Setting the record straight: here's the social context Wei Du

Hi guys, this is the second part in my reaction to a recent CNA report on anti-Asian hate crime in the UK. Being a British-Chinese person in London, I felt that the report misrepresented the situation here on the ground and in part 1, I had explained how the documentary ignored the vast amount of hate that locals in Singapore had to face on a daily basis and that the grass simply isn't greener on the other side of the fence. So in today's post, I would look at the individual stories featured in Wei Du's report and offer my perspective on them. I'm not trying to be unsympathetic or go into denial about any of the cases of hate crime that were featured in that CNA documentary, I do feel that there's quite a lot of local context that I can offer when looking at these cases. Let's jump right in with the first case, there is much to get through! 

1. Zhang Yuanzhao's assault in a supermarket in Cambridge

On the 18th September 2021, Zhang Yuazhao, a 25-year old Chinese expatriate, was assaulted in a supermarket in Cambridge. It was a brutal, unprovoked attack: ten youths attacked him on a Saturday evening whilst Zhang was in the supermarket. What pissed me off about Wei Du's report is that she made Zhang sound like some helpless victim of this attack when she totally ignored the fact that like a bad-ass hero from an action movie, he chased the ten guys out of the supermarket down the road then he was joined by a white British man who came to his aid - together they chased down these youths in his van whilst they were calling the police to try to catch these youths. Yeah Zhang was beaten up, but he was no damsel in distress - I have a lot more respect for Zhang after having done my research and it seriously pisses me off that Wei Du chose to portray him as a helpless victim. Wei Du chose to focus on the fact that the security guard in the supermarket did nothing to help Zhang, whilst ignoring the fact that another white person - a complete stranger - actually did spring into action and help Zhang. Oh but that would ruin Wei Du's racist narrative that all white people hate Chinese people, so she conveniently ignored that part of the story. Listen security guards in supermarkets are paid the minimum wage, they are seriously poor and are at the very bottom of the food chain in British society. The security guard wasn't racist per se, but he probably thought, "I'm not paid enough to get beaten up in a fight like this and if I intervened and got hurt in the process, I'd probably lose my job. Sorry but I have everything to lose and nothing to gain by getting involved." This is a function of the security guard's extreme poverty rather than any element of racism here. Yet Wei Du chose to make it entirely about racism of course when I have good reason to believe this case is actually a lot more complex. 

As for the location of the Co-op supermarket where the attack happened, Mill Road is actually in the university district. It is not like it was in some kind of really rough council estate full of drug addicts, but allows me to analyze this. Now we all know that Cambridge university is well known for being one of the most prestigious universities in the world - if you have a degree from Cambridge, then your future is extremely bright and loads of doors would open for you. Not everyone who lives in Cambridge is a student or staff at the university of course, there are some high tech companies there but there are also very ordinary jobs as well - for example, Zhang got attacked in a supermarket. The staff who worked in the supermarket (including the security guard who didn't help Zhang) are paid peanuts and are very poor. If you were to spot a Chinese looking person in Cambridge, chances are they are either a tourist or a foreign student and since tourism has taken a major hit in 2021 because of the pandemic, then the Chinese person you see if Cambridge is almost certainly a foreign student or one of the graduates from Cambridge who then went on to work in one of these prestigious high tech companies like Zhang, who works at the Samsung AI Center after graduating from Cambridge, probably earning a lot of money there. Thus if you come across a random white person in a supermarket in Cambridge, it would be impossible to guess if they are rich or poor but if you came across a Chinese person in Cambridge, then in all probability, they are associated with the prestigious university and thus they would be a lot richer than you and have a much brighter future. 

