My New Hopes

Seonwoo Lee

Every spring, when frozen ice melts and the temperature rises, wearing a mask to avoid fine dust from China flowing into Korea is nothing new to Korean people. However, this year, something seems to be a bit different. Even when I got on a plane to New York and went through immigration, my daily life was no different than usual. Everyone was wearing a mask even during 13 hours as if it was a must to do. Early in the morning, the day after arriving in New York, my phone broke the silence of my empty room. It was friend’s hello call asking if I was safe. I was startled. It had been only two days – actually three days including flight hour – and why would anyone worry about my safety? Turns out, a Korean media outlet dealt with the news that Asians living in the U.S. are discriminated against because of the COVID19, which is assumed to be originated in a city called Wuhan, China. After hanging up the phone with her, the sound of horns and ambulance sirens coming from outside the window filled the room as if to speak for my complicated feelings. Since the very moment I hung up the phone, I have become scared to step outside the house. In fact, the news gave me greater fear than I expected. Every night, I fell asleep with relief and a grateful heart that no accidents happened on the day, and with the fear something might happen next day.

COVID has upended all the normal routines

Ten months later today, people are still living in the fear of the pandemic. The world is still in turmoil. The fatality rate in countries with major outbreaks including Spain, Italy and France sets a new daily record, and coronavirus has upended all the normal routines in our daily life, which was monotonous and ordinary. People would not go out without a mask on risking their life, cancel all the meetings and greetings, schools are closed. Only God knows until when, and economy is as nearly as dead. In Korea, hand sanitizers. There are unique sceneries only witnessed in Korea. A pile of boxes delivered from online commerce are blocking the door, people are sitting at the table with a mask on until the food is served, and free hand sanitizers are placed literally everywhere -at subway, bus, taxi, bank, and even on the street. What is more unique is that no one steals a hand sanitizer!

It is safe to say that the world is at war against the coronavirus despite all the efforts done by the governments and researchers around the world. It has affected not only our daily lives but also the economic, social, cultural and political fields. These changes in daily life have taken a toll on most businesses except a few which have been benefited such as mask manufacturers. In addition, discriminations once under the shadow are coming to the surface due to the epidemic.

Effects of wearing a face mask

Even before the spread of the pandemic, wearing a face mask is not news to people living in Korea. Seoul has long suffered from what is known as yellow dust, fine dust particles blown from the desert areas of China. This decades old phenomenon was found to contain microscopic dust that damages human lungs. As a result, in the time of spring, when the amount of blown dust is at its peak, this phenomenon made people stay at home and wear a face mask when they go out, which surprisingly is similar to the current status quo. Koreans, maybe other Asian countries suffering from the same issue, are trained to wear a mask for the purpose of precaution and protection.

Also, there was a shortage of masks and the black-market was formed in Korea due to the outbreak of COVID overlapping with the fine dust season. I have conducted interviews with friends, Jayoung Kim and Eunhye Jung, who have been living in Austria for eight years to find out how people think about wearing a face mask and to see if there is a side-effect. Due to the circumstances, I could not meet them in person. Instead, we talked over the video call for an hour. To my surprise, I found that wearing a face mask in the West symbolizes a negativity--posing a threat to others--whereas face masks have become a part of fashion in Korea.

My friends told me about ‘anti-mask law,’ which is to ban the concealment of one's face in public places and which are adopted in many western countries including America. Of course, they mentioned a few exceptions.

If you are a medical practitioner, maybe wearing a face mask is a daily routine. But you know, they wear it at a hospital and that is not public places. Protestants sometime wear a mask with X mark on to display their political views and of course, criminals, they have to cover their faces not to get caught or to be seen by witnesses. And you know how Koreans show up at school or work with a mask on because they are sick? about that,,, over here, if you are sick, you call in sick and stay home. So I kind of understand why some groups in Europe refuse to wear a mask. Because they are scared of what might happen to them if they do so.

Except for special circumstances, wearing a mask is legally restricted. Australia and Hong Kong, the United States, Canada, Britain, Austria, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the list goes on to mention countries where anti-mask law is legislated. On May 8 of this year, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “the pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering” and urged governments to “act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies against the virus of hate” (Human Rights Watch). This remark even adds to the seriousness of discrimination. At first, I thought that this problem was only applied to Asian people. However, it turned out that it was to all. For example, I saw an article stating that black people in the States are afraid of wearing a mask and rather choose to get infected to COVID because they are likely to be targeted by police for simply wearing masks. In Europe, no matter how much the government stresses, people overlook the importance of a face mask and only worry about receiving negative eyes by others. My friend Jayoung said she could feel that difference when she came to Europe. In the early days of the pandemic, she wore a face mask to protect herself from viral infections yet she was harshly criticized wearing a face mask in public places.

Encouragingly, she said the government has taken stronger measures to urge people to wear a mask even in the public places for the sake of protection. Experts in the field of contagion have continuously stated that a face mask is effective in protection from further contagion and precaution is much more important than finding a vaccine. In fact, the number of confirmed cases has increased so rapidly that it is hard to control. The public understands the net function of a face mask and their negative perception of masks is in the progress of changing. I think the reason the large gap between Korea and Europe in the number of confirmed cases is attributed to different perception on face masks. If the number of confirmed cases is too high to control, wearing a mask should be mandatory, not recommended.

Mask: A new barrier

While awareness of masks has improved, the issue of discrimination still remains. Many efforts have been taken to eradicate all forms of discrimination in society such as by education, campaign and legislation. In a sense, it is true that racism has decreased compared to the past. However, it is hard to deny the fact that discrimination still exists everywhere. I asked my two interviewees whether discrimination increases after the outbreak or not. Sadly, they both agreed that it has. The negative way to call Asian has changed to ‘viruses’ or ‘COVID’. They also said with a worried look that people treated them as a pathogen and nobody gets nearby them even on the public transportation. Based on their stories, being targeted for wearing a face mask is becoming a means of racism. It seems that have been accustomed to such treatment

You should have seen the look on their faces when they encounter me wearing a mask on streets. They even pull their children away from me as if I am a criminal or virus. It's unfair and I know it is wrong. But I should be grateful for I'm not being assaulted at least. On International community website, I could see many posts on how they been physically harassed due to a mask.

I asked them the following question: do you think that the intensified racism would be at ease after the end of pandemic? There was silence. Neither of them talking. About one minute later, one of them slowly and carefully answered negatively.

Time to change the perspective

While doing interviews and writing this report, I had to read multiple sad articles telling about death of loved ones and discrimination, and this broke my heart hard. COVID 19 itself is leaving indelible scar to patients and their families and friends and this number is skyrocketing at unprecedented rate. Physical illness is treatable. However, a wounded heart is way more difficult to redeem. I cannot help but wonder why people have negative stances to one of definite measure to save their lives. Even after going through several pandemics such as the Spanish flu, perspectives about wearing a mask still remain negative. I believe that COVID 19 should be a trigger to change the view. Even though international community have put their heads together for a long time, there has not been a clear and definite answer. On the corporate front, media outlets should not provoke a storm of protest and trigger a gap among interest group.