HaoranHu, A01, Week 1

      
       The Coronavirus becomes a global pandemic that spread in more than 170 countries only in a few months. Starting from Wuhan, China, this virus completely changed people’s daily life. Many rules that published by government to force students and worker to stay at home. Daily necessities like toilet paper and water are sold all and express deliveries are forced to stop. Because of these changes, many people started to spread conspiracy theories. Many people argue that this virus is not an accident, it is a biological weapon, others believes that this virus is produced by China and aimed to disturb the world.

       However, according to the Dr. Francis Collins (2020), this virus has a natural origin, “studies leaves little room to refute a natural origin for COVID-19”. In Dr. Francis Collins’s study, he deduced two scenarios. First scenario is that after virus evolving in its natural hosts, like bats or pangolins, it mutated to bind to molecules that similar to human protein. The other scenario is this virus has already crossed into human DNA before it can cause disease. “And that’s a good thing because it helps us keep focused on what really matters” said by Dr. Francis Collins.

        It is truth that this virus is horrible and unpredictable, but it has already become a world disease. At this very moment, we should focus on the most important thing---to stop the virus from spreading. If you are trying to impute China and call it “China virus”, it shows that you are a useless and irresponsible people and you will lead this disease to a worse ending.

         It is time to stop all conspiracy theories and focus on good hygiene, social distancing, and appreciate all efforts that doctor and researchers done to address this major public health challenge. (Francis,2020)

Image from: 
https://google.com/covid19-map/?hl=en

Reference:
Dr. Francis Collins (March 26th, 2020).
Genomic Study Points to Natural Origin of COVID-19,Retrieved from https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2020/03/26/genomic-research-points-to-natural-origin-of-covid-19/

As an international student from Asian, I am very interested in this class, I hope to learn how Asian American different from Asian people from different angles. I wish to learn about how culture formed and elements that make a culture different from others. So I had a question, What is the key element that cause Asian American different from American people and Asian people?

ASA002 A04 Jiawen Shou Week 1

Going back to early January when coronavirus just started to spread rapidly in China, I never imagined that the virus will become a global pandemic that lead to the condition today. The nervous feeling and tensions started out on social media, weibo. People gradually started to realize the severeness but no one know what was coming. Rumors, conspiracy theories and fake news were all other the internet. Although I wasn't in China due to school, I was very worried about my family. My parents didn't take it too serious at first. However, they began to see rapid number increase if diagnosis, public events got cancelled, schools got cancelled and the stores all shut down.

Now is the end of March and coronavirus in China has finally got under control after three months. However, the virus started to spread out globally. People internationally didn't care much about the issue as many think that it's only a problem in China but the virus rapidly grows to a global problem. 

I am glad but sad at the same time for the situation. I am glad that people are taking actions now against the virus. The government ordered shelter in place and I feel relatively safe as long as I keep my personal hygiene and stay home. I am sad because this is my last quarter in college and I never imagined my college life will end in this way. Isolation time reminds me of the time I enjoyed walking on campus and go to classes. I really hope that the virus get controlled in all countries soon and students can back to enjoy campus life. 

My question is that: How are countries globally reacting to the virus and what efforts can individuals make?

Reference: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

Lele Bian A04 -- Week 1

Since February 2020, the coronavirus started to come to people's attention. It first started in Wuhan, and people believed if they could control the people flow in Wuhan, they were able to ease this virus. However, this didn't happen. The coronavirus started to appear not only in Wuhan but also in every province of China. This led to a shutdown of all businesses, such as malls, movie theaters, and also restaurants. Because of the shutdown, China's retail sales plunged 20.5% during January and February over the same period in 2019, industrial output declined 13.5%, and fixed asset investment fell 25%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Starting March, Coronavirus spread all over the world; now we can also see its impacts on the US economy, such as the plunge of stocks. 

Besides the economy strike, coronavirus also leads to some discrimination around the world. Before the virus spread to other countries, many Chinese blamed people in Wuhan and started to post negative comments and dislikes against them. Later on, as the virus widely spread among other countries, the racism of Asians has started.  Last week Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, launched a website called Stop AAPI Hate to track the attacks. In the first eight days, it received more than 650 reports of discrimination, largely against the Asian American community. The most common type of report it received is name-calling and verbal harassment; There are also people having bottles and cans thrown at them, their homes being vandalized, and being physically attacked, assaulted, being hit or punched, pushed on subways. I don’t understand why people are blaming each other for the virus rather than doing something useful to reduce the transition risk. It the racism continues; I am afraid that this would become as serious as the article “Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia” states.

Stop AAPI Hate

From this course, I expect to explore the Asian American community and also the current issues in the Asian American community. My question this week is how we can stop people from discriminating against others. When the coronavirus would stop.

References 

He, L. (2020, March 16). Coronavirus devastates China's economy and the 'nightmare' is not over. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/16/economy/china-economy coronavirus/index.html

Mullis, S., & Glenn, H. (2020, March 27). New Site Collects Reports Of Racism Against Asian Americans Amid Coronavirus Pandemic. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/27/822187627/new-site-collects-reports-of-anti-asian-american-sentiment-amid-coronavirus-pand

Yuanji Zhao ASA A03 Week 1 Blog

Started from late 2019, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted most of countries on earth. As the virus is not only new to our current medical system, but with high infection rate, it can be described as one of most intractable medical crises in human history. Despite of its capability of healthy damage, it causes a largely spread chaos in our community. The fear form coronavirus has surrounded many citizens. As a result, people may behave as an unnecessary way, like stocking daily supply without considering if they are essential. To control this kind of chaos, President Trump tried to minimize the fear from coronavirus by saying: "It's going to disappear eventually”.

