Isolate is a musical project using hip hop and Chinese sounds to explore the various emotions and difficulties of the Chinese communities faced before and during lockdown – including thoughts on racism, isolation, loneliness and space. Instruments and popular sounds from the West and East as well as English and Chinese vocals will be combined to convey their message. In this video, 6 people shared their stories and thoughts. Ah Fang: A single mum with her little girl was targeted by the local youth, received racist abused everyday outside her home at the wake of the COVID-19. Even when her friends visited her, they were harassed by locals in groups of 5 – 8 people. Ah Fang was so scared she virtually barricaded herself in her own house. Too scared to sleep at night and kept her curtains closed with bin bags sealed the windows. Ah Fang friend: She was targeted by the locals while she went to visit her friend. Not by just one or two people, but in groups of 5-6 young men in their 20s, or 6-8 teens. The only advice she could give to her friend was staying indoors, and don’t take the young daughter out. (That was 3 weeks before the full lockdown in March) The Wong’s family: They are Scousers born in Liverpool. Like all the members of the youth orchestra, they received racial harassment from school at the wake of coronavirus. They are confused about why they got the blame only because they are of Chinese heritage. Peter Foo: Peter is one of the children of thousands of Chinese sailors deported from Liverpool after World War II. Peter wanted then the Home Secretary Theresa May to say sorry for the way the men were rounded up, without warning, by Special Branch agents in 1946 – or, to use the official jargon, “compulsorily repatriated”. Children grew up believing they had been abandoned, others were subsequently put up for adoption by their destitute mothers after the men in their lives suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth. It would be more than half a century before the truth finally came out and they learned that they were not deserted after all. For more information about the story: https://confidentials.com/liverpool/e… CARG, initiated by concerned citizens, addresses the increase in racism and hate crime towards British East Asians (i.e. Chinese, East and Southeast Asian) and international students arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. For more information: https://www.carg.info/post/yougov-pol…
