Anita Chui Experienced Racism While in the United States
Actress Anita Chui (崔碧珈) returned to Hong Kong on Friday, March 20th in a flight from Los Angeles. When she was greeted by reporters at the terminal, the 31-year-old immediately pulled out her government documentation and showed them her tracking wristband, sharing that she has already passed through medical check-ups and will be doing her mandatory 14-day self-quarantine at a hotel.
Her flight to Hong Kong from Los Angeles took 16 hours. During that time, she only went to the bathroom once and did not eat any food. She drank liquids with a straw. “It wasn’t a full flight,” she shared. “It was about 60 to 70 percent full. The seats next to me were occupied. Many passengers wore face masks and rain coats. I had on my kitchen gloves. It wasn’t a stressful flight. I prepared myself and sanitized my area thoroughly.”
As of March 20th, United States has reported 17,235 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Los Angeles has 292 confirmed cases. Xenophobia and racism against Chinese and Asians in the country have been on the rise, and Anita herself had experienced this first-hand several times.
“It’s apparent that racism against the Chinese have increased after Donald Trump’s announcements about the pandemic. I did receive rather rude treatment while I was at the gym or taking transport. They would say things like, ‘Are you sick? Don’t get me sick’ or ‘Ask her about the virus. She knows more about it’. In the past, I was never scared that I would get that kind of treatment when I go overseas, but this time, it really made me unhappy.”
More and more Chinese Americans are now finding the need to arm themselves for protection. A gun shop in Arcadia—a city in the Los Angeles County—has seen an increase in Asian customers over the past few months. “There was a long line going into the store,” said Anita. “It’s like they’re lining up to go into a supermarket.”
Anita was originally scheduled to leave for Hong Kong next week, but decided to change the flight to a week earlier. “My mother was getting worried. Hollywood’s also getting more dangerous to live in.”
The hotel which Anita will be quarantining at will not be providing food and housekeeping. Instead, her mother will be assisting Anita with her meals. As for whether or not her early return to Hong Kong would affect her work, she said, “Originally I was shooting a commercial and a film [in LA], but now that’s canceled. I wouldn’t have anything to do anyways if I stayed there.”
Anita added that she plans on producing short film about the coronavirus prevention during her quarantine at the hotel.
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Adrienne Lau is Scared for Her Safety While Living in Los Angeles
As a leader once any racist remark is made, the ppl of the same race will follow suit and in this case Asian Americans are the target.
With the increase of gun purchases, I fear for Americans living in the states. As chances they die from gunshots are more than covid-19.
America should worry more about their stupid young generation still partying at those beaches. I used to call it wuhan virus before the covid19 name. I think wuhan virus is an acceptable name? Chinese virus is definitely wrong even if wuhan is in china. Westerners are idiots. And so is japanese, koreans, HKers and many asian descent when the virus was still wuhan virus. All of them and us are racists.
@funnlim I agree with you
@funnlim Wuhan virus will still cause stigma. The World Health Organization since 2015 no longer name diseases based on geographic locations because of this. No one wants to be from the place that caused thousands of deaths and a global recession. Illnesses have no borders.
@funnlim Exactly! A lot of people choose to focus on the racism piece because it’s an easy target exacerbated by Trump’s idiotic rants…but that’s not the only issue that is coming to the fore with this Coronavirus thing. Everyday, there is instance after instance of the younger generation defying the bans and gathering in large groups to party…some are even disgustingly saying on social media that the virus is helping them “get rid of” boomers and older generation who keep harping on millennials and giving them a bad rep! There’s also the very real issue of people losing their jobs or being put in a bind financially due to all the closures of non-essential businesses, especially those who don’t have the option to work from home.
Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like now is not the time to get all worked up over Trump’s stupid rants….everyone already knows he’s an idiot who likes to run his mouth and President or not, most people don’t take him seriously anymore. I’m actually more concerned about the everyday hardships that the whole situation is creating, all of which have impacted me personally over the past 2 weeks (i.e.: at work – working through the logistics of getting 100+ staff setup to work from home in order to make sure that they still have a job and income flowing, all while helping to get critical medical supplies to hospitals in a timely manner as part of my job in the transportation industry; at home – helping various relatives file unemployment and other papers so they can get some financial support during this time period, helping my family with shopping trips to various stores to find supplies and necessities while still trying to help relatives and friends overseas who are also impacted by the virus situation, etc).
