Never in a million years would I think that I would be moving to a new country, a new school, during a global pandemic. As a Chinese student who grew up in Hong Kong, a diverse country with people from all over the world, it was a massive cultural shock when I arrived in America. Especially with the coronavirus that was started in China which was very soon known as the “Chinese Virus,” first coined by Former President Donald Trump, who used the term in a tweet, which led to a large majority of the population to not only pick up the phrase but use it in a derogatory manner towards people of Asian descent.
Before coming to America, I had some fears and anxiety about the discrimination I would face. There has always been hate and stereotypes thrown towards Asians, but as COVID-19 proliferated throughout America, I would always see anti-Asian hate online, which only made me more apprehensive before coming. Seeing Asian Americans getting harassed in the supermarkets, restaurants, and on the subway made me question whether or not my family was making the correct decision to enroll me in school here in the United States. My family and close relatives told me to be careful of what I say to people and how different people would react to me as an Asian woman. I was stuck with two very contrasting ideas of how the students at my new school would act around me. Would they be interested in getting to know me as a foreign student, or would they hurl abusive language at me like the countless unfortunate instances that happened to my friends?
Typically, at boarding schools, Asian students tend to group together and struggle to branch out to other students, and this can be due to various reasons. Irrespective of whether it is because of the language barrier, the cultural barrier, or the underlying fear of rejection and nonacceptance, Asian students find comfort in the company of each other. Another common reason for Asian students grouping together is that in a lot of cases, they are able to speak their own languages around each other and respect everyone’s cultures, which can help truncate the feeling of homesickness.
Aside from the weird looks which I have grown accustomed to, there was an instance where my family and I were refused service at a restaurant, where the waiter was constantly seating other families ahead of us, and we quickly latched onto the unfortunate situation we were in. We tried to persevere and hoped we would be seated at some point, but after 30 minutes, other customers noticed and made comments to the waiter about how long we had been waiting, and we left the restaurant feeling humiliated and unworthy in this country.
Regrettably, I had to be brought up expecting to experience hate towards me purely as a result of my ethnicity, and I know that people will make their own perception of who I am before they ever speak to me. According to NBC News, hate crimes directed towards Asians increased exponentially from 2019 to 2020. The rates increased by 150%, and sadly these numbers are only continuing to grow throughout this year.
It is shocking in this day and age that I had to be taught to expect hate, but unless any action is taken, this will only continue in the future.
Dorothy – this is a very insightful article, written with much honesty and courage. I hear you loud and clear. As a South Asian woman who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years now, none of what you write in new to me. I have lived in Hong Kong and Australia too, and even there I have experienced prejudice and bias, sometimes overt but mostly covert. What is new in the United States in this past year is the sheer brazenness and audacity of the anti-Asian hate, which you capture most aptly. Like you, I too will raise my voice (and my pen) against this injustice. THANK YOU for the inspiration.