This semester is very special to me because it is the first time for me to study online for a whole semester, I have meet lots of trouble during this semester’s study because it is hard to do the research/interview online. For my BCM212 study in this session, I choose to do research on people around me so it would easier for my assessment.

I have learned a lot from my research project and I also noticed the weakness of questionnaire, I haven’t find the real problem which caused my roommates into stress from my questionnaire.

Full version of my questionnaire

I used to want to use this questionnaire to understand why did my roommates become stressful after they arrived in Australia.However, I don’t think this survey is suitable for my roommates because there are too many questions in this survey. It is hard to get some useful feedback if there are no focus points in the survey and this is the first problem for my project.

After that, I have made an interview for both of my roommates to understand what is the biggest reason for them to be stressful/why do you afraid to go out during covid-19.

The real reason which caused them into huge pressure is “Racism” , my roommates were afraid of the discrimination from local people instead of covid-19. It is quite uncomfortable for me during the interview because they have suffered enough for isolated at home for ages, they didn’t deserve the treatment like this.

Although I was angry about things that my roommates have experienced, I still think there are something missing for my project. I have been live in Australia for almost 3 years and most of people who live there are friendly , and I think it is necessary for me to make another interview which is face to the domestic students in UOW. I want to know the opinion from both Chinese students and Australian students, and I think I have made the right choice after I see the result.

I think my roommates have changed their mind after they see the result from the interview(for Australian students).They used to think that lots of people in Australia were unfriendly to Chinese people because the virus was originated in China.However, it is also wrong to take a part of the whole because there are also lots of people who are supporting Chinese people online which is Gratifying. To me, the biggest thing I have learned from my research is BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE INSTEAD OF WHAT YOU THINK.

I would make my research topic become more specific for my research project in the future, to help me find out what is the focus point of my project.

Reference lists:

Haokip, T. (2020). From ‘Chinky’ to ‘Coronavirus’: racism against Northeast Indians during the Covid-19 pandemic. Asian Ethnicity, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2020.1763161

Logie, C. (2020). Lessons learned from HIV can inform our approach to COVID‐19 stigma. Journal Of The International AIDS Society, 23(5). https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25504

Survey question/Answer for Australian students(I put these into the blog because I am afraid the picture was not clear enough to see in my video)

1.How do you think of the big amount of hate/racist speech appeared on Internet toward China/Chinese people(during the period of covid-19)?

2.Would you blame China/Chinese because of the spreading out of covid-19 around the world?”(If so/not, please explain the reason)

Here are the answer from 3 bcm students:

1. I felt quite bad that the Chinese were given racist slurs by individuals all over the world when COVID spread. There was a huge amount of discrimination which was scary to read about.
2. The virus originated in China, which implies that it spread from there. However, I’m sure it wasn’t done on purpose. It’s important to understand where and how the virus emerged so that we can take preventative measures. It’s also important to not discriminate so that it’ll be a smooth and quick process to find a solution.(answer from student 1)

1: I think that the racism shown towards Chinese people during COVID19 was unnecessary, I don’t think anyone would have thought that 2020 would be as turbulent as it has been. So I think it is very wrong for people to blame a specific race for such a global issue
2: Not necessarily, the Chinese government I think (I’m not 100% sure) kept the virus a secret from the rest of the world so when it was released that it was killing people, most people had already travelled and spread it. But I wouldn’t blame the Chinese for the spread because they couldn’t have known that the virus would have turned into a global pandemic.(answer from student 2)

1) I’ve seen a lot of things on Twitter that seem to blame China/Chinese people for the COVID-19, firstly was a lot about Donald Trump calling it the ‘China Virus’, and then secondly a lot of jokes saying that it all started because of Chinese people eating bats. While I don’t think a lot of the people making jokes are trying to be mean and rather just trying to be funny, it’s definitely insensitive. I have also seen a lot of support for the Chinese population with users on Twitter calling out Donald Trump and other people making jokes for blaming COVID-19 all on China, which is good to see.
2) I don’t blame China for the virus spreading around the world, it’s something that caught the entire world off guard and most countries didn’t know how to deal with shutting down borders in time to stop the spread. I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault the virus had the big impact it has, and without Chinese scientists discovering that it was a coronavirus it could’ve been a lot worse.(answer from student 3)