Coronavirus Metaphor: East and West questioning each other, have to rely on each other and coexist

From the outbreak of the new crown in winter to this spring in Wuhan, Western questions about China have followed, and endless ears, especially with masks, have led to various conflicts. In New York, London and other places, some people have attacked Dai The Asian situation of the masks, of course, has health and lifestyle reasons, but there are deeper reasons, which are the "Orientalism" described by American scholar Edward W. Said. Chong. The worldwide popularity of the "new crown" has also brought the possibility of "orientalization" or "borrowing the soul" of the "new crown". Therefore, there are already sober westerners shouting loudly that the new crown has nothing to do with race, so the racial discrimination that occurs is also stupid of.

However, at the same time as we are "orientated", we also seem to intentionally or unintentionally "westernize" the West, especially the "Westernization" of the United States. As Said said, since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the colonial era, the East, that is, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, has gradually been "produced" by the West as irrational, desire , Erotic, stupid, backward, uncivilized, cunning and barbaric objects and others, in order to define themselves as rational, civilized, progressive, scientific, free, and just, In order to shape their own cultural and ethnic superiority. And this "Orientalization" has continued to this day, just like Foucault's "knowledge type" or "cognitive threshold" (épistémè) proposed by Foucault in "Words and Things" (1966) and "Knowledge Archeology" (1969). From the beginning, it began to have an internal framework effect on people's understanding and thinking, and it has long restricted and continuously propagated various Western understandings and knowledge of the East. However, just as the West cannot escape from the East, the East cannot leave the West and exist on its own. The East and West are like two sides of a coin. In the process, the West has also been “produced” by us as a cunning and aggressive person. Sexual, betrayal, evil, more pornographic objects and others to determine our noble image of kindness, passiveness, kindness, and kindness. In fact, in essence, both parties intentionally or unintentionally "dehumanize" each other. This East-West complex is somewhat similar to the "Yu-liang complex". The two parties, especially the West, often deliberately feminize the East, so a strange sadistic relationship is triggered. Moreover, once this mutual abuse complex is formed, like the yin and yang strange new crown virus, it appears and changes from time to time.

Oscar Wilde, a British writer, once said in a ridiculous way in "The Decline of Lies" (1891) that it is not art to imitate life, but life to imitate art, and even nature is imitated. art. For example, London became a fog, not because there was so much fog, but because Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet painted London as a foggy city, so London became a "fog." All". For this new title, there are three movies that give a real "copy job" sense of sight, that is, "Outbreak" (Directed by Wolfgang Peterson) in 1995, 2011 Steven Soderberger's two Hollywood blockbusters, Contagion, and 2013's "Influenza", directed by Kim Seung-soo of South Korea. These three films are based on the sudden outbreak of a rapidly deadly infectious disease, describing the various performances of people in the face of this terrible disaster. The film has both government and epidemic prevention officials' desire to reveal the truth and also Doctors who bravely face death and threats of power but desperately save lives and disclose the truth, and of course there are self-media reporters and pharmaceutical companies that take the opportunity to send "national disasters", all kinds of phenomena. For example, in "Infectious Diseases", not only the emergency measures to change the stadium into a "square-level hospital", it is even more shocking that the drug conspired by a media reporter and a pharmaceutical company played by Jude Law was actually called "Lian Forsythia ", Forsythia is the main ingredient of Shuanghuanglian! I believe that this kind of life's "reproduction" of art will be shocked if Wilde regenerates. He may say that not only viruses imitate art, but even antiviral drugs imitate art. Perhaps this is the case. After the new crown broke out, in order to fight against the epidemic and strengthen psychological immunity, these three films related to infectious diseases were turned out of the "old paper pile".

《Extreme Panic》

Interestingly, in these three films, the origin of the virus with a severely fatal infectious disease is either primitive or backward "Oriental". The virus from Extreme Panic came from the Zaire valley in Africa, the virus from Infectious Diseases came from a place in Southeast Asia near Hong Kong, and the virus from the flu was also a poor smuggler from Southeast Asia. This is also the interesting part of "Flu". This "re-orientalization" or "deep orientalization" inside the East undoubtedly shows a sense of hierarchy, that is, the concept of "Orient" produced by the West is applied to itself Divide the area, and then describe the relative backwardness in an oriental way to prove your superiority. This is like many people ’s recent comments against the government ’s regulations on the management of foreigners ’permanent residence. In addition to their dissatisfaction with their national treatment, there is also a tendency to re-orientize the East, because many people are worried It is not that their rights have not been satisfactorily satisfied, but that they are worried about the arrival of more "Oriental" African immigrants. In the same way, this phenomenon also occurs in European and American countries under the new crown epidemic. The people who launch the "new crown attack" on Asians wearing masks or Asians without masks are not white or other races, but also Asians. Here In fact, there is a mentality of trying to "whiten" oneself in order to prove that he has gone from Asia to Europe and became a Westerner.

