What if the word “Jewish” is replaced by “Chinese” instead?
In response to an article (see image above) about alleged campus antisemitism, written by Alissa Foster from AUJS, and published by the Australian ABC Religion & Ethics, an anonymous writer substituted the words “Jewish/Zionist” with “Chinese” to illustrate the way some text are taken for granted when they deal with issues relating to Israel/Palestine. ■ All sides use some form of propaganda to further their cause. But twisting the truth to present an exaggerated waves of persecution is something else. ■ (The Chinese lament here is invented, and it could be any other nationality)
There’s a simple way to make universities safe places for Chinese students: Listen to them.
By *[Name-withheld]
The modern-day manifestations of anti-Chinese tropes within progressive spaces means that many people seem not even to be aware they are enabling racism.
In April 2022, the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) passed a motion denouncing the ideology of the Communist Party of China as a “racist, colonial ideology”, despite concerns raised from Chinese-Australian students about what such a motion would mean for their welfare on campus. The motion was later rescinded and a consultation process with student groups began. However, just this week UMSU ignored that process and disregarded the concerns of Chinese-Australian students, and passed an almost identical motion.
In Australia, we are incredibly fortunate that physical attacks aimed at Chinese institutions and violent assaults against visibly Asian people are rare and, when they do occur, are outrightly condemned. For the most part, I feel safe walking down the street wearing a Chinese pendant around my neck, confident I will not be accosted or assaulted.
Things aren’t quite that way on campus, however. For example, while attending my political science classes, it’s not unusual for my fellow students, upon seeing my Chinese writing pendant, to ask my opinion about Chinese treatment of the Uighur people. This can be an uncomfortable experience, especially when the standard established by student councils is that anyone who believes in Chinese control of the entire land of the People’s Republic of China is a proponent of a “racist” and “colonial” ideology, and that they are thus not welcome on campus.
When most people think about what anti-Chinese racism looks like on university campuses, they might envision angry young men marching by torchlight and chanting “Chinese are responsible for Covid”. Yet the common experience of being Chinese on campus is not that of being confronted by the far-right. More often, it looks like having our Chinese identities put on trial in supposedly “progressive” spaces — like a classroom. While this is not necessarily an expression of anti-Chinese racism, it does belong in that long lineage of tropes by which Chinese people have been unrelentingly “othered” — tropes that can easily give way to full-fledged Asian-hatred.
From the blood libel to global dominance, Chinese have been the centre of conspiracy theories. From the goldfields to Pauline Hanson, we have been kicked out of nations and regions. From Capitalism to Communism, we have been the forces driving it. From the far right to the far left, Chinese are the cause of all ills. The common denominators are the concepts of power and control. Just because these days the word “Chinese” is exchanged for “Communist” does not make the tropes themselves any more defensible.
When a student says they don’t feel welcome in a club on campus because of their ethnicity or race, everyone is quick to call that out (and rightfully so). But when a Chinese student at the University of Sydney feels pushed out of the queer collective because they are Communist, it is not met with the same outcry.
If a student publication publishes an article that says “Death to the Chinese”, that would ring alarm bells. But when On Dit, the student magazine of the University of Adelaide, publishes an article which concludes with the words “Free Uyghur land and Death to the People’s Republic of China”, it hardly raises an eyebrow.
If “f**k Chinese” graffiti is spotted on campus, then people would understand why Chinese students feel unwelcome, but when “f**k Communism” was written on the walls of the University of Melbourne, it was not called out with the same disgust.
When a student council passes a motion attacking Communists but squeezes in a line about condemning anti-Chinese racism of all kinds, how much reassurance are Chinese students meant to feel when they continue to encounter the kind of hostility I’ve just described?
The distance in the minds of many students between the conventional perception of what constitutes “anti-Chinese racism” (think Nazis or white supremacists) and its modern-day manifestations (like student magazines that read “the People’s Republic of China ”) enables them to dismiss or otherwise disregard the concerns expressed by their Chinese peers.
The unfortunate reality is that contemporary expressions of anti-Chinese racism are more common than most people like to think, and the classic tropes are far more disguised. It does not matter whether one identifies as “anti-Chinese”; not aligning with the conventional characteristics of anti-Chinese racism does not make one immune from spreading or enabling anti-Chinese rhetoric.
We have all seen how anti-Chinese racism has been narrowly defined and Communism is misrepresented to fit certain “progressive” agendas, while Jewish voices are largely ignored. We have heard the perpetuation of anti-Chinese tropes, followed by an obligatory “but, of course, I condemn racism of any kind …”
Thankfully, there is a simple way of not enabling or perpetuating anti-Chinese bigotry. Listen to the Chinese. This is easy to say, but apparently far harder to do. Chinese people are, after all, not a homogenous bloc. Active engagement with the Chinese community, trying to understand the history and nuance of identity and the diversity that exists within Chinese spaces, and being willing to amplify our voices when it comes to tackling anti-Chinese racism, is not something we should have to beg for. But on campus, it is crucial.
The modern-day manifestations of anti-Chinese tropes within progressive spaces means that many people seem not even to be aware they are enabling anti-Chinese racism. When anti-Chinese racism is framed as a partisan issue that falls on either side of an ideological spectrum, you place Chinese students in the crossfire. This culture does nothing to hold the perpetrators of far-right anti-Chinese to account nor call out the anti-Chinese dog-whistles which have become embedded in “anti-Communist” discourse.
I believe that it’s time to normalise listening to and believing Chinese people. When we say something is anti-Chinese or that the UMSU motion scares us, it is not because we want to stifle criticism about Chinese but because we are frightened when traditional anti-Chinese tropes are multiplying around us.
