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| "Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, at a news conference in Beijing on March 1, 2022." Image and caption source. |
Ah, well. I have to blog about this: Don't touch foreigners to reduce monkeypox risk, China health official says (September 19)
A senior Chinese health official advised people to avoid contact with foreigners to prevent monkeypox infection after the first known case of the virus on mainland China was reported.
"To prevent possible monkeypox infection and as part of our healthy lifestyle, it is recommended that 1) you do not have direct skin-to-skin contact with foreigners," Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention posted on his official Weibo page on Saturday.
Wu also called for people to avoid such contact with people who have been abroad within the past three weeks as well as all "strangers", as he cautioned vigilance.
His post was widely shared across social media over the weekend, but the comments section under his initial post were disabled on Sunday and in the early hours of Monday in Beijing.
Oh great.
Here is Wu's Weibo post, and here is a repost from a Chinese news account, which did not disable its comments. The interesting bit is this: "1）不要同外国人发生肌肤直接接触" ["Don't have skin-to-skin contact with foreigners"] though I see that his original post has now been edited to "1）不要同近期(三周内)来自境外猴痘疫情流行区且有可能感染了猴痘的外国人发生亲密肌肤直接接触" ["Don't have skin-to-skin contact with foreigners who have come, within the past 3 weeks, from areas abroad with monkeypox outbreaks"] which is a bit silly because his recommendation #2 already was "don't have skin-to-skin contact with anyone who has been abroad in the past 3 weeks."
So, first of all: That's racist.
(And, you can edit, but we all know how to take screenshots. In Shanghai in particular, our screenshot/screen-recording skills developed A LOT during the lockdown because of all the censoring.)
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| Gif of a black boy saying "That's racist!" Image source. |
First, we have to talk about the word "外国人[wài guó rén]", which every dictionary will tell you means "foreigner". 2 things I want to say about this:
1. The English word "foreigner" has very negative connotations, in my opinion. Like "foreign" means something that shouldn't be here, that doesn't belong here. I guess other international people in China don't necessarily think so, because I always hear white people referring to themselves [in English] as "foreigners". (I mention white people specifically because I don't have first-hand observations about other races.)
But- and this is important- the Chinese word "外国人[wài guó rén]" doesn't have those negative connotations. It just simply means someone from a different country. So when I first came to China/ first started studying Chinese, I was really mad about being called "外国人[wài guó rén]" all the time because people told me it meant "foreigner", and I would never EVER call an immigrant in the US a "foreigner", that sounds so mean! (Except maybe in a strict-legal-definition context, like if we were talking about paying taxes or something?)
Actually I'm still kind of low-key mad about how "外国人[wài guó rén]" is always translated as "foreigner." But I can't change that, so I just don't spend my time worrying about it. I personally use the term "international people" in English instead.
2. When Chinese people say "外国人[wài guó rén]" they actually mean people who are not ethnic Chinese. It's about race, not nationality.
And usually, they actually mean white people. I've had conversations with Chinese people where they say things like "外国人[wài guó rén] have blue eyes" or "外国人[wài guó rén] speak English" or "外国人[wài guó rén] don't eat rice", and they ask me questions about if "外国人[wài guó rén]" do this or that, and I'm trying to find a way to say, "you know there's a whole big world of 外国人[wài guó rén], right? Everyone who's not Chinese is a 外国人[wài guó rén], but you are just asking me about white Americans."
One time I think I broke some Chinese person's brain when I asked them, "are Koreans 外国人[wài guó rén]?" They spent a long time thinking about it, and then said "yes... they are... but that's not what I meant." Because a Korean person walking down the street in China wouldn't get called a "外国人[wài guó rén]" because ethnically they look similar enough to Chinese that you can't tell. So actually, even though the technical definition of "外国人[wài guó rén]" is about what country you're from, in reality it's not about that, it's about race.
So really I would say there are 3 groups of 外国人[wài guó rén], which get treated differently in China:
- Ethnic Chinese who are not Chinese citizens (for example, American-born Chinese). Chinese people would say that these people are Chinese, they are not 外国人[wài guó rén]. I have seen people get into arguments like "I am American"- "No you're not, you're Chinese." From a Chinese point of view, it's your family heritage that determines your identity, it's not about which country you have legal citizenship in due to being born there or whatever. And ethnic Chinese face a certain kind of racism in China- always getting judged because they don't speak Chinese well enough (meanwhile, a white person can show up and say "ni hao" and then Chinese people fall all over themselves to say "your Chinese is so good"- they don't really mean it though, lol). It's very common that schools refuse to hire an American-born Chinese as an English teacher- even though they are a native English speaker- because the school only wants to hire white people. Sometimes you even see white Europeans whose second language is English, being hired as English teachers instead of non-white native English speakers. That's just racist.
- East Asian ethnicity- for example, Japanese, Korean- from Asia or from western countries (like Korean Americans, etc). These people look similar enough to Chinese that they won't get treated like a "外国人[wài guó rén]" by random strangers. (It will probably become obvious they're not Chinese, though, if someone tries to talk to them and finds they don't speak Chinese, or they speak Chinese with an obvious accent.) Very common that schools don't want to hire them as English teachers, again, because they don't "look" like native English speakers, or some bullshit like that.
