A while ago I met with a mom friend in a Thai restaurant. While being seated, her 7-year-old exclaimed loudly, “Whoa, there are lots of Chinese people in here!”
Embarrassed, my friend hushed her child and apologized to me. But the boy continued, “What’s the matter? There are surely a lot of—”
The mother silenced her son with a “you’re in trouble” look. I told the boy, “Actually this is a Thai restaurant, and many people here are probably Thai.”
“What’s the difference? They are all the same.”
I explained to the confused boy that while all Asian people might look very similar in many Western eyes, Asian and/or Asian American is actually a very diverse group. I used the Disney characters as an example: as different as Princess Jasmine, Mulan and Raya are, they are all Asian.
A record 22 million Asian Americans trace their roots to more than 20 countries in East and Southeast Asian and the Indian subcontinent, each with unique histories, cultures, languages and other characteristics.
Each Asian origin group is very different from one another. In many cases, they disagree with one another. In some cases, they even hate one another.
In the past one year I have found myself caught between the maliciousness from different Asian groups. While President Biden banned calling COVID-19 “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan virus,” referencing to its origins and potential discrimination and stigmas placed on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, some Asian group insisted to stick with the term.
I am a health reporter and contribute to a variety of Chinese and Taiwanese publishers. And to this day, the standard language in many Taiwanese newsrooms for COVID-19 is still “Wuhan virus.” As an Asian American, it is unbearable seeing the words “Wuhan virus” under my by-line. I had a hard time communicating with some editors I work with; they often told me that they were just following the guidelines of Taiwan Centers for Disease Control that, like other Taiwanese government agencies, refer to the disease that is caused by COVID-19 as “Wuhan pneumonia.”
And the terms that are used by Taiwanese government and media have largely shaped the attitudes that Taiwanese Americans have towards the disease. Mr. and Mrs. H, a Taiwanese American couple residing in San Diego, CA who don’t want their name to be used in this article, were furious when their fifth-grader was called to the principal’s office for using the term “Chinese virus” in school. Mr. H, a medical professional, insisted that “Wuhan pneumonia” should be the legit name for the disease because “it’s from Wuhan, from Wuhan, China to be specific.”
The incident sparked some debates in local Taiwanese communities. My friend Linda, a Taiwanese American residing in Walnut, CA supported the couple, “Wuhan virus is the right name! The Chinese don’t want people to use it because they can’t face the terrible things China did to the world.”
Another debate in Asian communities revolved around the cease publication of certain books of Dr. Seuss’. Los Angeles-based Vietnamese American author Viet Thanh Nguyen tweeted about his disapproval of the book “And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” calling the image of a traditionally-dressed Chinese man in the book offensive. On the other hand, Chinese American entrepreneur Andy Yee of Springfield, MA defended the book, saying “that’s my ancestors coming to this country in the 1930’s. We didn’t come wearing Louis Vuitton and Gucci. Why do you want to change history?” Yee offered to buy the Mulberry Street mural from The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum after Dr. Seuss Enterprises said it will remove the mural.
Dr. Seuss’ political cartoons stirred up even more debates among Asian Americans than his children’s books. In one of his most famous (or notorious) cartoons, he depicted an arrogant-looking Adolf Hitler and a sneering Hideki Tojo. My Filipino American friend Celine called it “racist trash;” another friend Icy thought it was just fair.
Now reside in Santa Monica, CA, Icy was born in Hong Kong and is a granddaughter of a “comfort woman”–a woman forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries during World War II. Icy’s grandmother committed suicide after the war. But, still, Icy didn’t think Japanese were bad, just like she didn’t think the Japanese character in Dr. Seuss’ cartoon was meant to represent Japanese, “it’s only Tojo. He was a war criminal responsible for millions of Asian lives. You cannot tell us that despising Tojo is discriminating against Asian. It’s like telling Jewish people that despising Hitler is discriminating against all Europeans.”
In spite of the heated debates in Asian communities, majorities of Americans are often not aware of it. The mainstream society tends to speak about Asian American as a single block, but the group is actually incredibly complex. Pew Research Center projected Asian population to surpass 46 million by 2060 and become the largest immigrant group in the U.S. With the growth of the group, we need to learn that the term “Asian American” refers to a huge group of identities, and that many are not represented in demographic data and research.