Are you even writer if you don’t dabble in alliteration?
I hope this newsletter finds you in a state of positive introspection. I hesitate to make Pollyanna statements about silver linings to a pandemic, but the slowing down of the world has meant, for me, an evaluation of where I’m heading in life and given me an opportunity to pursue hobbies I’d put on hold. One of which is learning Arabic — a language that spans cultures rich in a history that has fascinated me since I was young. A language also rich in H sounds.
Another small pleasure during this time has been re-reading Asterix comics. The desire came from illustrator Uderzo’s recent death, and the discovery a few months ago that new editions had been released with two new creators at the helm. Flicking through the new editions at a bookshop I noticed that the stories had returned to being grounded in the Roman Empire world of the original comics written by Goscinny. After his writing collaborator’s death, Uderzo was keen on taking Asterix on more fantastical adventures, ignoring the history yet to be plumbed, and instead illustrating UFOs and Atlantis. Anyway, re-immersing in childhood nostalgia and human history was an impulse during this historic moment in our lives, and a salve. It has also led me down rabbit holes on Wikipedia and YouTube.
One fascinating new channel on YouTube is ‘Voices From the Past’ where I found a video entitled ‘Ancient Chinese Historian Describes the Roman Empire’, but one that I found even more intriguing was this one: ‘Japanese Historian Describes First Contact With Europeans’.
In my years of teaching English to international students, culture shock is a common topic of conversation. We dissect stereotypes and preconceptions. We laugh at and correct generalisations, but there’s always a simmering of “It’s OK to be racist towards this one group of people” depending on who’s not in the room. Unfortunately, in the last few years or so that has been towards ‘The Chinese’, or ‘Mainland Chinese’, when it’s Taiwanese or Hongkonger students. The growing resentment stems from cultural imperialism or unfavourable experiences with tourists/business people in students’ home countries, or even in Sydney. It reminds me of my parents’ generation’s resentment of ‘Yanks’ and how much ‘American Culture’ was penetrating and influencing Australian TV, cinema, and radio. While most students will temper their grievances with China with “Of course, not all Chinese people”, there seems to be an acceptance that it’s OK to ‘punch up’ the perceived dominant power in the region.
Of course, this simmering racism has exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic. From the US President calling it the ‘China Virus’ to my former-boss telling a class to “blame the Chinese” for the inconvenience of moving to online classes, China-bashing is more blatant than ever. However, because bigots are ignorant af, this puts a target on people of East and South-East Asian descent living anywhere in the world. News of hate attacks are coming out from all over, including Australia (lol, of course). ‘Western’ imperialism fuelled by white supremacy is quick to claim victimhood and conveniently forgets where other pandemics originated.
But because the internet is a hellscape, nuance in discussions about ‘what’s to blame’ rather than ‘who’s to blame’ is reduced to a slinging match between racist dog-whistling from right-wing media, and politically correct absolutists and Chinese media labelling genuine criticism of animal welfare in wet markets as ‘racist’.
Nowadays, pointing out that the Chinese government is weaponising the term ‘racist’, criticising their under-reporting of COVID-19 cases and deaths, their denial of detention centres for Uyghur residents, or their bullying tactics in SE Asia is, in fact, ‘racist’. This gaslighting is working, especially in the US, where people desperate for a more socialist approach to governance exalt China and join in the finger-pointing on social media. ‘Racist’ becomes the shut down word and no one learns anything.
Stories of anti-immigrant sentiment growing in China has helped balance the narrative, although this usually just helps the bigot’s bias — “See! The Chinese are just as racist!” I don’t know. Know your history, don’t overgeneralise. We have a lot to learn from each other.
It all boils down to “Don’t be a dick”, but being a dick is a lot of people’s coping mechanism in a crisis. I digress.
Here are some fun links you may be interested in:
How China’s ‘Bat Woman’ hunted down SARS and COVID-19
What’s with gibberish on fashion?
The alphabets at risk of extinction
Why most languages (Polish is always an outlier) call tea ‘tea’ or ‘chai’ or variations on these words
The sentences computers cannot understand
Thank you for reading and please share if you think anyone else would enjoy this newsletter.