Coronavirus: the rise of Sinophobia
What is Sinophobia? Sinophobia is a sentiment against China, its’ people, overseas Chinese communities or Chinese culture in general.
The coronavirus outbreak has led to a rise of a series of viral videos showing people being blatantly racist towards Chinese people on public transport, in the streets and many other very public settings. Globally, more than 30,000 cases have been confirmed, of which 638 resulted in death, which translates into, approximately, a 3% fatality rate. As of today, about 98% of the cases have been reported in China. Only one death has been reported outside of Chine, in the Philippines.
Unfortunately, the "western world" has a tendency to view other cultures as less civilized. This sense of otherness has been heightened with the latest virus outbreak. Social media platforms have been filled with hateful commentary toward Chinese culture, deeming the Chinese as “pigs”/dirty, some people have even gone far as to say that they deserve the deaths caused by the virus because they are dirty and uncivilized. Racist attacks target “Chinese looking people”, this is in itself absurd, for you cannot tell a person’s nationality just by looking at them, so ignorance is really leading these attacks. There are reports of people who have never even been to China being insulted in the street, told to go back to where they came from or to “cough in another direction”.
In fact, these comments are an obvious result of pure ignorance and disrespect towards other cultures. Contrary to what is their responsibility, according to the laws of the press, the media has, ever since the outbreak, not been fair to Chinese people. It has deliberately harmed their dignity, portraying them in a terrible light and being racist in its publications.
French newspaper, Courrier Picard, has published the above cover where it reads “Chinese Coravirus/ Yellow Alert”.
Many people have come out against these media portrayals and there is even a petition for The Herald Sun and The Telegraph to apologise for their publications. If you wish to sign, here is the link: https://www.change.org/p/herald-sun-strongly-require-the-apologies-from-herald-sun-and-daily-telegraph
The hashtag I am not a virus has been created (#jenesuispasunvirus) for people to share the racist attacks that they have been victims of.
In Malaysia, 5 people have been arrested for spreading misinformation about the virus. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has come out with a statement: “The government will take action on those spreading fake news to instill fear among Malaysians and incite hatred among the races.”
After a rise of the occurrence of racist incidents in emergency rooms and other medical facilities, the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine issued the a statement calling for unity as we can see in this excerpt: “This is a time when we need to be pulling together as a multicultural, inclusive and diverse community to support each other and people affected by the outbreak; and not use an event like this to promote division and xenophobia.”
Ironically, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been the target of criticism for some pictures that have surfaced of him in “blackface”, has also spoken to his nation saying that “There is no place in this country for discrimination driven by fear or misinformation”.
Even though many news outlets have addressed this issue, sinophobic incidents keep on happening, for orientalism is very much alive in 2020.
Unfortunately, this situation is everything but unprecedented. The same happened during the SARS outbreak in 2003. Many other viruses have affected the world since then and the response is never quite the same as when they originate from China or other Asian countries. At the time of the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, no one was calling it the “American virus”, even though most people got infected from other people travelling from that area of the world. No one was avoiding Americans in elevators and on public transport. Media outlets were reporting the virus by name and not associating it with any nation or geographical location.
In France they eat frogs and snails, in Portugal there is a soup made with the water used to clean the pig after it is killed; all countries have their specific dishes that sound bizarre to others, no one is in a place to judge other people’s customs.
So, we need to ask ourselves, why is the coronavirus being reported as “China Virus”, even as “yellow virus” in some French media outlets? Why are Chinese/Asian people being stigmatized and why are their customs, cuisine and traditions under microscopic observation?
The answers are not clear but we must stop spreading misinformation and we have to make sure fear doesn’t become an acceptable excuse for xenophobia, racism and discrimination in general. In face of an international health issue we can and should worry about our health, take responsibility for our protection and keep ourselves safe. However, it is inadmissible that we ostracize, insult and attack people who are trying to do the same out of fear, ignorance and hate.
Mafalda Cortesão
Comments
Post a Comment