Imperatrice Wu nous parle du racisme anti-asiatique

COSMOPOLITAN

Aveline, connue sous le pseudo @imperatricewu sur les réseaux sociaux, revient sur les clichés et le racisme anti-asiatique auquel elle a été confrontée dès l'enfance.

Transcript

00:00 There are a lot of fetishizations on dating apps.

00:02 From the first sentence, people will talk about your origins.

00:04 I found a screenshot of a guy who sent me "hi",

00:07 I replied "hello", and he told me "I love Asians".

00:09 My name is Aveline, aka Imperatricew on social media.

00:15 I was born in France and I think that globally,

00:17 all Asians in France have all been confronted with anti-Asian racism.

00:22 It's sad, but since you were a kid, it's the daily life.

00:25 I remember that when I was little, I was maybe 6 years old,

00:27 and I already saw people saying "ni hao" to my grandmother in the street.

00:30 So for me, it was already racist remarks.

00:34 And I remember that my grandmother, for example, she would say "ni hao".

00:37 I would say to my grandmother, "but, nanae, stop!"

00:39 "Nanae" means "grandmother" in Chinese.

00:40 And I would say, "but, stop, he's making fun of us, why are you answering?"

00:44 And really, I was super angry already when I was little.

00:47 It's often manifested by more remarks in the street, like "ni hao, ching chong chong".

00:52 That's really obvious racism.

00:55 It happens a lot.

00:56 For example, when I was a student, my neighbor, whom I never spoke to,

00:59 she passed by my door screaming "ching chong chong".

01:02 But for her, it was more like a joke, let's say.

01:04 The next day, I went to confront her, because it was in the evening,

01:06 she did that on her way home from a party with her friends.

01:09 So the next day, I went to confront her, and I said to her,

01:11 "Why did you do that? It's super racist."

01:13 Another thing that happened to me when I was a student,

01:15 for example, a guy in the group in my class sent a photo with two Asians

01:20 and said, "I'm with Ping and Pong."

01:22 So it's mostly like a joke.

01:23 Once again, I told him, "Don't talk like that, it's super racist."

01:26 And he said, "No, it's a joke.

01:28 Oh, you Asians, you're well integrated.

01:31 It's good that you Asians are discreet."

01:32 I've heard that a lot before, but it's mostly a conversation between elders,

01:36 because it's really more the elderly who will say that to us,

01:39 or who will say that, for example, to my mother.

01:42 And I know that, for example, the generation above, that is, my parents,

01:46 when they hear that, they are not shocked.

01:47 Now, we, our generation, we know very well what that means.

01:50 It means, at least you are well integrated compared to...

01:53 And now they're going to compare us to other minorities.

01:55 And I'm totally against that.

01:57 I think that discrimination against Asians during COVID was the worst.

02:01 It was the peak.

02:03 Now it's really gone, but it was going everywhere, it didn't stop.

02:05 Just on social media, I post a lot of food.

02:08 Every time I posted a recipe, there was going to be someone to tell me,

02:10 "Oh, there's bat."

02:12 During COVID, we went to the beach with friends.

02:14 It was really at the beginning, we were wearing masks,

02:16 and the others didn't have too many masks.

02:18 We were going to buy an ice cream, and there was the lady in front of us.

02:21 She said, "Safety distance, stay away.

02:23 The second wave of your virus is coming."

02:26 We pointed at her finger.

02:27 I think shame has to change sides a bit.

02:29 And if other people are racist against you,

02:31 they try to humiliate you, well, you can humiliate them in your turn.

02:34 And it has to be the racists who are ashamed, in fact,

02:36 to say racist things in public like that.

02:38 I think it's inevitable when we expose ourselves on social media,

02:40 to receive hateful comments.

02:42 The last time, I had a huge wave of racism.

02:44 It was a TikTok where I was testing avian food.

02:48 "How's a French girl?"

02:50 So, everyone told me, "You're not French, you're Chinese."

02:52 There were a lot of racist comments.

02:53 When you're a woman and, on top of that, you're racist,

02:55 you always get more racist, misogynistic comments.

02:58 At first, it affected me a lot.

02:59 Now, a lot less.

03:00 I've been on dating apps for a long time,

03:02 for the past 18 years, I think.

03:03 Indeed, there are a lot of fetishizations on dating apps.

03:07 From the first sentence, people will talk about your origins.

03:09 The typical thing is that they'll often talk about their holidays.

03:11 For example, "Do you remember the girls I went out with in Singapore?"

03:16 "Do you remember my trip to Thailand?"

03:18 The guys who start telling me about their holidays,

03:19 I'll tell them, "It's because you see Asians, it makes you nostalgic."

03:23 And I keep asking questions

03:25 until they realize it's a bit ridiculous.

03:27 I found a screenshot of a guy who sent me,

03:30 "Hi," I reply, "Hello."

03:31 And he says, "I love Asians."

03:32 It's obvious to me that Asians don't all look alike.

03:35 When I was little, I had no representation.

03:38 My only Asian representation was in the Total Espise.

03:41 There was one Asian girl, her name was Brittany,

03:43 and she appeared in two episodes, I think.

03:45 And I remember I was so hooked.

03:47 As soon as I saw an Asian girl, I was so happy.

03:49 Now there are more and more Asians, even in my drawings for kids.

03:51 Now on Netflix, everyone watches Korean dramas.

03:54 Before, on Netflix, there were no Korean dramas.

03:55 I watched dramas on dubious sites.

03:58 And now it's seriously popularized, same for movies and everything.

04:02 So I think it's great, but of course, you can always do better.

04:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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