Whilst everyone associates the city of Cambridge with the university, what people often forget are the many poor people who live there. A report in 2021 by Varsity labels Cambridge as the most unequal city in the UK, where the bottom 20% take home just 2% of the wealth and 1 in 6 children in the region lived in poverty even before the pandemic. The fact is there are a lot of painfully poor people in that area living utterly miserable, wretched lives filled with so much suffering - they are living right next to a group of people who are getting an education at one of the world's most prestigious universities and would go on to earn millions. Thus I postulate that Zhang wasn't attacked because he was simply Asian or Chinese but rather he represented the mega rich and super successful who lived in Cambridge and the youths who attacked him were probably amongst the 1 in 6 children who lived in poverty. The report makes for grim reading - the poor in Cambridge lead utterly fucking miserable lives whilst living in close quarters with those at the university. There is a toxic mix of envy, jealousy and resentment in Cambridge that can spill over into hatred and violence as in the case of Zhang's assault. Look, I'm not trying to make any excuses for that horrific, brutal attack on Zhang, but I am merely pointing out that Zhang wasn't targeted solely because he was Chinese but also because of what he represented in an incredibly unequal city where you have that massive divide between the rich and the poor. Zhang represented the rich, the ones who had a bright future whilst the youths who attacked him represented the poor, the ones who were going to get jobs on minimum wage - just like the security guard at the supermarket who did nothing to help Zhang. Now that's a dimension of this attack that Wei Du chose to totally ignore and she made it look like it was entirely about racism only. 

2. Regina Lim taunted with "Corona Corona" 

In an interview with Wei Du, journalist Regina Lim described how she was taunted in a grocery store when a man came up to her and started singing "Corona Corona". She then described how she went to a park to have a cry afterwards and I'm like, what? Seriously? Is that how you react when things don't go your way? Listen if crying would solve anything, I would be the first to cry you a bucket of tears when things go wrong. Lim had a few options in such a situation - she could choose to dismiss the person who taunted her as an idiot and not let his actions get to her. She could challenge him on the spot and say, "what the hell is your problem? You got a problem with me? I've never met you in my life before so what the hell are you on about?" She could have asked others around her for help (but please, don't approach the poorest of the poor who are the staff in the supermarket, I refer you to Zhang's assault in Cambridge above). If you do choose the first option which is to ignore the idiot, then you stand by your decision and not let it bother you - you need to have very thick skin to choose that option. My guess is that Lim is very sheltered and has never ever had to deal with conflict like that before - that's in sharp contrast to me because I had to deal with such conflict like that on a daily basis when I was in the army, so whilst I'm quite unflappable in the face of conflict, someone like Lim just crumbled under pressure. It takes a lot of social skills to be able to deal with conflict like that - do you know how to deescalate a situation like that? How would you challenge a stranger who taunted you in public like that? Could you very stay calm under pressure and think clearly, so you can come up with the right response quickly in this kind of confrontational situation? 

Allow me to share two situations which did happen to me in London which were similar: many of my regular readers will know that I am a cyclist - that's my preferred mode of transport in central London. Both of these incidents happened when I was cycling: the first was when two guys shouted at me, "Gangnam Style!" I was on my bike so I didn't stop, but the first thing that came to mind was that Gangnam Style was the big hit of summer 2012, this means that this iconic song is almost ten years old already. I was just thinking, geez don't you have any more recent references to Korean culture like BTS, EXO or Wanna One? You had to pick one from ten years ago, you need to keep up with the times old man, like I bet you've not even heard of Black Pink. I chose to ignore him as I thought there was no point in engaging someone like that, I didn't let it bother me. The second incident was almost similar, except this time it was a bunch of kids and one of them shouted, "Kim Jong Un!" Thus instinctively, I shouted back, "Boris Johnson!" Look I was on my bike, they were walking, I had less than one second to respond and I left it at that. It was a ridiculous thing for them to say in the first place, do you shout "Joe Biden!" when you meet an American? No, you would probably say something normal like, "hello, how are you today?" They were being silly and I indulged them by responding - sure, I could have kept quiet and just cycled away quickly but I felt like it was important for me to offer some kind of response to that. So in both instances, I didn't let it upset or bother me as I've dealt with far worse conflict before in the army, so these two instances were really insignificant in comparison. If someone yells something stupid at me then that's a reflection on them, not me. 

