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Spain’s Chinese community’s fight against coronavirus and xenophobia started early
- Weeks before the country went into lockdown, many Chinese-run shops had closed and workers in the remainder wore masks
- When the infection arrived, fears of racially motivated insults were realised from abuse on the street to social media attacks
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Weeks before Spain announced a nationwide lockdown to combat the new coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese community there had already taken their own measures – shutting their stores, wearing masks, and banding together to fend off xenophobia.
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“Because of the fear experienced in China, we see the epidemic differently than Spanish people,” said Xiao Kangyung, 36, who was born in Shanghai but has been living in Spain since 1996.
“In China, the situation is experienced at the other extreme of communication practice. We spread fear to the population to get people to stay home. So we have the feeling that the Spanish people have taken everything lightly, and haven't made the right decisions,” she said.
The country of 46 million people has quickly become a hotspot for the disease in Europe, second only to Italy, where there have been 1,002 deaths and 19,980 contagions to date.
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On March 8, mass marches in the streets – encouraged by the government – for International Women’s Day were followed by a dramatic increase in infections in the capital, Madrid. Days later, the Pedro Sanchez government followed the example of other countries fighting the pandemic and declared a national “state of alarm”.
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