Lunar newsletter: Live-streamers in love, an ‘epidemic of hate’ and TikTok experiments

Valerie Chow, a television producer in Los Angeles, had just started planning a series of videos to address Covid-19-related anti-Asian sentiment in the United States when she experienced it first-hand.

“I was out walking my dog when a homeless man started yelling at me, ‘nasty b****, go back to China’, throwing punches and trying to kick my dog,” recalls Chow, who has produced unscripted shows for Netflix and the Food Network.

“I ran back towards my building but he chased me, still screaming. It was like that cliché in every murder scene where the victim’s hand is trembling, and she drops her keys. That was me in that moment.”

The incident further galvanised Chow, who subsequently launched her Be Cool 2 Asians campaign, designed to eradicate harmful notions that Asians should be blamed for the coronavirus pandemic.

She is not the only one taking action. In mid-March, a trio of organisations – the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and San Francisco State University’s Asian-American Studies Department – formed the Stop AAPI Hate reporting centre to support Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the country.

In the space of three weeks it received 1,135 reports of verbal harassment, shunning and physical assault. The reporting centre said that women are harassed at twice the rate of men. Read more about what is being done to push back against what Valerie Chow describes as “an epidemic of hate”.

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From running cutting-edge global companies to speaking out against sexism and stereotypes, women in Asia are making their voices heard around the world. Here at Lunar, we want to provide a platform to elevate and celebrate these voices, while exploring issues that affect women everywhere. Each week, we’ll bring you a curated selection of news, interviews and features about women, by women and for women. Sign up now!