3. Mr Vu in Hackey who was assaulted by his neighbour

This was quite a horrific case and of course, I really feel bad for Mr Vu, but at the same time Wei Du's presentation of Mr Vu's case is really one-sided and there is a lot of social context that I need to give you given that Hackney is only about 6.6 km from where I live so it's relatively local for me. We start off at the Hackney Chinese Community Center and if I may offer local information here: these Chinese community centers can be found all over the UK but they tend to cater to migrants who can't speak English and thus they know that if they show up there, they can at least find other Chinese people with whom they can socialize with in Mandarin and/or Cantonese. Someone like me would never set foot in such a place because I don't feel the need, given that English is my first language and Mandarin is my third language after French. If you don't know how to speak English well enough in the UK, not only does it prevent you from accessing most employment (like you can't even work as a security guard in a supermarket if you can't communicate in basic English) it also prevents you from developing a network of friends in your local community. So the people you see at these Chinese community centers are not only very poor, but very isolated as well. Take Mr Vu for example, he has been in the UK for about 30 years, yet he still can't speak English. Is he unable or unwilling to learn English? If that's the case, wouldn't he be better off returning to Vietnam now that the war has ended a long time ago and it is now actually a very safe country? Why does he want to stay in London if he has been unwilling or unable to learn English and assimilate properly here? 

Mr Vu lives in council housing in Hackney, unfortunately Wei Du didn't try to give any of the social context for this so allow me to explain: this cannot be compared to the HDB flats in Singapore, oh it is a far cry from the HDB system in Singapore. The local government, often referred to as the local 'council', is obliged to offer housing to the poorest and most vulnerable - this is known as 'council housing' and you will hear terms like 'council flats' or 'council estate'. Thus as a refugee from Vietnam, Mr Vu would have been placed in such council housing. This kind of housing facilities are very basic as they are meant for the very poorest in society who would be homeless otherwise, thus imagine if the council had a pot of money allocated for housing by the central government: they could build 750 really nice flats or 2,000 very basic and small flats: they will always choose the latter because the waiting list for council housing is so long they must prioritize creating as many new properties as possible whilst sacrificing any kind of quality or comfort in the process. So in short, many council flats in council estates are grim, disgusting and usually dilapidated. When they are in such horrific condition, only the very poor and desperate will choose to live there. To be fair, not all council estates are that bad but Hackney happens to be one of the poorest areas in London and thus Mr Vu's neighbours are at the very bottom of the food chain in British society. When you are living with people like that as your neighbours, you are bound to encounter all kinds of trouble. Richer Asian people like Zhang and Lim (and myself) would most certainly not choose to live in such grim conditions if we could help it - no instead we would use our wealth to pay for much safer and nicer places to live in. 

Thus Mr Vu has effectively been allowed to live rent-free in this council flat as a refugee, but you don't get to demand a beautiful mansion with a garden next to Buckingham Palace when you are in Mr Vu's situation, no you simply get what you're given and so in this case, Mr Vu has been given a flat next to the family from hell who are equally destitute and desperate. So whilst what happened to Mr Vu is undoubtedly horrific, I need to point out that this happened mostly because of where Mr Vu is living - richer Asian people in London like me would not encounter such horrible neighbours because our wealth allows us to buy a better class of respectable neighbours. So if Mr Vu had money, he could easily move to a much nicer area and that would solve his problems. Wei Du avoided mentioning the fact that Mr Vu was shockingly poor - perhaps it was out of respect for him, you don't invite him to take part in your programme and then shame him for being poor; now that would be very unkind indeed. But it was the elephant in the room that they refused to mention despite the fact that Mr Vu's poverty played a huge role in why he was stuck in that council flat, why he was forced to live next to that horrible family and why he couldn't just move to a nicer neighbourhood with decent neighbours. Other poor white people who are forced to live in such grim council estates would also face a lot of horrible anti-social issues there, life would be unbearable for anyone living in such terrible conditions whether they are black, white or Asian. There are thousands of other poor white people in the UK who have endured similarly nasty neighbours like Mr Vu in such council estates. Yet Wei Du chose to craft a narrative that just ignored the context of extreme poverty in this case.

