Author: chang.1758

”Dying To Survive“ —Text Review—Hengyuan Chang

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“Dying to Survive” is a movie that mainly based on the Chinese society in 2004.  At that time, there were a large number of leukemia patients who could not afford the expensive German imported cancer drugs to help them treat. The main character, Lu Yong, smuggled a large amount of generic drugs from India and sold them to leukemia patients at a very low price.

In this movie, I think there are four concepts we learned this semester to help us better understand.

The first one is about the Lu Yong. After he observed that a large number of leukemia patients had no money to buy cancer drugs, he bravely chose to go to India to buy generic drugs and sell a leukemia patient to help them treat them at a very low price. And in the movie he gave these leukemia patients confidence and strength. I think Lu Yong represents great leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King and Lewis. Because Lu Yong not only discovered the problem, but at the same time he bravely stood up to help these leukemia patients. Also, he was the first to speak out for leukemia patients who could not afford the drugs.

Second, leukemia patients were “Othering” in Chinese society. They were discriminated against and disrespected by others just because of leukemia. In the movie, they are not allowed to take off their masks in public, and people think that leukemia is an unlucky disease. Although they received discrimination, they chose to remain silent, which led to more discrimination and disrespect.

The third is the ordinary people in Chinese society. They fell into the trap of “single story” and formed discrimination against leukemia patients. At that time, Chinese society did not popularize knowledge about leukemia, and people did not understand how leukemia was transmitted. Therefore, people are very one-sided believe that as long as they stay in the same area with leukemia patients or talk to leukemia patients, they will be infected. Because of the “single story”, they formed a prejudice against leukemia patients.

The fourth is about the police, doctors, and relevant government officials who knew that a large number of leukemia patients could not afford to import genuine cancer drugs. What they show behind is the “moderate white” mentioned by Dr. Martin Luther King and Lewis. They know that there are a large number of leukemia patients cannot pay for the drugs, but they choose to ignore and not to help leukemia patients.

At the end of the movie, the Chinese government began to popularize knowledge about leukemia to reduce discrimination, and began to produce cheap cancer drugs and included leukemia in medical insurance. I think “Dying to Survive” symbolizes people like Lu Yong who bravely contributed to “Othering”. The pain and sacrifice of a small number of people could brought happiness to more people in the future.

Picture citation：

http://www.yngangtie.com/yishu/3183.html

https://www.ifanr.com/1062232

http://www.txlunwenw.com/shuoshilunwen/201810239691.html

 

Context Presentation：A Small Place ————Hengyuan Chang

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                   Context Presentation：A Small Place

A small place re-examined the harm done by the colonists to the colonized area through the perspective of the author, Jamaica Kincaid. Antigua was originally a small island, but it was named Antigua after it was discovered by Columbus. Later, the streets of Antigua were named after some criminals in the UK. Columbus was an explorer who discovered the continent and an Eluor who was a colonist. He was the first writer of Antigua colonialism. In fact, colonists always think that the people and societies in the colonized areas are unable to manage social resources and obtain a better quality of life, so they can colonize these areas in a justified manner. “Every place they have been to has been transformed into a place in the UK, and everyone they met has been transformed into a place in Britain, but no place can truly become a place in Britain, no place that does not look like an Englishman. Of people will become British, so you can imagine the destruction of the local people and the land by these changes.”

The damage done to Antigua by the British colonists was lasting damage. Although the colonists believed that they brought order and wealth to Antigua, for the locals, it was like Jamaica Kincaid said, “Even if I live on a tree like a monkey, it is better than after I met you. It is better to encounter these humiliation and become a slave to the colony. ’

From an economic perspective, because Antigua’s local natural resources are very limited, Antigua has to choose to develop tourism and service industries to drive economic development. Antigua has indeed become a favorite holiday destination for many Westerners. But for the locals, the scenery and rapid development of the tourism industry have not brought them a richer life and a higher quality of life. In order to cater to the development of the service industry, local residents have to participate in tourism-related service industries, and they cannot go to the beach to enjoy life. Although the tourism industry has brought benefits to the country, the country has not spent the money on investments related to local residents. At the same time, in fact, a large number of the bosses of the tourism industry are not local residents of Antigua but some foreign investors. Therefore, the scenery of the tourism industry is more like a punishment for the local residents of Antigua rather than happiness.

