Abstract
Infectious disease outbreaks have historically been associated with stigmatisation towards minority groups, specifically those associated with the geographical region that the disease was first identified. We aimed to investigate how the emerging COVID-19 pandemic was experienced by UK-resident individuals of Chinese ethnicity: how their perceived cultural and ethnic identity influenced their experiences, and how early insights into the pandemic in China influenced attitudes and behaviours. We undertook in-depth semi-structured interviews with individuals who self-identified as UK-Chinese. Participants were recruited from three cities in the UK. Interviews were undertaken over the telephone between 9th April 2020 and 16th July 2020. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were coded using NVivo software and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Sixteen individuals were interviewed. Three main themes were identified: (1) Attribution of stigma, (2) Pandemic legacies, and (3) Individual versus societal responses. These reflected six sub-themes: (1) Stigmatisation through (mis)identity, (2) Markers of pandemic awareness, (3) Legacies of previous pandemics, (4) Ascription of blame, (5) Extent of freedom, and (6) Implicit faith in government. Experiences of xenophobia included accounts of physical violence. UK-Chinese individuals experienced and perceived widespread xenophobia, in the context of media representations that ascribed blame and exacerbated stigmatisation. Prior experience of respiratory epidemics, and insight into the governmental and societal response in China, contributed to the early adoption of face masks. This in turn marked UK-Chinese individuals as targets for abuse. Awareness is needed to safeguard stigmatized groups from social and economic harm in future infectious disease pandemics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e0280341 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | PLoS ONE |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 17 Jan 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:MA-T is funded by an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF-2020-25-006) https://www.nihr.ac.uk. PKB is funded by a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship (214554/Z/18/Z) https://wellcome.org. This research was supported by the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute, University of Bristol, and funded by the Wellcome Trust ISSF3 grant 204813/Z/16/Z. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/blackwell. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of NIHR, NHS, the Wellcome Trust, or the UK Department of Health and Social Care.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Al-Talib et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.