a virus, I am a human being, free me from prejudice.” When he stood blindfolded, people took selfies with hime, and some hugged him.
You can see the video of this process from: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3050499/i-am-not-virus-i-am-human-being-italian-chinese-mans-video
Using what we learnt, when the discrimination appeared, Chinese people had become the subaltern, and Chinese people were being “othered”. What I wrote above is a good example of how the subaltern can speak. Chinese people spoke out without any aggressive approach. As a result, we saw positive outcomes for this response, showing that we still have people of this world being kind and sane.
We humans should be united together, when crisis comes, facing it together. Discrimination will not help with fighting against the virus, and it only makes the situation much worse.
resources:
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2020/01/30/Chinese-people-respond-to-coronavirus-discrimination-We-are-not-a-virus-
https://mothership.sg/2020/01/danish-newspaper-china-flag/
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3050499/i-am-not-virus-i-am-human-being-italian-chinese-mans-video
Thank you for this post!
I knew that people were being racist and discriminating in the United States but i hadn’t heard about any of the stuff happening around the world. Even the president was calling in the Chinese Virus causing an out lash like you mentioned of Chinese-Americans and Chinese immigrants to be beaten or have racial slurs yelled at them. I do not agree with this. I know that just because someone is Chinese doesn’t mean they carry Covid-19, in fact I’m more afraid of the anti-maskers, which are mostly white Americans spreading the virus to me. Thank you for the insight and sheading some light on the issue.
There are many non-objective, unfair and even untrue situations in the Western media’s coverage towards China, which will not only damage China’s national image, but also hinder China’s long-term development in the future. China has no broad support in the international community, can’t defend its legitimate interests and reputation, and can’t make its voice be heard. Even though China has donated lots of money and materials to other countries and provided funds to the World Health Organization, it is still unable to shake off the systemic injustices of other countries. I think the prejudice against Chinese from other countries is terrible, and I also worry about the personal safety of our Chinese people.
Hello Yichen,
Also as a Chinese, I have empathy for your post. Because of some racially discriminatory remarks made by Trump, it has had a very bad effect on Asians in the United States. Like you, I didn’t dare to go out some time ago. It sounds ironic, we should not only prevent the new coronavirus, but also prevent harm from racial discrimination. I hope that after the situation has become so bad, some irrational people can be sobered up, and they can use a scientific and rational perspective to deal with problems and make the world full of love.
Thank you for sharing,
I was not aware of the specifics of discrimination that are occurring right now because of COVID-19 and the Chinese population. The image of the flag was very disheartening because a country’s flag should’ve treated with respect, not discrimination. These unfair actions towards an entire culture should not be happening, and I agree with your closing statements the most. Humans should be united together and face crises as a whole unit instead of taking an individualistic and hateful turn on situations like COVID-19.
If I were to guess, people began to lash out at Chinese people because they were frustrated with the restrictions put in place, and wanted a target to take these frustrations out on. Of course, this is very unfair; Chinese people in America had nothing to do with the pandemic, it can’t be blamed on any person or country at all, but unfortunately some people just find it easier to hate than to be accepting and understanding.
Hi Yichen,
I think your article is very good. This article just described the current situation of the Chinese. As a Chinese, I can clearly feel the discrimination and pressure from all aspects. And my hometown is Wuhan, more people will regard me as the source of the virus. But I think that at this most difficult time, humans should help each other, rather than blindly criticize. Everyone has the same power, and we should not discriminate against others because of a certain label. I have seen many, many examples where Chinese people are prohibited from entering restaurants and other public places. Even after the epidemic in China has alleviated, many people still have great prejudice against Chinese people. I think this is a kind of discrimination and prejudice caused by stereotypes. People should change this kind of thinking to make society better.
Hi Yichen,
Thank you so much for sharing your perspective. I have also noticed a lot of discrimination and generalizations toward people of Asian descent all around the world as a result of this virus. Even in my own hometown, I saw a lot of microaggressions passed off as jokes towards Chinese friends of mine. People just needed to find someone or a group of people to blame the virus on, and unfortunately, they turned to Chinese people. This blatant racism is dangerous and needs to be addressed.
