COVID-19 Driven/病毒导致
Yesterday, a friend cited a quote from Nelson Mandela, "May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears." This quote somehow stroke me. When things are out of control and fear simply will not leave us alone, we sometimes forget that we always have a choice to act in defiance of such fear even if we cannot complete defeat it. And motivations matter.
I do understand why Andrew Yang was calling Asian Americans "to embrace and show our American-ness in ways we never have before, ...". [to] show without a shadow of a doubt that we are Americans who will do our part for our country in this time of need." When he feels that Asian Americans are under attack by other races, is it a wise action to hold your hands up and show others that we are on the same side by helping? It seems to be a patriotic and right attitude facing a pandemic causing the country, instead of further dividing the country by reacting to any such discrimination in any more destructive ways.
Here is the problem though. The actions he is calling for are the right actions, reflecting our hopes and love to the people suffering from the virus, regardless of nationality. By asking people to do those things to demonstrate their “American-ness", he let the fear for discrimination control his actions and turn our humanitarian efforts to help fellow human-being into a calculating tactic to appease the majority.
This morning an open letter addressed to the Chinese ambassador to the United States from the parents of 200 students in the New York area attracted a lot of attention. The letter started saying that the students trapped in the U.S. were sent here to study the technology and "critical thinking" of the country with the intention to go back to China to facilitate its development in the future. A large portion of the letter was carefully drafted to stress the gratitude of those families to the Chinese government and swear their patriotism towards the country. The letter even went that far to admit that it was the parents' fault not to foresee China's policy to ban Chinese students from going back to China in the middle of the outbreak in the U.S. The letter resorted to the rhetoric metaphor saying that China is like a mother to those kids studying abroad, and therefore should not deny their paths back home. The letter ended saying that Chinese government could expect the rewards from those students one day if it graciously opened up the border to let those students back in.
I noticed a sad similarity between Andrew Yang's op-ed and the writer of this open letter. Both of them were in deep fear of some "authority" and their wrath, and such fear had controlled their actions and tones. Bringing students to their parents back in China is only natural and human thing to do. Instead of petitioning for those students' rights to go back home or arguing on the humanitarian ground, the writer begs for mercy, pledges loyalties, coerces with "family ethics in Chinese culture", and entices with potential benefits.
What is the difference? When we ask others to do certain things out of love and compassion, we are empowering them and ourselves and bridging all the differences. We are united to achieve something better than what we can do alone. When we act out of fear, we are submitting ourselves to a superior power's whim to determine whether our efforts are sufficient.
Quite many critics of the open letter showed disdain for the old-fashioned and superficial language of patriotism. All I could see were sad parents anxiously wanting to bring their children back home from the virus-laden "western countries". Knowing that the government does not react kindly to calls for love and hopes of family reunion weighing against the risk of importation of virus contamination, the parents chose the language that everyone is used to in the society, which is submission and loyalty-swearing laced with small nudges and shrewd negotiations. Many call it smart politics in China.
May the Asian community in the U.S. do everything in our power to accelerate the end of this crisis out of hopes and love for others and each other, not out of fears of any retaliation from other races. May the students going back to China to stay with their parents have learned that hopes are the only way to change the world.
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