Joshua Wong 黃之鋒  😷Verified account

As the Coronavirus became a worldwide health emergency, it frightens almost everyone in the world. 1/ The disease itself is terrifying, but what is more terrifying is the panic caused by misinformation, false rumours and bias.

2/ Out of fear and misunderstanding, several asians were attacked in London, Frankfurt and other places in Europe, while being accused of spreading the virus to wherever they are.

3/ On the other hand, people have been vigorously debating about whether it is “racist” or xenophobic to call the virus “Wuhan Virus” or is it acceptable to highlight the virus originating from China.

4/ In HK, we have experienced similar scenarios before, in the 2010s, there were huge social controversy over Chinese tourists and some of their behaviours. Chinese tourists, coming from a different cultural background, have different etiquette standards.

5/ As they make their visit to HK, there are behaviours that seem unacceptable to the locals. Overgeneralising a small group’s behaviour is clearly not ok, because it doesn't reflect whole picture, but is it racist if I point out that those behaviours are not acceptable in HK?

6/ Am I being intolerant or discriminative? As the arguments goes on in the society, we realised there is a line between stating facts and being biased, the line between the two is extremely delicate but distinguishable.

7/ The term racism or discrimination coins unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race. The key to identify discriminative behaviour lies in the difference of treatment.