To me, complaining about Trump is the last of my concerns (and in my opinion, should not be the media’s focus either), but I guess my perspective differs from most people on this site who are likely not having to deal with most (if any) of the stuff that I’m dealing with practically every day now.
@llwy12 agree with you 100%. Trump is an idiot, he’s a racist, but his statement is also true lol. Also there’s now more and more people chanting the US created the virus and not China, sigh!
Stay safe, and you are being a wonderful boss during these challenging time.
@littlefish Got my first dose of racism here in UK today. Coming from someone who is lounging out on the bench in the sun whilst Im slogging away as a keyworker. I can only see more and more situations like this. BBCs here wont be having it easy for a good while.
I’m not going to excuse racism because I do find it disgusting, and I think it’s really sad how Asians and Chinese specifically are being treated here in the west because of it.
Saying that, however, if hypothetically the virus was thought to have originated from the west due to some white person’s interaction with an animal, or a black person from Africa due to the same thing, is anyone here willing to put money that Asians wouldn’t be doing the same thing to white or black people in Asia?
Hell, the stuff Hongers are saying to Chinese mainlanders because of the virus and because of the protests have been way worse imo. So ironically, the people who have been most racist to Chinese people by far have been other Chinese people who reside in Hong Kong.
@theyenman Chinese people are racist, especially towards black people. There is definitely tension between HKers & Chinese people, especially with protests involving the extradition bill.
@theyenman there’s racism deep rooted in everyone’s history. Black vs Chinese (Chinese look down on the black as much as the black look down on the Chinese), Chinese mainland vs HK, Vietnamese vs Chinese (due to war), Chinese vs japanese (also due to war). See the common factor lol? I would say racism incite racism, if the Chinese continue to be racist against other races, they will in turn be racist against Chinese.
Aren’t HKers show some sort of ‘ism’ toward mainland Chinese, afterall, HKers and Mainland are all Chinese, and still treat each other poorly, and let not dicuss how the Chinese discriminates other Asian groups.
@winnie
I agree and find racism in any form very sad. If Chinese can discriminate against their own kind then I do not even want to see how they treat other people. Sadly some Chinese, especially ones from Taiwan and HK think they are superior to everyone else.
@hetieshou Uhm Taiwan and HK don’t have problems mingle with westerners but mainlanders do. I found most HK I befriended in Australia are very down to earth, warm and make you want to be a part of their family. For the few mainlanders I know, they just used people, while look down on you. They use you if they need you, then ignore you and don’t treat you as friend when they don’t need you.
@littlefish
Honestly, you should not stereotype like that. I met some nice Mainlanders, Taiwanese, HKers but I met bad ones from all those places too. I noticed that some Taiwanese and Hkers look down on mainlanders too. It is not true that mainlanders have problems mingling with westernizers. Mainlanders are not primitive like you think. My sister in law is a mainlander and she is nothing like you said. As you said, the few mainlanders you know which doesn’t represent a whole population. I can tell you that a number of Koreans that I met, especially the women are very competitive, look down on you, always think they are better,etc.. But I have met some nice ones too and one of them is a close friend of mine. Basically, do not stereotype as not everyone is the same and your ethnicity should not determine how you are.
@winnie Any discrimination is wrong. But even though one group may be guilty of similar actions, we should still call out bigotry. Hopefully, this will cause people to reflect on their own behaviors.
@potatochip Yes, any sort or form of discrimination is wrong, however, whether we admit to it or not, we do discriminate unsubconsciously. There is an online test, I took it and didn’t know I have a bias toward certain group
@winnie The Harvard Implicit bias test. It’s awesome. We all have implicit biases. But it is how we don’t actively act against them is when we are wrong. One is either a racist or an anti-racist.