Due to the current situation, my expectation for this course is to understand how a foreign culture (Asian American) survived when it was not encouraged by the environment. Similar as 20 to 21 century when Asian Americans were not welcomed by American society as they were considering as the main competitor for job market, Asian Americans are again falling into this struggled situation when they are considering as “the main source of COVID-19”. There is one analogy in “Fight the Tower”, which describes the academic situation of Asian Americans in early 21 century as: “cracked pipeline”.  For today, the pipeline between Asian American and the society may be leaked again. Therefore, as one member of this group, I want to find out how our community developed in American history.

References:  Harry Stevens and Shelly Tan, “From ‘It’s going to disappear’

to ‘WE WILL WIN THIS WAR’”, The Washington Post, March 31, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/trump-coronavirus-statements/

Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde, “Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia”, April 4, 2020. https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/445220/files/folder/Weekly%20Readings/Week1?preview=8316940

Mohinee Sharma ASA 2 A02 Week 1

The Coronavirus has drastically impacted the world at an alarming rate, and we are only seeing the numbers grow. With its origins in Wuhan, China, the virus has simultaneously brought on negative perceptions regarding Asian individuals. This discrimination has, in my opinion, added more fuel to the fire in regard to this global pandemic. Instead of the world coming together in order to fight this virus, many look to Asians as the source of the problem leading to attacks on the way they eat, clean, and overall live their lives. It seems as though many are using the virus as an excuse to justify their racism towards certain groups of color.

This has a major connection to Professor Valverde's article in which she discusses the struggles she has faced as a women of color in the world of Academia. Just as this global pandemic has brought along discrimination against Asian individuals, women of color have continued to face micro and macro aggressions stemming from the color of their skin and cultural background. This discrimination leads to a negative effect on mental health for these individuals. Similarly, along with this growing virus, many Asians are experiencing negative mental health as a result of the discrimination they are facing.

Therefore, my question surrounding this topic is are we ever going to see this type of racism end, or are people going to continue looking for ways to justify their discrimination?

                                                instagram.com/crisistextline

References

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

Chiharu Ito ASA002 A04 week1

     In November 2019, the new coronavirus was discovered in Wuhan. Globalization and the development of technologies allowed to carry people with the virus, and the virus was spread among the world with incredible speed. Because the virus occurred in China, people outside of China tried to avoid people who might carry the virus, and that caused the virus racism of Asians. Every day I saw some news or posts on SNSs about the discriminations of Asians at schools, stores, streets, buses, and other places. They are all shocked and hurt by the discrimination, and people who saw the news felt anxieties and fears for society.

     In the article by Valverde, “Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia”, she claims that the discrimination of colored women harms them and kills them in the worst case. I worry that a similar situation to this article will happen. The discrimination of the coronavirus stresses people and might kill them.

     Now, some activists publish their idea against this discrimination. We need to unite to prevent injury and death because of the discrimination and claim that we are not a virus. I expect that this class will teach us how people reacted and were against racism, and that knowledge must help to improve the situation today.

     Question: When will this discrimination end? Will the end of the pandemic of the coronavirus be the actual end of this discrimination?

References

Valverde, Kieu-Linh Caroline. (2013) “Fight the Tower: A Call to Action of Women of Color in Academia”. Seattle Journal for Justice, Vol. 12, Iss. 2, Article 5.http://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sjsj/vol12/iss2/5

Image from https://www.instagram.com/p/B9CyaXuD_By/?utm_source=ig_embed

Ruoting Wan ASA002 A03 Week1

Ruoting Wan

ASA002 A03

Blog Week1

3/29/20

    

    As a Chinese international student, I am concern about the situation of Coronavirus
earlier. Because starting from the end of January 2020, Coronavirus spread over China.
At first, the virus didn’t attract people’s attention. Most of the people thought that this
virus won’t contagious and spread person-to-person. And everyone was looking forward
to the upcoming Chinese Spring Festival. A few days later, when doctors confirmed that
this virus is contagious and spread person-to-person, even spread through the air, people
started to notice the serious situation and bought masks as much as they can. With the
situation became worse and worse, the government decided all people should
shelter-in-place. Instead of gathering to celebrate the Spring Festival, all people stay at
home only if go out to buy essential products. At that time, I was in the winter quarter,
but I was so worried about my family members. During the daily facetime with my family,
I exhorted my parents to remember to wear masks when they go outside and keep wash
their hands. Now, the situation becomes reversed: The situation of Coronavirus in China
becomes better and better, but the situation of Coronavirus in the United States becomes
worse and worse. My parents mail the package of masks to me and advise me repeatedly
to keep washing my hands and store enough food to avoid going out. Wish the war of
coronavirus can win as soon as possible and everyone stays healthy. Because this is the
first time to study this course online, I hope Professor Valverde and TAs can help us to adapt
to the online situation and explain the podcast more clearly later. Because when I see the
syllabus, I notice that the bibliography needs to include books, journals, videos, and
interviews. However, due to the Coronavirus, we could not go to libraries to find books
and interview someone as well. Therefore, I also want to know more details about the bibliography.

Reference:

image from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/12/study-questions-effectiveness-online-education-risk-students