Feeling Asian Together: Coping with #COVIDRacism on Subtle Asian Traits

Since the onset of COVID-19, incidents of racism and xenophobia have been occurring globally, especially toward people of East Asian appearance and descent. In response, this article investigates how an online Asian community has utilized social media to engage in cathartic expressions, mutual care,...

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Main Authors: Abidin, Crystal, Zeng, Jing
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2020
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE190100789
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80450
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author Abidin, Crystal
Zeng, Jing
author_facet Abidin, Crystal
Zeng, Jing
author_sort Abidin, Crystal
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Since the onset of COVID-19, incidents of racism and xenophobia have been occurring globally, especially toward people of East Asian appearance and descent. In response, this article investigates how an online Asian community has utilized social media to engage in cathartic expressions, mutual care, and discursive activism amid the rise of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia during COVID-19. Specifically, we focus on the 1.7-million-strong Facebook group “Subtle Asian Traits” (SAT). Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the 1,200 new posts it publishes daily have swiftly pivoted to the everyday lived experiences of (diaspora) East Asians around the world. In this article, we reflect on our experiences as East Asian diaspora members on SAT and share our observations of meaning-making, identity-making, and community-making as East Asians collectively coping with COVID-19 aggression between January and May 2020.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-804502021-01-13T03:09:37Z Feeling Asian Together: Coping with #COVIDRacism on Subtle Asian Traits Abidin, Crystal Zeng, Jing Since the onset of COVID-19, incidents of racism and xenophobia have been occurring globally, especially toward people of East Asian appearance and descent. In response, this article investigates how an online Asian community has utilized social media to engage in cathartic expressions, mutual care, and discursive activism amid the rise of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia during COVID-19. Specifically, we focus on the 1.7-million-strong Facebook group “Subtle Asian Traits” (SAT). Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the 1,200 new posts it publishes daily have swiftly pivoted to the everyday lived experiences of (diaspora) East Asians around the world. In this article, we reflect on our experiences as East Asian diaspora members on SAT and share our observations of meaning-making, identity-making, and community-making as East Asians collectively coping with COVID-19 aggression between January and May 2020. 2020 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80450 10.1177/2056305120948223 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE190100789 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ unknown
spellingShingle Abidin, Crystal
Zeng, Jing
Feeling Asian Together: Coping with #COVIDRacism on Subtle Asian Traits
title Feeling Asian Together: Coping with #COVIDRacism on Subtle Asian Traits
title_full Feeling Asian Together: Coping with #COVIDRacism on Subtle Asian Traits
title_fullStr Feeling Asian Together: Coping with #COVIDRacism on Subtle Asian Traits
title_full_unstemmed Feeling Asian Together: Coping with #COVIDRacism on Subtle Asian Traits
title_short Feeling Asian Together: Coping with #COVIDRacism on Subtle Asian Traits
title_sort feeling asian together: coping with #covidracism on subtle asian traits
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE190100789
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/80450