Shortly after President Trump publically calling COVID-19 "Chinese virus" for a few times, the tide seems to have shifted in favor of China this time. China received some positive media coverage lately by donating masks and PPEs. New York is getting ventilators form China, President Trump apparently was quite happy about China lately refraining from calling COVID-19 "Chinese virus" or the usual finger-pointing tactic with the agricultural sales in mind. Does it look like friendship can be bought after all?
The same sentiment is also shared by some of the people in Asian community in the U.S. In an op-ed article, Andrew Yang recently called for Asian Americans to “embrace and show our American-ness in ways we never have before”. I know many of my fellow Chinese Americans have been busying themselves in the sourcing and/or donating services or masks to places of needs. Outside of the charity purposes in general, many embrace the idea of community involvement by showing up at the time of needs with the purpose of promoting the images of Asian community. I do know a few people may even feel somewhat "guilty" for purchasing masks and PPEs in the past to assist China in its earlier fight against COVID-19.
Did we all learn when you were young that respect and love cannot be bought? There are plenty of stories in history where victims tried to use money to buy their ways out. It might sound extreme in comparison. On September 28, 1943, the Jewish community cleansed out the entire community's belongings and donated 110 pound of gold to Nazi in the last for peace. After Andrew Young's article, Japanese American groups also pointed out that his words reminded them of the time when Japanese Americans were also encouraged to demonstrate their loyalty to America when they were forcibly removed from their homes and imprisoned in concentration camps by an order issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. See https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/japanese-americans-speak-out-against-andrew-yang-s-call-asian-n1176126 We all know what happened after that.
Nothing new here. As Asians, we were constantly reminded that we need to "earn" our placement in this society if we are just a bit more "American", paying more taxes, being politer, speaking better English without an accent. At work place, we were told to make better PPT, speak out more loudly; politically, the narrative became that we need to be more active in community affairs and vote more. Andrew Yang's resume is as perfect as any Asian parents can expect. According to Wikipedia, he played piano, and tennis when he was young...scoring a 1220 out of 1600 on the SAT, gifted kid, national debate team, Phillips Exeter Academy, bachelor from Brown University and JD degree from Columbia Law School. I do not know what is a better illustration of a "perfect minority" than himself and totally understand why he feels that if every Asian should do a bit more to be "American", as he has been doing his entire life. Young's campaign from the beginning to the end was an Asian American's fight for attention and recognition of the right of being an American. I have not seen such a struggle in any other candidate in the black/white binary political scene.
But why do Asians need to go through all the length to prove themselves "Americans" and deserve their place in this society? Why do we need to "show our American-ness"? Why do we need to donate masks as a community to the hospitals if the virus is not our fault?
When somebody at a grocery shuns us for fear of virus, when the hate crime is on the rise against the entire Asian population, I truly doubt the wisdom that donating masks or "being American" is our best strategy to gain the empathy and respect from other races as just another community suffering from the disaster. As to China, as a nation, nobody should have any illusion that President Trump can be bought by some masks and ventilators knowing his appetite.
I think many Chinese people who live in U.S. are taking a lot of extra efforts to donate PPE because they believe it is the right thing to do to help medical professionals anywhere to fight the virus. They just happen to live in U.S. and U.S. happens to be suffering from the virus most. They don't think from the perspective of "buying something".They even don't think of "asking something for return". At least Chinese in the several voluntary donation groups i have been involved think that way. Just "Doing good by doing well". Very simple and powerful.