I am Canadian. I am also Asian. I look upon the events of Atlanta last night as a cataclysm — a terrible tragedy, an act of terrorism. But I also regard it as the inevitable result of the last year or two of intra-communal and inter-communal relations within the Asian community in North America writ large.
Let me explain. Ever since the Trump trade wars began — and quickened by Covid — relations with China, and with Asia broadly, have taken on an ideological tinge that was not present before. “Communist”, “sympathizer”, “wumao” — these are the slurs hurled at those who try to engage in good faith. We have imposed an ideological test (implicitly, a colour test, since a predicate of being patriotically American is de-Sinicization) on people. But more importantly, we have started viewing Asia-related matters in a Manichean lens, trying to discern white and black, good and evil, in masses of greys.
Unfortunately, I think Asian Americans’ (and Canadians’) own cosmology have not helped here. Among conservative Asians of my parents’ generation, a kind of weird, pastiche social conservatism is in vogue, powered by pro-Trump and pro-Falun Gong accounts on WeChat. Underlying all of that is a weird, immature understanding of what the State is. Their cosmology, to oversimplify, is a kind of hack Confucianism, applied to North America.
I say “hack Confucianism” because it is based upon an imperfect understanding of Confucius, and because it is misapplied. People of the older generation — those who have survived through the Cultural Revolution, or white terror in Taiwan — often did not receive a good education, especially in the humanities. What do they think the Government should and should not do? It should not legalize pot, it should not support same-sex marriage, it should be “strong” against China because the Chinese government is bad.
We can almost immediately discern a paternalistic, even a personalistic outline of the role of government. Singapore’s own version of hack-Confucianism is usually called “Confucian” or neo-Confucian, but I prefer another word: didactic. What these elder Asians is, fundamentally, didactic government.
What does that mean in the North American context? It means an attempt to graft their values, as opposed to their interests, on to the government of a pluralistic society. The result (and their failure) is almost too obvious to point out. Because Asians are a small numerical minority in North American society, their values don’t get much sway and where they do, it is merely to serve as window dressing (China bad, Kung-Flu, “trade wars are easy and fun” etc.) mainstream actors, not all of them always good and pure of heart, already hold. Basically, it’s a dismal failure.
(I’m gonna exclude Canada from this discussion, even though I talk about North America, because the situation is somewhat different here.)
Anyways, what does all this have to do with the shootings? The Answer is simple. Like African-Americans, despite being a numerical minority, Asian Americans can still protect their interests and safety if they want to. But the problem is, they don’t, at least among people of my parents’ generation, really want to. Instead of being attentive to the safety of the members of their community (insofar if they even choose to so identify as such), they promoted quackery, conspiracy theories, and a generally crackpot approach to governance and politics that gave an opening to anti-Asian prejudice to seep and worsen, instead of taking any concrete steps to combat it.
I am angry. I am depressed. I am also sad. And I am also tired.
Don’t do this, folks. Tear up that Epoch Times shit. Don’t amplify conspiracy theories that give a patina of legitimacy to those who would seek any rockweed of a sign to let their anti-Asian freak flag fly. Just don’t do it.
And above all, be serious about your place in American society. Don’t treat it as a joke. Don’t treat it as just one more opportunity to conduct your dry, silly, and frankly awful sermon about “good behaviour” and “values” that you don’t observe yourself. Use your vote, because right now (and yes, even in blue states, where you can and should vote in primaries) you’re wasting it.
And next time you step into the voting booth, don’t vote for your Chinese-language pastor who’s gonna be found out cheating on his taxes and embezzling parishioners’ tithes by the IRS in six months’ time. Try and vote for someone who actually represents you.
That’s all. And fuck you.