At the same time, colonialism in the past and the current tourism industry led to the lack of local culture in Antigua. This is also the greatest harm that colonialism does to the colonized areas. Because the colonists imported some ideas and culture into the colonized area with a higher identity, the local residents would be caught in a dilemma, which eventually led to the lack of local culture and the fault of cultural inheritance. “They did so with little regard for the people living in the newly controlled areas, or for existing geographic or cultural boundaries.”(Marker, 2016)

Although Antigua is already an independent region and country, local residents are still suffering from cultural erosion and suppression brought about by the tourism industry.

The harm of colonialism is long-lasting, while more harm is hidden. First of all, the economic and cultural damages mentioned above may be the beneficiaries of colonization for foreign observers, Antigua, but for the local residents, they continue to suffer from the pain caused by colonialism. . At the same time, because colonialism has rapidly accelerated the development of the entire society in a short period of time, this will cause the use of various local resources to be more unreasonable, and it will also cause the local government or leaders to lack sufficient experience. ”Intervening for selfish interests by overlooking human responsibility doesn’t make a nation more powerful. Although the human species is a single community, divisions have been drawn as provinces, countries and continents. It’s thus imperative and obligatory to openly provide selfless assistance of an unworldly nature looking beyond the contrived boundaries.”(Porrvi, 2019)

For a country and region, true freedom means that it can develop its own country and region’s economy and culture through the desire of its citizens, and it does not need to cater to the needs of other stronger and wealthier countries. At the same time, only when people no longer define themselves as a higher-level identity to demean others or conform to others with a lower-level identity, can people gain true freedom and get rid of the continuous and invisible harm of colonialism.

citation:

Effects of Colonization. (2016, July 5). Beyond Intractability. https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/post-colonial

Modi, P. (2019, March 20). Consequences of Colonialism: How It’s Still Having an Effect Today. Loyola Phoenix. https://loyolaphoenix.com/2019/03/consequences-of-colonialism-how-its-still-having-an-effect-today/

Yo, Is This Racist？—Asian Americans—Hengyuan Chang

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Yo, Is This Racist？—Asian Americans—Hengyuan Chang

0:00

Welcome to Hengyuan Chang’s channel. My name is Chang Hengyuan. My major is Financial Mathematics. I am an international student from China. I moved back to China in 2020 due to COVID-19, and I’m likely to return to the US this summer. Today I’m going to talk about ‘Yo, is this racisit? ‘Podcast, and I’m going to focus on examples of discrimination against Asian-Americans. I’m going to summarize some examples of racism that I’ve seen and that have happened to me to help you better understand today’s topic. I believe most people have probably heard or encountered some examples of racial discrimination. But racial discrimination against Asian-Americans has been a neglected topic in the United States until recently. OK, so what is racial discrimination?

1:00

I believe that everyone has different views on racial discrimination. To me, the definition of racial discrimination means that all members of a race are treated differently because some of them do something that is not acceptable to the majority. As a result, the vast majority of people in the race are treated unfairly and irrationally. This kind of unfair treatment has a very bad negative impact on the discriminated race, including physical injury and mental injury.

1：45

Returning to our topic, I want to tell you today the story of racial discrimination against Asians in the United States. Because this topic is very hot recently, and as an Asian I should raise more voices for my ethnic group to get more people’s attention. I hope you can enjoy my sharing.

2：06

First of all I want to give you a little bit of history and some basic information about Asian Americans in the United States before I give you my example. Asians in the United States are actually called the immigrant paradigm. Asians are among the most educated and high-income groups compared to other immigrant groups and have the lowest crime rates. And in the United States, people tend to think of Asian-Americans as hardworking, friendly, intelligent, and so on. But none of this has helped protect Asians from racial discrimination. ‘‘Statistics show that there were more than 3,800 incidents of racial discrimination against Asians last year.’’（Yam， 2021） I will also use the examples I mentioned in Dariy of Systemic Injustice to help you understand how Asian Americans and Asians in the United States suffer from racial Injustice.

3:14

The first is the case of an Asian-American NBA basketball player who was subjected to racial discrimination. Lin was born in 1988 in California and graduated from Harvard University. Lin won the NBA championship with the Raptors in 2019. On February 25, 2021, Lin posted on Facebook that despite being a nine-year NBA veteran, it didn’t help that he wasn’t being called COVID-19. I think Jeremy Lin’s case is a very typical example of Asian-Americans being discriminated against. There are a lot of Asian Americans who may have emigrated to the United States for two or three generations, but many people think they are not American because they are Asian faces.

