Viewpoints Chinatown attacked by SARS Smear. | Chinatown attacked by SARS Smear. |
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For the last two weeks, Chinatown has become a no go land for the Chinese. Rumors are rife up and down the UK within the Chinese community - the deadly virus SARS is said to have hit Chinese businesses, and now is seems that something more deadly is hitting our community. The false rumours, said by some to have come from the community website, britishborn chinese.org named restaurants and shops in London and Birmingham, reporting that employees had been victims of the deadly virus. The Guardian (Friday April 18, 2003) reported that, "Alarm is so high that one restaurant placed an advert in a Chinese language newspaper denying that some of its staff had the virus. "There have been six suspected British cases of the virus but none has been linked to the Chinese food trade in this country." Although these messages have now been removed from the site, significant damage to Chinese businesses has been reported. It is understood that some businesses have reported an up to 50% drop in trade, a figure far worse than the reported drop in trade two years ago at the height of the foot and mouth smear. In a statement that appeared on the website, the editor, Steve Lau, said, "The website discussion board was temporarily closed down following complaints by the China town unit. This, according to the Metropolitan police, had directly resulted in the loss of many thousands of pounds in trade. The Editor robustly refuted these claims." A website known for "preserving the spirit of free speech", and community activity, it was at the core of the 'Charles Campion is wrong' campaign last year. Steve Lau, was part of a group that sought justice after negative comments about the Chinese catering industry in the article 'Chop Phooey!' featured in the Daily Mail. Lau said, "The Daily Mail article has focused attention on the continuing problem of misrepresentation of the Chinese in the media which goes back a hundred years." Misrepresentation that perpetuates once more. Already subject to several health scares in previous years, the catering industry, backbone of British Chinese industry, has once more become target of false rumours. And in recent days, members of the Chinese community had been incensed that this sort of smear could have come from its own members. New rumours abound in Chinatown says that leaders are angry and want to take the matter into their own hands: they want to deal with the problem themselves. The manner with which the SARS virus appears to have affected the Chinese community in the UK is very worrying. Fear and frustration has created a batch of rumours that are spreading around our small community like wildfire. This could potentially become a problem more poisonous to the British Chinese community than the SARS virus itself. With a general 20% drop in Chinese catering businesses since SARS broke out, surely now is the time to work together to cure our community of the rumours that weaken us and work together to bolster our catering and commerce industries that are at the core of our community. |
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