COMING SOON: Yellow Peril Awareness Day

In 2021, I wrote this piece for A News Education about the Chinese Exclusion Act, which became US law in 1882 and wasn't fully repealed until 1965. It was the first-known incident of a country banning the immigration of a certain ethnic group. It fuelled me to think how Sinophobia - the fear (or more so, hatred) of people of Chinese heritage - has over many years, existed, but is often overlooked, not fully understood or even justified (well, attempted to).

While we all already know about the exponential rise of reported hate crimes against ESEA (East and Southeast Asian) communities in recent times, there are other examples of Sinophobia that haven't been as well known. Even the US' case isn't everyday knowledge; for example, while May is AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander Month in the US, the month was not chosen because of the anniversary of said law). 100 years ago in 1923, Canada introduced the Chinese Immigration Act, completely prohibiting them and lasting until 1947. Before this, a head tax was imposed on Chinese immigrants since 1885. Read more in Geffrye Parsons ' post here.

And on 19th October 1945, the Home Office held a secret meeting which led to the illegal deportation of thousands of Chinese seamen who had helped out in Britain during WW2 over the course of the following year. The men, many of whom had married and started families, were sent back to China with their wives and children not knowing what happened and the vast majority still not knowing or receiving a formal apology decades later.

So, with that in mind, I was unsurprised but saddened to find that something like Sinophobia Awareness Day wasn't already a thing. While many anti-racist awareness dates take place throughout the year, with a number that highlight specific forms of racism and racial and religious discrimination - such as Stephen Lawrence Day, Juneteenth and Islamophobia Awareness Month - racism, xenophobia, discrimination and prejudice towards the Chinese and ESEA communities was in need of increased awareness and education.

Now, as we look back at the amount of "Yellow Peril" that has happened and feel for those families torn apart again after the war more than 75 years ago today, those who were massacred in riots across the US and Canada, the perhaps millions who have denied entry to what they thought would be a better life, and the hundreds or thousands we know have been attacked or even killed just because of their alleged ethnicity, we at Voice ESEA felt Sinophobia Awareness Day had to be launched!

Choosing 6th May - the day the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law, which is sandwiched nicely between ESEA Heritage Month every September, we intend for Sinophobia Awareness Day to:

• Spread awareness of the history and present-day prevalence of Sinophobia against Chinese and ESEAs globally (while Sinophobia traditionally means “anti-Chinese”, we are extending this to the wider ESEA community, who can experience it and are affected by similar incidents and issues)
• Educate people on the issues of racism, xenophobia, discrimination and prejudice that ESEA people face (including micro-aggressions, the Model Minority Myth and the Bamboo Ceiling)
• Empower more ESEA people to share their experiences and feel more confident to speak up about them or report incidents (especially through On Your Side ??)

Our team started a petition we sent to the Government to "fund additional support for victims of COVID19 racism and anti-racism programmes", gathering 22,000+ signatures and obtaining a response - an unsatisfactory one. But the fight for this shouldn't be over and we soon realised that if the Government weren't going to back us, we have to do it ourselves - but not alone... Will you help us make the first-ever and much-needed Sinophobia Awareness Day a success and nationally recognised date? Whether you identify as part of the ESEA community or not, or have experienced any form or level of Sinophobia or not, we need your voice to amplify the issues and strive for change.

To find out a bit more about the advocacy work we have done since being formed in 2021, check out the video below which features our Director Abbey Wong (and of course, if you can bear to, scroll to the comments for some classic Sinophobic rhetoric!)... ??

If you're interested in helping out in any way you can, please reach out to myself or Abbey here on LinkedIn or by other means and we can discuss potential collaborations. It could even start with simply sharing this article or our latest Instagram post to try and reach as many people as possible, as well as getting more involved as 6th May gets closer.

Thank you in advance for your help!