Stereotype victimizes Chinese-Americans

Oct. 28, 2016

BOSTON – Standing with some 50 mostly elderly Chinese-American protestors outside the House of Blues in the evening of Oct. 19, Frank Poon said he wasn’t there so much to demonstrate against the rapper YG as he was there to make a stand against a culture of violence against Chinese families.

“We have to stop others from imitating him and becoming famous in this way,” said Poon, the president of Chinese American Citizen Right Alliance, as others chanted “stop cultural violence.”

Poon was one of the organizers of protests against YG’s song “Meet the Flockers,” which details how burglars broke into a Chinese family’s home.

The popularity of YG and his song comes at a time when Chinese-Americans are feeling under siege.

This summer, more than 10 Chinese restaurants were robbed in Philadelphia. Eight injuries were reported. On Sept. 16, thieves broke into the Gwinnet, Ga., home of a Chinese family house. One person was killed in the incident.

In an email to the reporter, Lt. John Walker of Philadelphia Police Department said some of the restaurant owners were injured when they misunderstood what the gun robbers wanted because of language barrier. He said arrests had ended such crimes.

But the crimes scared the Chinese community.

Demonstrations culminated in Philadelphia on Oct. 15, when some 2,000 Chinese-Americans from the eastern United States marched in protest. Poon said dozens of them carried guns.

The action outside the House of Blues on Oct. 19 was motivated for the same reasons.

“We are very angry about the lyrics. It says you can rob Chinese families because they don't believe in bank accounts,” said Esther Lee, president of Chinese American Citizens Alliance at the protest scene, “and in the video, robbers carry guns.”

YG’s song has been on YouTube since 2014, gaining more than 3,000 likes. Chinese-Americans started to demonstrate in recent months, when YG began touring the United States.

Demonstrators said they were worried about the song’s cultural influences.

“Rap music is very popular. Kids like to listen to rap music. And what kind of information it brings to the kids? Violence!” Lee said.

Poon said such lyrics might aggravate crimes targeting Chinese-Americans. He said the song conveyed a discrimination culture, which viewed Chinese as weak yet unusually successful citizens who had the habit of keeping cash and jewels.

Xiuyan Huang, an accountant who came to protest said her friend living in Allston was robbed at home, and some other friends were robbed in Fenway, Boston and in Canada.

“Violence targeting Chinese people has become a world-wide problem,” she said.

“Now Chinese business owners are more likely to buy guns to protect themselves,” William Lei, a Chinese-American student at Rutgers University and a trainee in the school’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps told the reporter online.

He said the problem was stereotype rather than discrimination.

“Some behaviors of Chinese-Americans show weakness and timidity. And they tend to keep cash in their shops,” Lei said.

Poon said the habit could not be immediately changed, but first Chinese-Americans should care about each other.

“Chinese has a history of selfishness. We shut our doors when something happens. But if we come together like African-Americans, things will be changed,” he said.

Wilson Lee, Esther Lee’s husband said, “We Chinese-Americans and African-Americans are both minorities in the United States. We should help rather than bully each other.”

“I feel disappointed,” he said, “We respect Martin Luther King. Chinese people also joined his Civil Right March. Now we should maintain our solidarity and achieve our dreams together.”