4:23

Since the COVID-19 outbreak started in China, many Western media have referred to COVID-19 as either the Asian virus or the Chinese virus. Although the World Health Organization’s investigation after the outbreak confirmed that COVID-19 did not originate in China, or Asia, these media misreports and some politicians’ misphrasings have led to a large number of Americans believing that Asians brought COVID-19 to the world. So Lin was discriminated against on the court. As a result of these inaccurate reports, a large number of Americans have become what we have recently learned to be fundamentalists. Asian Americans are perceived as Asian rather than American just because of their Asian appearance or some people will treat these Asian Americans differently.

4:35

Some Americans began to think that Asians were to blame for the outbreak, and this led to more and more incidents of discrimination against Asians. In fact, I think the fact that Asian-Americans like Jeremy Lin are referred to as COVID-19 must be a racist incident, and it pains me that this phenomenon is prevalent in our society today. This is very similar to the racial discrimination and discrimination against Muslims and Pakistanis that began in the aftermath of 9/11. Because of the deep damage COVID-19 has done to society, Asian-Americans are also being attacked and discriminated against by ‘fundamentalists’ today. Another example is something that happened to me.

6:45

In October 2019, my Chinese roommate and I want to buy a car to help us solve the problem of daily travel. At first, we searched the price and configuration of a Ford car on the Internet and then went to the nearest dealership. But in the end, the salesperson told us the price of the car that day was 20 percent higher than what we had seen on the Internet. We really don’t understand why we want to know. The salesman just told us that the price was the same and he didn’t know why the price was different. And he says you can buy it online if it’s cheaper. Although there was nothing wrong with what he said, it still gave us a sense of malice in his language. Then my roommate and I told the salesman that we wanted to call our parents to discuss the price and whether we could buy it. The salesperson grimaced at us and said, “Do you Asians need to consult with your parents when you buy something?”

8:07

Can’t you asians make your own decisions? My roommate and I were furious and told him I wanted to meet with your manager and tell him about the racist thing you just said to us. Another personal example is when I was a freshman I went to a club party. When we talked about me being from Asia, they asked me in a very exaggerated way why I didn’t wear Air Jordan, Supreme, off-white, etc. They say the Asian people they know all like the brands, and it’s like they only know the brands. Maybe it’s a joke, but for Asians it’s a kind of verbal sarcasm and hurtful. Both of these things are true stories that happened to me. I think they all show the image of fundamentalists very well. They hurt me and my roommates by stereotyping Asians.

9:35

Such behavior clearly falls within the scope of racial discrimination. I bring up these examples to show you that perhaps in the context of racism that we’re all concerned with, Asians have always been a very unobtruded subject. But this does not mean that Asians have not faced racial discrimination among ethnic minorities. In fact, we can only imagine how many incidents of racial discrimination Asian-Americans have experienced in the past year. Because COVID-19 Asians are double victims of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021. On the one hand they have to physically protect themselves from COVID-19, on the other hand they are also suffering from the even crazier racism that COVID-19 gives them.

10：45

I’m sure you’re all wondering why the topic of Asian discrimination hasn’t been discussed until now. This is because the general cultural background of Asian people is not like to fight with others. In Asian cultures, if a little bit of hurt is the price of greater peace, then often people choose to take a little bit of hurt. Therefore, although Asians are often hurt by racial discrimination in American society, they often keep silent in the hope of exchanging future friendship with each other. But it is clear that in fact the future of friendship has not arrived, and has been replaced by greater harm. Because Asians do not resist when they are discriminated against, more and more racial discrimination occurs today.

11：55

I think we need to identify the problem as well as figure out how to solve it. First of all, we need to understand that silence is not a way to change. Asians are considered “Other” by some people in today’s American society. In this case, Asians will only be hurt more if they remain silent. So it’s a very good way for Asian people to demonstrate to more people the hurt and pain of Asian people. As Lin mentioned on Facebook, he is no longer willing to maintain the label that American society gives Asians as easy bullies. He hopes that more people will know that there are many Asians who are suffering from racial discrimination.

12:53

He also said he hoped Asians would stop being silent and stand up and tell everyone what we think and what we suffer. That is why the great Dr. Martin Luther King and Louis used their stories to tell us the need for a truly fair approach and a way to end racial discrimination. At the same time, I believe we all know that there may be some small voice of racial discrimination, but this is not the reason for us to ignore it. Instead, we should pay more attention to these small noises to prevent more people from getting hurt in the future.

