How "Wisdom" on Avoiding Coronavirus Fuels Xenophobic Stereotypes
As the coronavirus rages on both in China and across much of the world that the Chinese have frequent contact with, there has been an increasing emphasis on how the general public can avoid catching the virus just from going about their daily lives. While the talks of the need to arm oneself with proper tools and behaviors for isolation from potential carriers has led to shortages in everything from surgical masks to rice and toilet paper, even the hardiest isolationists must concede that in a global economy that depends on international movements of goods and people, people locking themselves indoors for weeks on end simply is not feasible.
That realization, thus, brings about a sometimes unscientific pursuit of where to avoid in public places to minimize the possibilities of catching the virus from complete strangers. In modern economies where the vast majority of people reside in densely packed cities and constantly rub shoulders with others in trains, buses, cafes, and workplaces, the pseudoscience of picking out specific places and people to avoid while still maintaining a semblance of normal, highly mobile daily routines has become all the rage. The spread of the pseudoscience has all the more potent as trust in government authorities to contain the virus in limited geographies has waned.
Unfortunately, as people go out picking out physical locations specifically to avoid, the unscientific nature of the reasoning has quickly led to racial stereotyping that places Chinese and the larger Asian community at an enormous disadvantage. Given that the commonly agreed origin of the new coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, across both China and the world, people from Wuhan and Hubei have become victims of merciless restrictions that subject them to restrictions on movements and normal economic activities. In many instances, the restrictions have become official policies, as holders of Chinese passports issued in Hubei find themselves unable to cross international borders.
Yet, the bigger damage from the efforts to avoid people from the geographical epicenter of the coronavirus does much more emotional damage in a way that far extends beyond the simply quantifiable economic costs. Non-Chinese irrationally avoiding Chinese restaurants in their respective home countries will surely bring my Chinese restauranteurs close to bankruptcy. But a bigger threat is the establishment of a more widely accepted social norm that Chinese people and foods are the carriers of uncurable, exotic, and potential diseases. When such a social norm entrenches itself, the defeat of the coronavirus would not lead to Chinese restaurants roaring back to life.
As the pseudoscience of coronavirus avoidance establishes the Chinese as the bringer of epidemics, the narrative only amplifies by mixing together with the other anti-Chinese narratives that are already present internationally. Many already see China as a political, economic, and ideological threat to their own societies. For them, adding China as an epidemiological threat is not such a big logical leap and not so much a far-fetched idea to digest. Rumors of the virus being manufactured in a Chinese lab only adds to the salience of China as an existential threat that is bent on destroying the world, even if China itself suffers the most from the process.
In the West, such a narrative has also taken on a cultural dimension that goes beyond the supposed sinister intentions of the Chinese. The association with the coronavirus with consuming wild animals like bats, a practice that remains not only in China but also in rural parts of Southeast Asia, only helps to advance an already latently present belief of Asians' dietary, and more broadly, cultural barbarism. The emergence of the coronavirus has put an impetus on the belief that the rooting out of certain elements of traditional Asian culture, and replacing them with much more sanitary and modern Western ones is not just an advancement of civilization but can practically save human lives.
If such beliefs were to spread, they could dramatically help put paid to past decades of multicultural tolerance in many migration-friendly Western countries. Multiculturalism has risen with the underlying principle that no culture is better than another but simply equally valid ways that people can lead their lives. But the coronavirus has inadvertently brought out the notion that, at least in the culinary aspect, non-Asian cultures are fundamentally superior because Asian cuisines can bring about fatal diseases. Given the centrality of food to any particular culture and particularly to Asian ones, arguing that food is inferior can quickly be insinuated that the entire culture is inferior.
