your-friendly-neigbourhood-asian

[your-friendly-neigbourhood-asian]

There are so many conversations of ours that I’ve loved, but I think the number one thing is College au where Oliver and Roma are roommates and have an enemies to besties arc because Roma is slightly allergic to Oliver’s cat.

[your-friendly-neigbourhood-asian]

in retrospect I should have been a lot meaner to that man.

[your-friendly-neigbourhood-asian]

As a Chinese American, it's so jarring to see positive things said towards China/Chinese culture now that RedNote has become trending.

I see all the TikTok's about people moving to RedNote, all the nice things said about Chinese culture and people and I just feel conflicted. Like great, it's becoming less stigmatized for people to enjoy Chinese culture but I had to go through hell to get to see it.

From 2020-2022, I saw my culture being mocked, memed, and ridiculed. I was being called slurs in the lunch hall in high school. I was glared at in stores by middle aged men. MY OWN FRIENDS refused to stick up for me against blatant Sinophobia and even contributed to it.

I still constantly have to BEG some of my friends, some who I've known for OVER A DECADE, to at least acknowledge that things are different from me than they are for them.

I did an entire paper on Sinophobia for one of my classes. I used only academic journals and sources from accredited schools, I pulled from my own experiences, I put my blood, sweat and tears into that paper. It got me an A in that class too. And that still wasn't enough for some people to ACKNOWLEDGE we had a different experience.

And surprisingly, I never experienced any of the previously listed bullshit in my circle on tumblr so thank you.

[your-friendly-neigbourhood-asian]

The Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media (2023)

I am currently alarmed by this report from 2023:

It's a long read. Whether or not you read it is up to you, but if you want to engage in discussion, I'd prefer if you read it. This is the most concerning point to me:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but international students in Canada can volunteer for political purposes. The election meddling is still only "alleged" to have happened at this point at time, so it's not a fact.

As such, I don't like that the Australian government has implied that (Chinese) international students in Canada were CCP spies. I'm not an international student myself, but I, like many Chinese people, have been stereotyped to be communist spies, and that always results in racial harassment.

If election or referendum results come out that politicians don't like, how can I trust that my government won't blame it on international students? And when does that blame expand to include diaspora who have been here for any amount of time, including just straight up being born here.

But most importantly, what will be the repercussions for this perceived slight? Best case scenario, the rate of hatecrimes against Asians gets higher for a bit and then decreases. I do not want to catastrophise for the worst case scenario. Honestly, I'm already catastrophising enough as it is. But these are the warning signs.

This doesn't affect just the Chinese. This blame can be aimed at anyone that the old white men in power don't like. Almost 50% of Australians have at least one parent born overseas. This can affect all of us.

[your-friendly-neigbourhood-asian]

7News spreading misinformation about HMPV

[Transcript: Health officials are raising the alarm over a new virus outbreak in China, which has sparked comparisons to COVID-19. It's a type of respiratory infection which is surging across the country, particularly alarming for young children, the elderly, and vulnerable individuals. And currently there's no antiviral treatment or vaccine available, but remedies, which we're told are under development].

"new virus outbreak in China"

False. This is not a new virus. Scientists have known about this virus since 2001, but research shows that it's been around since the 1950's. Scientists don't know where this virus originated. It was identified in humans for the first time in the Netherlands, and was identified in birds in 1978 in South Africa. However, both times it was almost immediately investigated in other countries and discovered to have already infected their populations. We don't know whether or not it originated in China, and that shouldn't matter. Chinese people aren't inherently dirty, and this is not something that was bioengineered in a lab. Disease is natural. I really don't like the fearmongering and misinformation that has happened in the first line alone.

"surging across the country"

True, but it surges every single year during winter. It's a seasonal outbreak, just like the flu. In Norway, it is estimated that there is almost no one over 5 that hasn't contracted HMPV in their lifetime. According to the World Health Organisation, the rise in recorded HMPV cases hasn't put any strain on hospitals in China. It is being handled as it has always been handled everywhere.

Final thoughts

If you have a degree in journalism, you learn how to skew people's views, cause fear, etc for people who either lack media literacy or are highly reactive. This wasn't worded this way by accident. It is my belief that this was intentional. Acting like there's another "new Chinese virus" it stirs back up all the conspiracy theories that the Chinese government is out here bioengineering diseases, or pushing the stereotype that as a race, we are unclean, and mistakenly spread disease because of "lack of hygiene" or weird eating habits. Both narratives are (ironically) pushed at the same time, as we saw for ourselves during COVID-19. Anti-Chinese propaganda is being generated again (or perhaps it never stopped).

Please look at the news critically, everyone. Have a good day.

Sources under the cut:

[your-friendly-neigbourhood-asian]

about the blog/me

Hi all, I go by Cal online. Any pronouns are fine. I'm half Chinese, and I'm 19 years old and attending university.

I've started this blog because I'm becoming increasingly alarmed that Sinophobic and anti-Asian sentiment is back on the rise. This blog exists to dispel misinformation, propaganda, etc. As I'm from Australia, this will primarily focus on Australian media/politics as that's what I know and experience for myself everyday (I may also dip into American politics, because after all, their politics very unfortunately affect the rest of us). You don't need to be Asian to learn from me, in fact, if you're not Asian I highly encourage you to follow this blog. Non Asians are important to the #stopAsianHate movement.

DNI racists, homophobes, sexists, transphobes, aphobes, ableists, Islamaphobes, anti-Semites, and Zionists. You will be blocked unless you're coming from a genuine place of misunderstanding and are willing to learn. I will not tolerate hate on this blog.