《influenza》

What's more interesting, though, is the unforgettable plot in the flu film, the conflict between South Korea and the United States. When a U.S. consultant was rioting due to isolated influenza virus-infected people and was about to rush out of the quarantine area to march into Seoul, he was worried that the virus would be out of control and would spread out of control, in an attempt to allow the US bomber to blast all the infected people into ashes. In the end, the South Korean president withstood his pressure and forced him to give up this terrible inhuman approach. Just as the antibodies to the flu were found at the outset, the crisis was finally resolved. And from this intentional plot, it can be seen that the South Korean president is more human, more civilized, and certainly younger, more handsome and handsome, and the American adviser is not only bullying, but also more brutal and brutal. He has a glimpse of beard. Wearing an outdated suit looks like an outdated policeman coming out of an American Western movie. This is obviously "westernizing" the United States. Of course, such a plot has already appeared in "The Extreme Panic". The beginning of the film is an outbreak of a severely lethal infectious disease in the American mercenary camp in the Zaire Valley. The US military doctor immediately flew to see if it was incurable and immediately extracted it. The blood sample left, and the military helicopter was called to drop a huge bomb, turning the camp into a sea of fire. After many years, when the virus broke out in a small California town again, when the mutated virus spread rapidly and there was nothing to do, the U.S. military medical department repeated the trick and wanted to send the plane to drop the bomb again. The town was completely destroyed in case the virus spread endangered the United States. Compared with the plot designed by Americans in the "flu", which also set Americans as extinct human beings, it may give people more thought.

《infectious disease》

From this perspective, Soderberger's "Infectious Diseases" is even more profound. Although this film describes a series of events that occurred after the infection in chronological order, and finally restored the virus from the tropical jungles of Southeast Asia However, its cleverness also exposed the unbearable side of the West. The film has an absurd plot. A local doctor in Hong Kong abducts a female doctor from WHO who is investigating the epidemic in Hong Kong. She hopes that she can get the latest anti-virus vaccine to rescue her infected village. Loved ones. Afterwards, the colleagues who came to rescue her after negotiations with the Hong Kong doctors also kept their promise and handed the vaccine they needed to Dr. Huang, but it was shocking that the female doctor only knew afterwards that her colleagues used The vaccines exchanged for the doctors in Hong Kong who saved her life were not real, they were just disguised as nutritional fluids. Although this plot feels abrupt, it has an incredible depth. Although the East has infected the West, the West has also deceived the East. The distrust and hostility of the two sides are as usual even at the moment of life and death. This scene may be uncomfortable for Western audiences before the movie, but it is also uncomfortable for Eastern audiences. But unfortunately, this is the reality of today outside the screen.

However, behind such a mirror image of the East and the West turning each other into their own images, it is actually a mirror image of the "Reel". The sudden outbreak of the new crown once again made people aware of the unexpected death, and the beautiful virus of the new crown, like a "flower of evil" with a "real sister" on its head, suddenly bloomed in real life, The deadly breath that it gave off immediately caused the collapse of the imaginary and symbolic realms. Those bureaucratic systems that seem to have a well-organized order of life and run smoothly at the usual time are all chaotic and disintegrated after the new crown comes. Therefore, this new crown epidemic can also be seen as the erosion of real life by "real sister". It is expected that this erosion will continue to occur, because death will never be erased from human society, and individual individuals Death can always become the collective death of countless people, which is the terrible reason for the new crown-level infectious diseases.

Regardless of whether the Westernization of the new crown is orientalized or the Americanization of the new crown by the West, we cannot turn around from the evil flower of the "real sister" exuding a strong death breath. Perhaps, when we take off the masks, many western friends have to wear masks. This situation is regrettable. It is hoped that people who have to be in the same situation both in the East and the West can try to face the new crown in the way of the other party, and also can deepen their understanding of the other party, because no matter how misunderstandings and disputes are, everyone must rely on and coexist.