You might say, Alex aren't you making the assumption that poor people have criminal inclinations and make terrible neighbours? Well allow me to be very politically incorrect: I've described my parents are working class but at least they were working, they had a job and were gainfully employed. In the UK, we have an 'underclass' which are below the working class - these are people who are unemployed and unemployable, they were brought up on these grim council estates and got into all kinds of petty crime, and drugs in their childhood, sometimes spending time in jail. The problem is with the welfare state: you don't get much in terms of unemployment benefits, but the moment you have children, the state actually becomes a lot more generous to the parents in order to make sure the children don't suffer but in reality, what tends to happen is that these underclass, unemployed parents simply have loads of children and spend that extra welfare money on drugs and alcohol whilst the children have a miserable childhood. Short of turning to crime, having another child is one of the only options they have to get more money. Successive British governments over the decades have not been able to solve the problem of this perpetual underclass in our society and council estates like the one in Hackney where Mr Vu lives are the 'dumping ground' for the underclass. Of course this is a big problem but it affects everyone, not just Asian people because if a poor white Ukrainian refugee family turns up in Hackney, they may be placed in a very similar council estate and they would experience the same kind of conflicts that Mr Vu did despite the fact that they are white. This is a problem that isn't solely about racism, one needs to understand the wider context but of course Wei Du made no attempt to try to explain that, she presented a very one-sided analysis of a complex problem.

4. Hu Feiya's online peer support group 

Hu is a 24 year old in Edinburgh who started an online support group for Asians in the UK experiencing racism and she is just trying her best to do what she can on social media to address the problem. I think what she is doing is very noble and I applaud her for it. Victims of racism would approach her via social media to get validation and support, she would also help them make a police report if that is what they wanted to do. Wei Du said in the documentary, "in the face of inaction by the police and social media, it is up to a 24 year old to offer victims solace and empathy". That is just totally misleading on so many levels, good grief. Wei Du is making out that white British people are all nasty racists who wouldn't help an Asian person who is a victim of racism when that couldn't be further from the truth. Allow me to share with you a personal experience from way back in 2013, when I was took part in a National Theatre production in the West End. Two colleagues made an offensive racist joke about the way I sounded when I spoke Mandarin and immediately I launched a complaint not just with the directors and management of the production, but I raised it with my union and my agent - I even threatened to make a police report of hate crime if I didn't receive a groveling apology within 24 hours. Needless to say, everyone dealing with this case were white and these white people were appalled that anyone working on that production had the audacity to make such a blatantly racist comment. The two offenders were given a choice: make a public apology at once or you will be sacked with immediate effect from the production - they chose the former whilst pleading ignorance and stupidity. One of the offenders used tears to try to convince me that she was genuinely sorry, she couldn't stop crying as she apologized. I got my grovelling apology and I was fairly satisfied with the outcome. 

Whilst the people who were in charge sprang into action without a moment's hesitation, I observed a different picture amongst my colleagues in the production. Firstly, there were those who were super nice and supportive, they went out of their way to express empathy and gave me so much emotional support. One Danish colleague even bought me chocolates, just in case he couldn't find all the right words to let me know that he was on my side and supporting me 100% but everyone speaks the universal language of chocolate. But not everyone was as kind as this wonderful Danish guy, there was one Mexican lady who wasn't forthcoming - I was once in the waiting room with her and I tried to tell her what happened, but she simply said to me, "Alex, sorry but I think that's a private matter between you and (insert the names of the two idiots who made the racist joke). It doesn't involve me and I would appreciate it if you didn't tell me so I don't get dragged into it. I don't have to know." I was shocked at her response: after all, she was Latina, I'm Chinese - so I thought I would get some empathy from her as a fellow non-white person working on this production but it was not like she was trying to antagonize me by telling me that I had no right to complain about that remark, she simply didn't want to be involved at all. Perhaps she was selfish, perhaps she didn't see me as a friend and thus didn't feel obliged to help me, I don't know why she terminated that conversation so abruptly. But the fact is the onus is on me to seek help from nice people like that Danish guy and avoid people like this Mexican lady - as an adult, the challenge is always to make friends with people who will help us and be on our side. I made the error of thinking that this Mexican lady cared - she didn't but I didn't let that bother me as I had other good friends who cared about me, like that Danish guy who bought me chocolate. 

