Yvonne Peng, ASA02 A04 , Week 1

As a Chinese international student who enrolled in a quarter system, I was on the plane back to Davis in the beginning of January. At that time, I was anxious about the hard major courses' materials and upset as well because I would not be able to celebrate another Chinese new year with them in late February. The coronavirus suddenly spread out through the mainland of China around the Chinese new year. This new lethal global disease was first discovered in Wuhan, China, and the report of this new disease was somehow not published, which caused inadequate awareness and a worse medical situation. Every family, including mine, have been affected by this new disease. The Chinese government asked people to wear a facial mask and keep distance while doing grocery shopping. The chance of going out was very limited and visiting was not allowed. This strict social policy and the virus brought a stressed, nervous, and boring Chinese new year rather than the supposed reunion of families. The long period of separation and isolation also has caused depression, anxiety, and other mental diseases to people (Wang et al., 2020). Many stores that were owned by individuals had to close down due to no income during the quarantine period. However, the outcome of those sacrifices on controlling the spreading rate of the virus was outstanding. We are unlucky that we have to face this new difficult challenge, but we are lucky to not only because we have more advanced technology and knowledge to fight with this virus but also we are the witness of a huge change in history.

When the outbreak of coronavirus happened in China, my concerns about the safety of my parents and family increased day by day. My mom is a teacher, and she always believed in me and takes my reasonable advice. During the quarantine period, she followed the guide of proper cleaning that I sent to her and stayed at home except for grocery shopping. However, my dad, as a traditional Chinese businessman, believed in his own experience more than the information that I provided with sufficient scientific reference. He used to run between places and visit people to stabilize or develop new social relationships in order to take a possible shortcut if necessary. I asked and even begged him to wash hands properly, reduce smoking and drinking, and not visit anyone. I was glad that my dad was not as stubborn as he used to be. My parents would talk with me about their daily routine and safety every day, which was very important for me because I was very negative and afraid of losing any one of them.
The quarantine now has been enforced here in the U.S. My lifestyle remained the same because staying home is very normal for an indoor person like me. I started to wear a mask to class for self-protection when the first case of coronavirus was discovered at UC Davis Medical Center. Even though many people didn't speak it out, I still can sense that they thought that I was just an overreacting Chinese to the new virus. Some of them asked me if I was sick with a doubting face. I was too lazy to explain how terrible the situation can be if a person, unfortunately, got infected. Instead, I just gave them a reasonable excuse hat I was allergic to some pollen. I didn't experience any obvious racism so far, and I guess the reason may be that people understand the virus more because of majoring animal science, immunology, and pathology, so they understand why I was wearing a mask. In fact, one of my professors even encouraged students to get more hand sanitizers and face masks before they run out.

Reference
Image from: https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/fact-sheet/coronavirus-tracker/
Wang, C., Pan, R., Wan, X., Tan, Y., Xu, L., Ho, C. S., & Ho, R. C. (2020). Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic among the General Population in China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(5), 1729. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17051729

Valverde, K.-L. C. (2013). Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia. 

     Seattle Journal for Social Justice, 12(2). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu