Letters | ‘Chinese virus’ attack on academic in the UK: and they call China backward
- The incident raises questions about the culture in which young men feel free to attack a person of another race
In the eyes of the West, and certainly the four young men in Britain’s Southampton, China seems to be a backward country which should take responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic. Going by Western news reports, the Chinese are ignorant people who eat bats, spread epidemics and accept blockades on freedoms. When public discourse is suffused with Orientalism, it seems reasonable to beat a Chinese or Asian person.
Although this violates the basic values of freedom or fairness, who would appeal for a backward nation? Behind this case is an attitude full of racism. Racist views would dictate that the people of a “backward” ethnic group should never leave their hometown; that even if someone has completed his PhD, he is not qualified to remain in a place like the UK. If he dares to express his dissatisfaction, the white man could beat him up.
This prejudice only serves to lay bare the brutish backwardness of the attackers, because only backward countries will lack understanding and engage in such a rejection of the “other”. If young people choose to grow up in and propagate this culture, it is they who should be ashamed.
Yipeng Chen, student, City University of Hong Kong