12:50

Finally, I hope all of you who can listen to this recording can want to share more about the racial discrimination of Asian people. Racial discrimination against Asians has been around for a long time, and it’s only today that people are talking about it. We need to pay attention to the harm that Asians suffer in America, and we also need to pay attention to the unfair treatment of all ethnic groups in America. But the most important thing is that we as individuals should be able to treat everyone and every group equally, regardless of their race or cultural background. Because when we’re all blindfolded and don’t look at skin color, we’re all a family. Although Asian Americans have an Asian face, they are also American citizens who were born in the United States and live and work in the United States.

15：10

I hope there will be no more racial discrimination in this world. That’s what we’ve been talking about today about Asian racism. Thank you for listening today and I hope everything goes well.

 

Citation：

Yam, K. (2021, March 19). There were 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents, mostly against women, in past year. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/there-were-3-800-anti-asian-racist-incidents-mostly-against-n1261257

Ellerbeck, A. (2020, May 11). Over 30 percent of Americans have witnessed COVID-19 bias against Asians, poll says. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/over-30-americans-have-witnessed-covid-19-bias-against-asians-n1193901

“Resist Reducing Them to Statistics:” Anti-Asian Violence in the Face of COVID-19. (2021, April 5). Columbia News. https://news.columbia.edu/news/resist-reducing-them-statistics-anti-asian-violence-face-covid-19

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase——Hengyuan Chang——NBA Asian American player Jimmy Lin is called Covid-19

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 NBA Asian American player Jimmy Lin is called Covid-19

Jeremy Lin is an Asian-American who studied at Harvard University and is an NBA professional basketball player. He won the NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019. He is the idol of all basketball fans in Asia, but Jeremy Lin claimed that he was called Covid-19 by other players in the game this season. This is a very serious issue of racial discrimination, and it is also an undoubted systemic injustice. And Jeremy Lin also voiced in Instagram, hoping that Asian Americans can bravely resist their discrimination.

https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2021-02-26/541813

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYxjtFuNJCo

Because some media used Wuhan virus, Chinese virus, or even Asian virus in the news because of the initial outbreak of Covid-19 in China without evidence, a large number of Americans believed that the virus came from China. , Or from Asia. In fact, the World Health Organization went to China last month to investigate the origin of Covid-19 and issued a document acknowledging that Covid-19 did not originate in China. However, there are still a large number of American media who have not stopped using these discriminatory words, because these media and companies believe that the Wuhan virus or the Chinese virus can bring them more exposure and popularity.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55996728

The latest statistics released on March 16, local time by the US non-profit organization “Stop AAPI Hate”, which is committed to anti-discrimination of Asian-Pacific descents, show that from March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021, the organization received a total of 3,795 There have been reports of hate crime incidents targeting Asian-Pacific descent across the United States. Among them, 68.1% of the victims were verbally harassed and 11.1% of the victims were physically assaulted. Among them, Chinese were the ethnic group that suffered the most hate incidents, accounting for 42.2%. This is followed by Koreans (14.8%), Vietnamese (8.5%) and Filipinos (7.9%).

 

http://m.news.cctv.com/2021/03/17/ARTIe0bfaFXk81xhFcB0uBaw210317.shtml

Regarding Covid-19, racial discrimination has caused more and more Asian Americans to suffer mental and physical harm. The source of this harm comes from systemic injustice. Some politicians and the media did not tell the truth to the American people. They chose interest between truth and interest and deceived the American people to use Chinese virus, Wuhan virus and other terms to mislead a large number of Americans. This makes a large number of Americans discriminate against Asian Americans without knowing the truth. So this is undoubtedly an example of systemic injustice. These selfish politicians and the media have become the cause of this painful discrimination in order to gain more exposure and hot topics. What we need to do is to speak out as brave as Jimmy Lin and tell more people about the unfair treatment we have received. Only in this way will more people begin to understand the truth of the facts instead of believing some false statements.

In the end, I think Jimmy Lin’s story of being called Covid-19 tells us that “Single story” will cause ambiguity and misunderstanding, and may cause distressing racial discrimination. So it’s the same as the “many stories matter” we learned before. People should learn more about it before we define a thing. For example, when we know that Covid-19 does not come from a certain race, we can avoid similar incidents of discrimination. Therefore, “many stories matter”.

 

citation：

BBC News. (2021, February 9). Covid: WHO says “extremely unlikely” virus leaked from lab in China. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55996728

新頭殼 newtalk. (2021, February 26). 厭倦亞裔刻板印象 林書豪嘆在球場上仍會被叫「冠狀病毒」. https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2021-02-26/541813

“There’s hate crimes… “Jeremy Lin speaks on violence against Asian-Americans 林书豪为亚裔发声: 我曾在场上被叫“新冠.” (2021, March 1). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYxjtFuNJCo