The Takeout: How Xenophobia Shapes Food Taboos, Myths, and Misconceptions

Описание: In January, before Coronavirus had made its way to the United States, Jenny Zhang wrote for Eater, “The outbreak has had a decidedly dehumanizing effect, reigniting old strains of racism and xenophobia that frame Chinese people as uncivilized, barbaric “others” who bring with them dangerous, contagious diseases and an appetite for dogs, cats, and other animals outside the norms of Occidental diets. These ideas, perennially the subtext behind how Chinese people are viewed by the Western gaze, have been given oxygen anew after preliminary reports linked the coronavirus outbreak to a Wuhan wet market where produce and meat are sold alongside livestock and more exotic wildlife like snakes, civet cats, and bamboo rats; and to bats, which are frequent carriers of viruses that cause human disease.”

Once COVID swept the shores of the United States, incidents of racist slurs and acts of violence towards Asians and Asian Americans in the United States began to dramatically increase. Fueled by anti-Chinese sentiment coming from the White House, reports of harassment became ubiquitous, with individuals and restaurants reporting occurrences of targeted racism. Even non-Chinese restaurants began to receive threats. In one instance, “Stop Eating Dogs” was graffitied on the vestibule of a Michelin-starred Korean restaurant in New York City. Furthermore, an online video of a Chinese Woman from Wuhan eating a whole bat was circulated among news outlets such as the Daily Mail and RT. However, the video was filmed in the Republic of Palau, a Pacific Island nation 4400 kilometers away from China.

For the second event in our new series The Takeout, join a panel of esteemed journalists, food professionals, and academics as they interrogate some of the misconceptions and food taboos that have led to xenophobia and racist tropes, explicitly the Sinophobia that’s emerged as a result of the Coronavirus allegedly originating in a wet market in Wuhan.