www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Opinion
Home / Opinion / Op-Ed Contributors

Racist reports infect the truth with prejudice

By Hannay Richards | China Daily | Updated: 2020-02-11 07:12
Share
Share - WeChat
Luo Jie/China Daily

Despite repeated warnings from experts that a global pandemic is likely, most people probably didn't spend much time worrying about the threat of a new infectious disease until recently.

After all, it appeared to be a hypothetical risk and there were plenty more immediate threats to worry about, why worry about what to do in such a seemingly remote eventuality.

Now that the new coronavirus has emerged, it is a different story, of course.

Deep-seated fears in the collective memory implanted by previous pandemics have come rushing to fore, and the possibility of a disease sweeping through populations like some indefatigable horseman of the apocalypse remorselessly scything down whoever he encounters has triggered worldwide panic.

Not unreasonably perhaps, since the natural human response to any life-threatening situation is to either flee or fight, and for many people neither of those seem feasible against such an inexorable and invisible threat.

In China, where the latest outbreak has appeared, the quarantining of much of the population, forced in some areas but generally self-imposed, means people's fears have been largely contained indoors or else allowed to run wild in cyberspace. This has to some extent helped stop panic feeding panic, since panic itself is highly contagious.

In the West however, people's fear is being whipped up into near hysteria by sensationalized media reports suggesting the number of human-to-human transmissions will rise in other countries to the extent that it has in China and dire predictions about the possible death toll.

Not surprising, given these media outlet's form and purpose, these reports are usually also racist; fostering and pandering to anti-Chinese prejudice.

Although an infectious disease can emerge in any corner of the world, as shown by the H1N1 pandemic that originated in the United States, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the Zika emergency in Brazil in recent years, the reporting on the novel coronavirus outbreak in China by much of the mainstream media in the West has been distinguished by its bigoted refueling of the "Yellow Peril" stereotyping of the civilized West being overrun by uncivilized Chinese hordes.

While the search for a scapegoat has accompanied other infectious disease outbreaks, seemingly throughout history, the Sinophobia exposed by the "Yellow Peril" reporting on the new coronavirus is symptomatic of the broader fears in the West about China's rise, where it is viewed by some as a sort of infectious disease that will debilitate Western civilization, like a tumor corrupting Western values.

People's fears are easily directed in this direction because the pathogens that cause contagious diseases are viewed as foreign invaders overwhelming even a healthy body's defenses.

The bigotry in such reports seek to link the emergence of the disease with notion that there is weakness or inferiority in the Chinese character that enabled the outbreak to happen, much like the media portrayals of the Chinese in the early decades of the last century when characters such as Fu Manchu were malevolent villains intent on ruling the world. Once again showing that the more things change the more they stay the same.

There are always those who hurry to hunt down others who can be blamed for the woes they have inflicted on themselves.

But to borrow an observation attributed to Marie Curie, nothing in life is to be feared, it has only to be understood-that applies to infectious diseases and China's rise.

The author is a senior editor with China Daily. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 深夜福利视频网站 | 正在播放亚洲一区 | 成人爱爱网站在线观看 | 日本免费在线观看视频 | 久草视屏| 中文字幕在线视频观看 | 天堂一区二区三区在线观看 | 91热视频在线观看 | 久草首页在线观看 | 成人国产亚洲欧美成人综合网 | 99精品视频免费 | 91精品国产综合久久香蕉 | 97成人在线 | 欧美ox| 国产精亚洲视频 | 亚洲久草在线 | 91av爱爱| 日韩美女视频在线观看 | 日韩亚洲国产综合久久久 | 国产一级做a爰片久久毛片99 | 久久国产精品高清一区二区三区 | 亚洲精品永久一区 | 日韩欧美亚洲综合久久99e | 欧美色综合高清视频在线 | 国产精品福利午夜h视频 | 久久国产午夜精品理论片34页 | 欧美一级视频免费观看 | 亚洲精品一区二区三区在线播放 | 久久久免费| 不卡一区二区在线观看 | 国产高清自拍一区 | 久久久久久综合成人精品 | 最近中文在线中文 | 男女午夜性爽快免费视频不卡 | 日韩欧美一及在线播放 | 亚洲成综合| 国产亚洲精品久久久久久午夜 | 黄在线观看网站 | 亚洲一区二区三区在线播放 | 韩日三级视频 | 一级毛片不卡免费看老司机 |