The Chinese community has been installed in our country and throughout the world for years and they continue to arouse certain suspicions. Now more, because the fact that the first news we had of the coronavirus was in China has made chino phobia spread faster than the. The Chinese are in the crosshairs and, although it is not something new, we are concerned that tempers may rise to the point of endangering part of their population. Are you afraid of the Chinese? We explain everything about chino phobia.
What is chino phobia?
Chino phobia is the fear of the Chinese. Although more than fear, we could talk about rejection and, therefore, it is a phobia that is located more in the field of sociology than in psychology. In the style of aporophobia or fear of the poor, chino phobia is a social problem that every day becomes more dangerous combined with racism and xenophobia.
Today the Chinese are in an even more difficult situation. Because they have always raised certain suspicions in our society and now with an alarming terror towards the coronavirus, which started precisely in China, chino phobia is on the rise. Chinese food restaurants and shops for everything to which we have resorted so much have seen their clientele shrink in recent weeks.
But where does this chino phobia come from? This rejection of the Chinese is not new, although now it is more noticeable. We cannot look for the cause in the fear of the coronavirus because this already comes from before. And the cause is found in that fear of the different and unknown. Indeed, Chinese communities are part of our neighborhoods but they always keep a certain distance. We are unaware of their culture while they live without showing integration problems but without fully integrating. And that is what causes suspicion.
Chino phobia as a consequence of the coronavirus
But in reality, is there any increase in citizen insecurity because of the Chinese? No. They are just surrounded by mystery, myths and urban legends. If before a large part of the population took the Chinese with certain precautions but continued to accept them as part of their day to day, today things are changing due to the coronavirus.
This virus, which is causing so much alarm worldwide and whose scope is still unknown to us, is placing chino phobia among one of the most important social problems. Now the suspicion towards the Chinese is mixed with fear. Any Chinese is suspected of being a carrier of the coronavirus even if no one in his family has moved from his neighborhood in recent years.
People are afraid to go to Asian food restaurants due to the supposed danger of contracting coronavirus through and they avoid Chinese shops at all costs. Social networks have been filled with dangerous xenophobic comments as if they had some fault and intention in spreading the fashionable disease. And it doesn’t seem like it hurts to insist. The fact that the coronavirus started in China does not make all Chinese carriers of the virus, much less responsible for it.
Chino phobia before the coronavirus (causes)
But before the coronavirus, chino phobia already existed. We are talking about an ancient and distant culture surrounded by mystery. And it is true that Chinese communities live at some distance in our society. Inbreeding may seem self-evident, but we often overlook the fact that the Chinese have not been in our country long enough to establish close ties with the locals.
Chinese families, like all families, want the best for their children and that is why it is more and more common for second and third generation members to be at universities sharing their studies and social life with our youth. If the current chino phobia does not stop this trend, we will be less and less surprised that our children bring home their friend of Chinese origin and they will be more and more integrated.
Chino phobia can find one in envy. As you read, Chinese families move to our country with an entrepreneurial spirit, they set up their business and, based on a joint effort by the whole family, they make it prosper. This raises suspicions and creates theories of all kinds that place the Chinese on the margins of legality.
Myths about the Chinese: overcoming chino phobia
As if that were not enough, Chinese products are suspected of poor quality and it seems that many people associate it with a lack of scruples on the part of the Chinese themselves. And myths also influence, and a lot, when it comes to chino phobia spreading like a virus. Let’s look at a few of the myths about the Chinese that we believe as a dogma of faith and that are actually false.
- The Chinese do not pay taxes. This belief is due to the number of Chinese businesses in our neighborhoods. How can they achieve it if it is not based on tax benefits? Maybe because they have a different concept of family work.
- Why are there no Chinese burials? This question gives rise to much speculation to the point that some people think that Chinese deceased end up on the menu of their restaurants. You have to think that the Chinese arrived in our country in the 80s, it’s not like they had much time to die and the truth is that no one walks through cemeteries counting Chinese graves.
- There are no old Chinese. This absurd mystery about the death of the Chinese is complemented by that other belief that there are no elderly Chinese, or at least we don’t see them on the streets. It is not so complicated to think that a person from another country wants to return to his land in the last stretch of his life.
- The meat is cat. It is said, it is said out there that in Chinese restaurants the meat that they present to us as beef, chicken or duck is actually cat, dog or even rat. Finding a coherent explanation for this type of absurd myths is an impossible mission.
- The Chinese don’t have a dog. The theories complement each other. A widespread myth is that you will not see a Chinese walking ado. Don’t the Chinese have pets? Have you noticed the nationality of all the dog walkers? Perhaps by tradition they are not very given to having pets because the truth is that we do not know much about Chinese culture.
As you can see, overcoming chino phobia does not require psychological. Chino phobia is overcome by accepting diversity in the world and by ceasing to think that our vital schemes are the only valid ones. And, of course, with a little more culture and not necessarily Chinese.