Hannah McCutcheon
March 19th, 2020
French doctors working in a covid-19 department. [Photo: Marcel Kusch/DPA via AP]
“Nous sommes en guerre”, declared President Macron about a “war” with coronavirus. France entered a state of emergency on March 12th. The build-up to this decision progressed as SARS - Cov-2 spread around the world. This virus and related disease, Covid -19, originated in Wuhan, China, and as it became more prevalent in international news, nations began placing travel sanctions upon China to reduce its spread. One unfortunate result was anti-Asian racism both in mainstream media, and public opinion. Fear, stigmatization and frustration rapidly dominated public opinion and discourse. In Reims, the virus was on the minds of locals for weeks before the beginning of the state of emergency.
On February 1st, Reims’ main Chinese New Year celebration was cancelled, when the venue decided they would not host it in light of the widespread coronavirus, to avoid risking people’s health. Many of the participants were French-Chinese, and found the cancellation of the event upsetting as they dedicated time preparing for the show. There were under 10 cases in France at this point. Other non-Chinese events held in Reims at the same time did not get cancelled though, such as the Clakéosol Soundsystem concert and the Back to L’Enfance which were both held on February 1st.
In Reims, Chinese and even Chinese-looking people have faced harassment and discrimination due to coronavirus. Daphne*, a 21-year-old Chinese exchange student, was harassed daily by two French women in their early 20s from the Great East region. In the common kitchen and living room at her students’ residence the women would curse at Daphne and her friends, telling them that “China is the virus”. She says they insisted that she was “contagious, disgusting and to blame for the illness”. These verbal assaults continued for just over two weeks. Reports to the residence managers did not bring an end to the incidents. Daphne explained the managers did inform the other patrons that such behaviour was not acceptable, but could not reprimand them. Daphne was forced to find new accommodations, and could only find an apartment at a higher cost than her previous room. This experience left her bitter, wishing she could return to her homeland.
Three other young exchange students from mainland China had troubling encounters on public transportation. Winona*, Ruby* and Diana* were on their way to class, when they noticed all of the people on the bus had moved away from them. They have become painfully aware of how speaking Chinese can impact people’s reactions to them. Winona says she can often feel people watching her while she is in public, and feels unsafe travelling. She feels all Europeans dislike her, her people and her country because of this illness. Ruby and Diana were less offended by people keeping away from them, as they were also afraid of the virus and happy to have less risk of catching it themselves. Diana stocked up on gloves and masks, preparing for the possibility of a corona outbreak in Reims. All three of the girls purchased flights to return to China once it began to re-open, following its almost two-month-long state-mandated shutdown.
As the virus has continued to spread, people from other countries with high infection rates, such as Italians, have experienced the same kind of stigmatization and poor treatment. And with present “social distancing” rules, the majority of the population fears all others, due to the risk of catching the “coronavirus".
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