Chapter Breakdown
· Intro – the microaggressions and racial discriminations on Chinese people and people of Asian descent.
· History of face mask – its origin story
· The split in cultural understanding – the East (normalisation of face mask therefore it does not have any negative stigma)
· The split in cultural understanding – the West (its stigmatised as its not normalised)
· Conclusion
Intro
COVID19, the pandemic that the world is currently battling. People around the globe are being asked to wash their hands, stay inside and wear face masks when they go outside. However, the act of wearing masks for Chinese people and others of Asian descent is not easy, in fact it’s scary.
Hate crimes against Asians have risen during this pandemic, in the UK alone 267 incidents have been reported in the first 3 months of 2020. The President of the United States of America has called the pandemic the “Chinese virus”, when however, WHO announced in 2015 that usage of geographical locations should not be used to call diseases due to “…unintended impacts by stigmatising certain communities or economic sectors…” The usage of such term by the President, may have fuelled more racially driven attacks on Asian Americans as there have been 1,497 reports of incidents made. Moreover, along with longstanding stereotypes – “…idea[s] of epidemics coming from China and being spread by Chinese people,” more and more xenophobic attacks have been happening towards Chinese people and people of Asian descent around the globe. However, as said by the Alex Azar, Sec. of Health and Human Services in America, “Ethnicity is not what cause the novel coronavirus.”
History of public face mask wearing
The Great Manchurian Plague that started in 1910 was spreading fast in North-eastern China, when Malaysian-Chinese doctor Wu Lien-teh suggested a theory that the plague was airborne due to the respiratory complications that patients were showing. Wu created his own version of a face mask and though receiving obscurity at first, his theory proven to be true and soon the plague ended 7 months later as the public was ordered to cover their mouths and nose. Later, photographs of people wearing masks became a symbol of success in defeating a global pandemic. During the 1918 Influenza Epidemic, the effects of Wu’s masks were still in people’s minds and masks were seen worldwide, though its acceptance wasn’t quite widespread. In America, it was seen more as a ‘specialised practice’ where pictures of upper-class citizens were taken in order to encourage the general public to wear masks and make them feel calm.
The Split in Cultural Understanding – the East
The use of masks in China however had been continuous as China had been hit by a few more other outbreaks during the 20’s and the 30’s. It has also been mandated and campaign through propaganda posters, and by the time the SARS epidemic occurred wearing masks was already normalised in China. This is also true in other countries like Japan were wearing masks have been normalised and became intertwined in culture since the Influenza Pandemic. Wearing masks in Asian countries have been normalised that wearing it when you have a cough or cold is standard, (in fact not wearing a mask when your ill or have a cold can be seen negative instead.) Wearing a mask is seen as virtue-signalling and being considerate of others, protecting them from you – coming from the collectivist sentiment rotted in most Asian cultures. Though it’s also important to note, that the younger generation are also using face masks for other means due to societal standards and culture, such as fashion through celebrities incorporating face masks with their outfits, to a ‘lookism’ culture where face masks can divert ones attention from someone’s appearance, to simply using a face mask to avoid social interactions. It is inevitable that face masks will have other purposes and meanings through culture and social paradigm, but the deep rooted sentiment of collectiveness and togetherness in most Asian cultures have not stigmatised face masks and its usage in public.
“In a more collectivist culture, the wearing of mask takes on more significance
than it does in the Western World"
– Harris Ali, York University
The Split in Cultural Understanding – the West
On the other side of the world using face masks is not a common sight, and face masks have accumulated a meaning of a ‘disease’. Instead, media representation of the SARS outbreak also amplified its stigma towards Asian people, where depictions and pictures of the public in Asia wearing masks where in itself, “…served to delineate the disease’s identity,” and constructed a racialised view on the item as a ‘distinctly’ Asian phenomenon. This has continued in the current COVID-19 pandemic with fear-mongering inciting micro-aggressions and incidents towards Asian people. Moreover, misinformation and lack of clarity towards the use of and purpose of face masks and the pandemic has led some people to feel that the virus is overblown, thus adding to the fear. However, with the rapid spread of COVID-19, some Western governments have started to encourage people to make hand-made masks, or and impose mandatory mask-wearing in public. This led to some members of the general public feeling that the requirement is invading their personal liberties, though experts have described face masks as a considerate act to others. Dr. Deborah Birx pointed out how, “We need to protect each other…at the same time we’re voicing our discontent.” Ethical issues and stigma towards hoarding in a pandemic have also discouraged people to wear masks. Although, in recent weeks people have started to wear face masks due to perhaps in the turn of events feeling more self-conscious of not wearing one when others are seen wearing them. Furthermore, with that sentiment of self-consciousness, face masks are slowly turning into fashion accessories with people selling and buying ‘stylish’ face masks to wear. It is perhaps turning into a symbol of self-preservation, an act resulted from increasing social pressure of the new norm during this pandemic; arguably rooted from good genuine intentions but a different dominating attitude towards the purpose of wearing face masks.
Conclusion
It is clear that the association of face masks with diseases and Asian people have been deeply embedded in Western society for decades. Along with racial stereotypes and prejudice, discrimination towards Asian people have immensely increased worldwide. Of course, some may argue that micro-aggressions towards Asians can be paranoia, but maybe that’s also contributing to the normalised racism towards Asian people that already existed way before this current pandemic.
Although, Western countries are encouraging citizens to wear face masks as means for protection, it is an incredibly slow process that involves a lot of crossing barriers in beliefs and changes in attitudes. Also, in a culture where individuality, in majority, is of much more significant value, it is mayhap unlikely that the stigmatisation of face masks will be diminished completely. Nevertheless, there is hope that it could be changed. As people are slowly accepting the new norm of wearing face masks in public, perhaps it is the chance to change the items’ association for a more purposeful and acceptable societal norm that could take away its racial connection. Through this chance, hopefully societies can understand that through openness with each other there is a way to recognise and lessen fears and discrimination towards one another.
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