The Global Asian Diaspora: Why There is an Apparent Lack of Solidarity in Overseas Asian Communities
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In February, the world was made aware of the spread of a novel disease plaguing China, claiming the lives of a few hundred residents in Wuhan and the surrounding areas. Some people living in the West shrugged it off as fear-mongering by the media and most saw it as nothing but a faraway problem — something that did not require their immediate concern and action. Instead of preparing for the disaster by reducing social contact, they made tasteless memes about the situation. They criticised the Chinese government for instating a lockdown in Wuhan, claiming that it was an affront to human rights.
In the following months, the disease swept across Asia, exploding in South Korea, Japan and Singapore. Whilst the respective governments put into place similarly draconic laws, governments of the West did not take prophylactic actions to prevent the spread. People only saw it as a problem in Asia, far removed from where they were, despite repeated warnings of how infectious the virus was. People of these communities continued to go for social gatherings. To give an example, 40,000 fans had previously gathered for a football match in Milan. Only when the disease had been declared epidemic in Italy did it become apparent to the people in the West that it could affect their people; their kin.
Image Source: A busy morning at New Malden 1993 by Roger Cornfoot/ Geograph
When this plague hit the shores of the West, people were ill-equipped to battle the spread. They felt helpless and frustrated at the situation, and this frustration grew into resentment. Noticeably, particular political figures antagonised China for the spread of the virus and US President Donald Trump was seen calling it the “Chinese virus”; evidently directing this resentment and anger towards the Chinese people. As a result, scores of targeted assaults and harassment cases aimed at anybody who remotely resemble Chinese descent rapidly culminated. One might expect the Asian communities to stand up and put their foot down; telling the world that they were prepared to fight back to protect their people. However, no such responses were made. These communities went quiet, not taking any collective actions: people lived in fear alone, calls for help went unanswered and seemingly nobody was going to fight for them.
Why is there this noticeable absence of solidarity in Asian communities in the West?
It all boils down to the problems of defining ethnicity. To many, the idea of “Asian” as ethnicity is very foreign; one that may bring about questions such as: what is being “Asian”? And what does it mean to have a collective “Asian culture”?
The idea of “Asian” as ethnicity is one imposed upon us by Western narratives. However, this ethnicity as defined by them is very superficial, literally skin-deep, and encompasses a wide range of subgroups, including South Asian, Southeast Asians, Central Asians and many more. Akin to their haphazard division of Africa into countries, this collective grouping ignores pre-existing cultures and rivalries, leading to the splintering of the community. Analogous to grouping all regional accents in the United Kingdom as “the British Accent”, cultures of these subgroups vary and are difficult to homogenise into a singular ethnicity. What people refer to as the "British accent" is likely to be that of Received Pronunciation, comparable to when people refer to "Asian” culture, they tend to be referring to East Asian culture.
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Asians, especially those brought up in Asia, rarely identify with each other as being of the same ethnicity. There is no universal "Asian brotherhood" as countries have sought different things with different approaches. From civil wars to counter-movements against colonial forces, histories of unresolved conflicts and on-going struggles for independence have ultimately bred a climate of cultural nationalist ideas.
Even within the same ancestry, the Chinese, who bore the brunt of these attacks, had witnessed a divide within their ranks. Differing opinions between individuals from Mainland China and those from other localities had led to a political and cultural schism between its people. Whilst this disagreement often deviates from criticism of their thinking into the critique of their person, this kind of belittlement, mostly targeted towards Mainlanders, inadvertently give racists another excuse to attack Chinese people.
The move to the West had not changed these views among Asians. Mass Asian migration to the West took place considerably later compared to other minorities. Many of those that had successfully migrated abroad were highly educated and had not been subject to explicit oppression. Furthermore, many of these Asians had not been subject to slavery and did not form solidarity over such experiences.
However, the stereotyped perception that most Asians in the West are highly educated and more successful conveniently ignores the plight of the less affluent Asians, many of whom are from Southeast Asia and were forced to flee conflict and oppressive dictatorships or had been in search for better opportunities. This grouping included Chinese coolies in the 19th century, Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese seeking refuge from the Vietnam War. Due to disparities in the context of their migration, imbalances grew in wealth and status, which led to further splintering in identity within the Asian community.
Image Source: Michaël Protin/Eater London
Racism had always been endemic within the West, but racism towards Asians tended to be more subtle and less physical. Whilst previous generations had gone through explicit racial profiling, such as the Japanese internment camps in the US during the Second World War, these violent racist acts remain as novel experiences to most present-day Asians. With no precedent to refer to, Asians of today do not know how to respond to such overt racism. It was not ingrained in their psyche to have to defend themselves and their community.
These racist acts are spurred on by their stereotyping of Asians as the ‘model minority’. As the ‘model minority’, Asians are seen to be weak, meek, and submissive. Asians are attacked because it is ‘known’ that they will not fight back. The source of this stereotype originates from Asians generally having higher education, having a higher average income and a lower crime rate. Yet this statistic overlooks our higher levels of education when we arrived in the West, contributing to our higher socioeconomic status. Our 'model minority' stereotype is used to attack other minorities for their inability to achieve similar results despite the uneven playing field. It also treats us as a monolith, resulting in the systemic ignorance of those Asians who had not had the same opportunities.
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Some who have benefited from this stereotype see themselves as 'white-adjacent', believing that we are 'one of them'. These people had a rude awakening when 'they' made it clear that we were not immune to racial profiling and hate crimes. Their racist attacks, physical or the hackneyed "go back to your country" that they so often use, were strong indications that to some of them, we are but a minority who are tolerated rather than accepted. Some even see an imperative for racial ‘adaptations’. Andrew Yang, then an Asian US presidential hopeful, told Asian Americans that they had to "prove their Americanness" by helping our neighbours, donating and volunteering. Whilst some in the community seem intent on perpetuating such myths, the fact remains that, In the West, we are not 'one of them', and we should not force ourselves to be by embodying their stereotypes. The idea of white-adjacency is one that hurts us as well as other minorities.
This 'model minority' stereotype further overlooks the fact that 'Asian' as ethnicity has its own existential problems. Cultural and ideological clashes divide the community, originating from the incompatibility between the identity imposed upon us and that we have for ourselves. There lies a difference in ‘identity’ that is bestowed onto us through perception, and ‘identity’ that is curated from our individuality. To stereotype is to adopt the rhetoric of the former, further dissociating our identity with its own narrative. Additionally, we are also being attacked from the outside, with the aforementioned targeted assault and harassment on Asians taking place.
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During such times, the internal squabbles must take a backseat as we band together to fight back. If they attack us as an entire ethnicity, we must also respond in kind, where we defend ourselves as the overarching “Asians”. We must adopt the idea of ‘we’, the idea that Asians of all different backgrounds are in this together. Nobody can be left out as we identify with each other as brothers and sisters. An attack on a ‘sub-ethnicity’ should be viewed as an attack on all of us, and we have to defend ourselves. Until social unity is achieved and disparities within the community resolved, we must look beyond our differences and form a strong camaraderie where our best interests are upheld. If we do not fight for each other, there is nobody to fight for us. We can no longer depend on the greater populace to what’s right. We shall not attempt to be 'one of them' but stand up and fight. As one of us. As a community.
Note that opinions expressed in the article above do not represent the overall stance of Asiatic Affairs, Students' Union UCL or University College London. If you have read something you would like to respond to, please get in touch with uclasiaticaffairs@gmail.com.