- All other races (white, black, etc)- If you're in this group, then your race is a factor in every single interaction you have with any Chinese people. People always refer to you as "外国人[wài guó rén]". Like you're not just a person, you're a 外国[wài guó] person. When I first came to China, I always got mad about this, but now it usually doesn't bother me anymore, because that's just how it is and I can't change the culture. And people assume I can't speak Chinese, so I have to talk first, otherwise they just awkwardly don't talk, or they awkwardly try English. But whatever, turns out most white people in Shanghai actually can't speak Chinese, so that's why Chinese people assume that. So I just have to talk first.
So basically, the advice "don't touch foreigners", if taken seriously by the public in China, would actually only be applied to the third category there.
And honestly, white people would be less likely to be seen as "you're dirty and diseased" than other races. I've heard Chinese people make various racist statements... at least Americans know that if you have a racist opinion, you shouldn't say it out loud- in China this is not so! But the stereotypes about white people are much more "positive" than other races. Like, white people, they're all rich, but they don't speak Chinese and they're guests in our country and need our help, and also, rich+clueless is a good target for scammers. (Geez, whenever I go to a super super touristy place, and the street vendors are all over me with their overpriced crap and I have to yell at them in Chinese... Although, now that we're in a pandemic and China isn't issuing tourist visas, perhaps this isn't a thing any more?) Anyway, my point is, "foreigners" who aren't white have much more negative stereotypes than that.
So if this Wu guy inspires Chinese people to be racist toward "foreigners", it's not white people who will be getting the worst of it, is what I'm saying.
Also, the dynamics of being white in China are very different if you're in a big city with a good-size international population, like Shanghai, vs if you're in a small city where people have literally never seen a white person before (except on TV). In small cities, you get random people on the street yelling "HELLO" at you, and people all staring at you, asking bystanders where you're from, asking various rude and offensive questions... That doesn't really happen in Shanghai because everyone has seen a white person before. It's not like, the highlight of their day, seeing a random white person on the street.
(I mean, I said it doesn't really happen in Shanghai, but: There was this one time, in Shanghai, I was at a museum with a black friend, and some Chinese woman said she wanted to take a photo with us. Which I agreed to even though I felt really uncomfortable with it... Perhaps black people get stared at in Shanghai even though white people don't? I don't have enough data to answer that.)
So, if this Wu guy inspires Chinese people to be racist toward "foreigners", it will be much worse for foreigners in small cities where a lot of people are really ignorant about things like race and culture.
Anyway, let's take a look at the Reuters article again:
Some, who commented on forwarded or screenshot versions of his post, questioned why foreigners in China, many of whom are long-term residents and have not left recently due to COVID-19 barriers, were considered more dangerous than Chinese people.
YES, thank you. Because of covid, international people aren't coming to China because "I've always wanted to see the Great Wall" and fun little reasons like that, like they used to. Those of us who are here are here long-term. We either haven't seen our families since 2019, or we entered China and had to do 14 or 21 or 10 days of hotel quarantine. In some cities, we have lived through lockdowns. We have done all the waves of mass testing, struggled with all the new apps that are used now to prove one's low-risk status, we were last for the vaccine rollout because they had to make a whole separate computer system for signing up people who don't have Chinese ID cards.
And this Wu guy thinks we probably have monkeypox. Come on.
Or, as one of my white friends put it, "My dude, you have been out of the country more than I have."
The majority of people entering China right now are Chinese citizens. I mean, if you're aware of how hard it is to enter China right now, and how there's a 10-day quarantine, and how China isn't issuing visas for tourism and short-term business trips- if you realize these facts, and you spend 1 minute thinking about it, it should be obvious that the majority of people entering China now are Chinese citizens. (If you're not convinced, you can check the data that Shanghai publishes every day about how many "imported" covid cases were detected- they always say the infected person's nationality and what country they were traveling from. Most of them are Chinese citizens. In other words, most people who take an international flight and arrive in China and are found to be covid-positive are Chinese citizens, which is a reflection of the fact that most people on those flights in the first place are Chinese citizens. And, I'm willing to bet, most of the "foreigners" entering China are probably ethnic Chinese. [I don't have any way to fact-check that, though. Just like, my experience waiting in the "foreigner" line at the airport in the Before Times...] So whatever image Chinese people have of "foreigners", that's not who is bringing covid into the country at this point.)
And, surprise surprise:
The southwestern city of Chongqing recorded a monkeypox virus infection on Friday in an individual who arrived from abroad, marking mainland China's first known monkeypox infection amid the recent global outbreak of the virus.
The infected person was a 29-year-old Chinese national who flew to Chongqing on Sept. 14 from Spain, the Center for Disease Control said later.
(Also, here's a Chinese article that also says that. If you want to fact-check.)
Ah, so the 1 monkeypox case in China is a Chinese person. (Like I said, statistically, I would expect this, because the majority of people entering China now are Chinese citizens.) So what's this bullshit about "don't touch foreigners"?
Anyway, in Shanghai I saw a lot of people speaking out about this on WeChat, calling it out as racist. Good! As a white person in Shanghai, I'm not really going to be affected by this. But it could be a problem for people of other races, or living in smaller cities in China.
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See also, CNN's article: Don’t touch foreigners, warns senior health official after China’s first monkeypox case. I like it because of this quote, in the section about "Covid fatigue":
Shanghai, for instance, was locked down just days after officials insisted there were no plans for such a measure, leaving many of its residents unable to access food, medical care or other basic supplies.
Yep, that's what happened.
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Also, there's this, which happened in early 2020: Africans in Guangzhou are on edge, after many are left homeless amid rising xenophobia as China fights a second wave of coronavirus. NOT COOL.
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Related:
On Immigration and Double Standards
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