Anti-Chinese Racism in Canada Under the Shadow of COVID-19
Date
2021-04-24
Authors
Bu, Lanlin
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Abstract
Racism has a long history in Canada and remains a challenge to overcome in Canada's political institutions and throughout society. From their first arrival in the 1850s, Chinese people were subjected to harsh discrimination in every part of life. The history of Chinese people in Canada is a long and complex story of the resilience, discriminatory policies against them, and their endeavours to overcome prejudice, bias, and hatred. In 2020, COVID-19 brought a shadow pandemic of hate directed at people of Chinese ethnicity or appearance in Canada. This project examined Chinese Canadians’ experiences of racial discrimination provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic, discussed how media and social media contributed to increasing anti-Chinese racism, and demonstrated the efforts made by Chinese Canadians to contain the spread of the coronavirus while battling against racial discrimination provoked by the pandemic. The intent is to help people better understand the causes and impacts of racism, and to stress the importance of responding to racism through education, legislation and collective actions so that no group will suffer again what the Chinese community experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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anti-Chinese, racism, COVID-19 pandemic, underrepresentation and misrepresentation of Chinese Canadians in media, misinformation and hate messages on social media, Chinese community' responses to the pandemic and associated racism, China virus