Hello Yichen,
I really enjoyed reading your reflection on this topic. I too have noticed an increase in prejudice against Asians and Asian Americans regarding COVID-19. From my perspective, in the US there is a stereotype that Asian people are the so-called “model minority,” which is harmful for its own reasons, but we are seeing that the treatment of innocent people is continually worsening. I think just as all Americans aren’t Donald Trump (and are obviously not individually responsible for his shortcomings), all Chinese people aren’t Xi Jinping or the CCP and Chinese individuals could not be less responsible for the coronavirus. This xenophobia and racism is both inhumane and downright unacceptable.
Hi Yichen,
I like your post of systemic injustice of covid-19 towards Chinese even Asian communities. As a Chinese student from Wuhan, I can feel the biases that people have to consider my hometown as the place of originating coronavirus. I believe it is so imperative that people of different races should fight together to beat the virus.
Hi Yichen. Thank you for sharing this diary submission of your systemic injustices for this semester. I really enjoyed your articles and the video that you linked for us. This is so appalling to see and hear of so many Chinese people being targeted and abused in so many ways for a virus. We need to do better as human beings. I understand this can be a scary thing, I was scared out of my mind for a while. But I would never treat a Chinese person as it was their fault. I am sorry to all of those who have encountered this treatment. Thank you again for sharing.
Hi Yichen,
Thank you for your sharing of this diary of systemic injustice. By reading the content in your diary, I have a deeper understanding of this racial prejudice. In fact, the outbreak of the virus is a disaster for all mankind. In this case, what we should do is to unite together to fight against the virus instead of linking politics to the epidemic. In fact, racial discrimination is not limited to the “Chinese virus”, but also have “Spanish virus”, “Mexican virus” and a series of other countries due to the outbreak of the virus. What we should know is that these discriminatory names will not have any positive influence on the epidemic. All in all, thank you for sharing and we still have a long way to go.
Hi Yichen,
Thanks for posting, while reading your post and many other posts, I have been exposed to many forms of injustice i did not think I would see. It has been eye opening that this much hate is still in the world. And in this volatile year it has not gotten any better. I can only imagine in the early stages of the pandemic how Chinese people were treated in foreign countries. It is racist and sad what these innocent people had to go through and hopefully it becomes better as we get closer to the end of the pandemic.
Hey Yichen,
Your perspective and information shared were very troubling to hear. It still blows my mind how people can go out and blame a whole group of people for something they had nothing to do with. To me, this is similar to after 9/11 when Muslim communities were being treated the same way. Also, during WWII when Japanese Americans were being put into living communes, some of which were not even from Japan or had any connection to it. The common theme I notice here is fear. I believe fear drives people to extreme lengths and to do things that they may not normally do. For others, they just want to be able to blame someone, or as you mentioned, “Other” them. It is extremely disheartening to read about the treatment of Chinese people during this pandemic. I really appreciated you sharing your perspective and learning more. Hopefully, this is an issue that can be addressed and eliminated.
Yichen,
It hurts to hear that you felt unsafe in the United States due to the discrimination against Chinese people at the start of COVID. It makes me think how many other Chinese students felt similar concerns and ways you did just a few months ago? I actually remembering seeing that hashtag on twitter a few months ago and I think that is when I realized that discrimination going on. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Thank you for your presentation on how this whole pandemic affected China in a social aspect. When I first heard about the virus it was when Donald Trump called it the China virus or something like that and this directly correlates to your arguments stated in your piece. I agree with you that this pandemic and the overall virus as a whole has given China a bad rap and this should be corrected because it is not truly China’s fault as a whole, and we do not even know if we could have prevented the virus anyway.
I think you gave a good example of systemic injustice. In my eyes, there is not only racial discrimination but also political conflict in this matter. Because the truth of the matter is not important to some hostile media, the only thing he wants to do is to use one-sided information to hit the target he wants to criticize. I think that in the face of this global virus, people all over the world should unite to resist the virus, instead of blindly accusing each other.
Hello Yichen,
I am also Chinese and I can not appreciate more that you decide to write about this for the DSI showcase because it is such a prevalent issue that needs to be brought more attention. I personally knew about this issue before reading your post and I actually did write one DSI that similar to yours, but it got me depressed again to see the facts you have listed above because it is just not right to have hatred toward innocent Chinese citizens in America. The increasing discrimination toward Chinese people because of the coronavirus outbreak has got one of my friends sent into the hospital with a broken thumb. When you said ” just the tip of the iceberg,” I understand and feel you because there are many other stories that I know of that relate to this issue. I think it is our responsibility to speak out and find a way to fight this injustice, so thank you for writing this!!