It will be a struggle for the Chinese and Asians to combat the broader long-term implications of xenophobia against them emerging from the coronavirus. In a few years, perhaps this particular coronavirus would have long retreated and the fear it brought around the world today would largely disappear from the minds of the general public, but people may remind themselves of future possibilities of another, equally fearsome epidemic emerging from the East. And people may remind themselves that possibility will continue to exist because of what the Asians eat, how they live, and who they are. Erasing that underlying xenophobia will take much more than successfully defeating an epidemic.
That realization, thus, brings about a sometimes unscientific pursuit of where to avoid in public places to minimize the possibilities of catching the virus from complete strangers. In modern economies where the vast majority of people reside in densely packed cities and constantly rub shoulders with others in trains, buses, cafes, and workplaces, the pseudoscience of picking out specific places and people to avoid while still maintaining a semblance of normal, highly mobile daily routines has become all the rage. The spread of the pseudoscience has all the more potent as trust in government authorities to contain the virus in limited geographies has waned.
Unfortunately, as people go out picking out physical locations specifically to avoid, the unscientific nature of the reasoning has quickly led to racial stereotyping that places Chinese and the larger Asian community at an enormous disadvantage. Given that the commonly agreed origin of the new coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, across both China and the world, people from Wuhan and Hubei have become victims of merciless restrictions that subject them to restrictions on movements and normal economic activities. In many instances, the restrictions have become official policies, as holders of Chinese passports issued in Hubei find themselves unable to cross international borders.
Yet, the bigger damage from the efforts to avoid people from the geographical epicenter of the coronavirus does much more emotional damage in a way that far extends beyond the simply quantifiable economic costs. Non-Chinese irrationally avoiding Chinese restaurants in their respective home countries will surely bring my Chinese restauranteurs close to bankruptcy. But a bigger threat is the establishment of a more widely accepted social norm that Chinese people and foods are the carriers of uncurable, exotic, and potential diseases. When such a social norm entrenches itself, the defeat of the coronavirus would not lead to Chinese restaurants roaring back to life.
As the pseudoscience of coronavirus avoidance establishes the Chinese as the bringer of epidemics, the narrative only amplifies by mixing together with the other anti-Chinese narratives that are already present internationally. Many already see China as a political, economic, and ideological threat to their own societies. For them, adding China as an epidemiological threat is not such a big logical leap and not so much a far-fetched idea to digest. Rumors of the virus being manufactured in a Chinese lab only adds to the salience of China as an existential threat that is bent on destroying the world, even if China itself suffers the most from the process.
In the West, such a narrative has also taken on a cultural dimension that goes beyond the supposed sinister intentions of the Chinese. The association with the coronavirus with consuming wild animals like bats, a practice that remains not only in China but also in rural parts of Southeast Asia, only helps to advance an already latently present belief of Asians' dietary, and more broadly, cultural barbarism. The emergence of the coronavirus has put an impetus on the belief that the rooting out of certain elements of traditional Asian culture, and replacing them with much more sanitary and modern Western ones is not just an advancement of civilization but can practically save human lives.
If such beliefs were to spread, they could dramatically help put paid to past decades of multicultural tolerance in many migration-friendly Western countries. Multiculturalism has risen with the underlying principle that no culture is better than another but simply equally valid ways that people can lead their lives. But the coronavirus has inadvertently brought out the notion that, at least in the culinary aspect, non-Asian cultures are fundamentally superior because Asian cuisines can bring about fatal diseases. Given the centrality of food to any particular culture and particularly to Asian ones, arguing that food is inferior can quickly be insinuated that the entire culture is inferior.
It will be a struggle for the Chinese and Asians to combat the broader long-term implications of xenophobia against them emerging from the coronavirus. In a few years, perhaps this particular coronavirus would have long retreated and the fear it brought around the world today would largely disappear from the minds of the general public, but people may remind themselves of future possibilities of another, equally fearsome epidemic emerging from the East. And people may remind themselves that possibility will continue to exist because of what the Asians eat, how they live, and who they are. Erasing that underlying xenophobia will take much more than successfully defeating an epidemic.
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