Covid-19, the Chinese diaspora, and the enduring legacy of racism in Peru



Document title: Covid-19, the Chinese diaspora, and the enduring legacy of racism in Peru
Journal: Historia, ciencias, saude - Manguinhos
Database: CLASE
System number: 000526371
ISSN: 0104-5970
Authors: 1
2
Institutions: 1Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Instituto de Historia, Santiago de Chile. Chile
2Universidad de Tarapacá, Departamento de Ciencias Históricas y Geográficas, Arica, Atacama. Chile
Year:
Season: Abr-Jun
Volumen: 29
Number: 2
Pages: 381-398
Country: Brasil
Language: Inglés
Document type: Artículo
Approach: Analítico
English abstract The coronavirus pandemic has exposed a global tendency throughout history to blame immigrants for propagating epidemics. Chinese individuals were thus targeted during past public health crises in Peru, but during the current coronavirus pandemic racist notions painting people of Chinese descent as “agents of contagion” diminished significantly. Here we examine three major epidemics (yellow fever, the bubonic plague, and covid-19) to demonstrate the current and somewhat surprising shift in negative attitudes toward the Chinese community. Peruvians’ refusal to embrace derogatory terms (the “Chinese virus”) or target individuals of Asian descent constitutes an intriguing case at a moment when ic discourse is rampant in the Western hemisphere
Portuguese abstract A pandemia do coronavírus expôs uma tendência mundial ao longo da história de culpar imigrantes pela propagação de epidemias. No Peru, os chineses sofreram preconceito racial durante crises de saúde pública anteriores. Surpreendentemente, a ideia de que os descendentes de chineses são “agentes de contágio” diminuiu significativamente durante a atual pandemia. Examinaremos aqui três grandes epidemias (febre amarela, peste bubônica e covid-19), a fim de demonstrar a atual mudança nas atitudes negativas em relação à comunidade chinesa. A recusa dos peruanos de adotar termos depreciativos (o “vírus chinês”) ou visar indivíduos de ascendência asiática é algo intrigante em tempos de completa disseminação de discurso xenofóbico no hemisfério ocidental
Disciplines: Medicina
Keyword: Salud pública,
Ideología,
Perú,
Migración,
Chinos,
Racismo,
Prejuicios,
Epidemias,
COVID-19,
Xenofobia
Keyword: Public health,
Ideology,
Peru,
Chinese,
Migration,
Xenophobia,
Racism,
Prejudices,
Epidemics,
COVID-19
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