Letters | Racism against Chinese: could arrogance have a role to play?
As a result of the coronavirus outbreak being first recorded in China, many Chinese faced discrimination across the world. Being Chinese, I definitely feel nervous about that but, meanwhile, I have strong reservations about what Mr Lo has claimed – that it is all about “schadenfreude”.
In fact, discrimination against Chinese could also be attributed to Chinese arrogance.
Take the Chinese government’s attitude towards the other nations during the coronavirus outbreak, for example. Even though China was an infected area with tens of hundreds of deaths, they demanded that other countries keep their borders open for Chinese travellers. Because China makes large contributions to the economy of numerous countries, it thinks other countries ought to listen to it, even putting the Chinese before their own citizens.
However, misbehaving Chinese are in the minority; we are mostly nice, friendly and humble. But some introspection is warranted. To be honest, we Chinese, like most other people, have innumerable flaws that need our attention – this is what we should focus on, instead of just blaming others for discriminating against us.
Kyle Wong, Tseung Kwan O