5. Prof Mindy Chen-Wishart being challenged by the security guard at Oxford University

Prof Chen is a dean of the faculty of law at Oxford and one day, she forgot her staff card and asked the security guard to let her into the building. The security guard didn't know who she was and asked her whom she was seeing, if she had an appointment. Despite the fact that Prof Chen then informed them that she was the dean of the faculty, the security guard still checked if she had the key to her office door. Of course, Prof Chen was very offended by what happened but I'm going to point out that I don't think this was racism per se. What Prof Chen seems to have conveniently forgotten (or ignored) was the fact that she probably makes in a month what the security guard earns in a year - these security guards are usually paid minimum wage because it is an unskilled job. Despite supposedly being in charge of security, they have no real 'power': they can't even choose what they wear to work and have to wear a uniform to work, they are given a work schedule and a specific list of things to do whilst on their shift. Most of the time, they are simply bored out of their brains by the mundane nature of their job. So when a dean forgets her staff card, that's the one exciting moment they actually get to wield any real power by 'being good at their jobs' or being especially thorough in the hope that they would be able to irk Prof Chen and ironically, she gave them exactly what they wanted. Normally someone of much lower social and economic status like the security guard would be subservient to Prof Chen, but just for those few moments, they were able to usurp her superior status. But no I really don't think this social conflict has anything to do with racism per se.

I had a very similar experience back in the late 1990s when I was at university - the various universities would host gymnastics competitions and it was a chance to visit another city when we competed. So this was in Glasgow when a group of us gymnasts wanted to go out to party after the competition; so we turned up at this nightclub and the bouncer demanded to see photo ID to prove that we were all over 18. So in the UK, we don't have identity cards, so you would have to use something like a driver's license or even a passport as photo ID but university students would have their university ID cards which would have vital information like our name, date of birth, the course we were studying and of course it had our photo. So the first student and second student were from the university of Glasgow, they flashed their student IDs and were let into the club, no questions asked but the third student was from the Oxford university (for the record, both the student and the bouncer were white) and the bouncer simply refused to let him in. When we challenged him, the security guard said, "your student ID has expired". When the Oxford undergrad then said, "that's not true, you can see the date of expiry here." I took a look at the student ID and he was right - the bouncer was lying or he just plain couldn't read. An argument then ensued and it was at that point when the bouncer got physical with the Oxford student and shoved him. He then used a string of really nasty swear words which I shan't repeat here. I then separated them as I was worried for my friend's safety and I said to the bouncer "we're calling the police now. You won't get away with this." 

So when the police arrived, the nightclub owner claimed that his CCTV didn't work and they are waiting to get it fixed. The bouncer claimed that we were a bunch of drunk students who were unruly and so he was just doing his job by refusing to let us enter the club. I told the police that this bouncer had reacted to the fact that this student was from Oxford University and the bouncer (who was paid minimum wage and at the bottom of the food chain) had assaulted this student because he was from an elite university. The policeman just rolled his eyes at me and said, "prove it." It was at that moment that I realized that whilst the policeman earned a little bit more than the security guard, that policeman had a lot more in common with the bouncer than us university students. Now having been through the army, I have seen this kind of hatred directed at those deemed "privileged" or "elite" by those at the bottom of the food chain. The bouncer got away with it because the policeman was clearly on his side, oh that policeman had no desire to help us university students because once we graduate, we were going to get well paid jobs whilst the bouncer and the policeman would be stuck doing their poorly paid jobs. We walked away angry but in hindsight, that was the right thing to do. In 2016, a posh, rich 18 year old British teenager was murdered by a nightclub bouncer after taunting the bouncer, "you'll work for me one day." Then in 2021, the same thing happened again in Essex. Yeah, poor people really hate the rich in this country as we are an incredibly unequal country and I am actually aghast that Prof Chen was totally oblivious to this kind of hatred.

I did not respond to all the stories featured in Wei Du's documentary but I focused on those that were most misrepresented and taken out of context. I cringed when she filmed Zhang calling his father in China - why make him look like a lost boy yearning for his father's help when she could focus on the way he heroically fought back against his attackers like a bad ass action hero? This is why I felt that Zhang was the one who probably was the most misrepresented in this documentary. So I hope that in sharing this on my blog, I have given you a lot more context about the situation here in the UK and you have learnt that not all problems faced by the Chinese here are caused by racism - there's plenty of other crap that can give us problems here! Please leave a comment below, many thanks for reading.