Thread by @lnachman32

Thread on Taiwan's continued colloquial use of “武漢肺炎“:

This is an incredibly difficult conversation and I am picking my words carefully. To be clear, the name is horrible. But If you follow virus coverage in Taiwan, the name is everywhere. These are some of the reasons why:

1. Some see using the name (or something similar that specifically names China) as a form of resistance against the CCP and the WHO's politicized exclusion and silencing of Taiwan throughout this entire pandemic.

2. Most people I talk to understanding that in English, this name brings racist backlash, but do not see it as a problem in Mandarin. More broadly, however, global anti-Asian racism as a frame does not resonate strongly here.

3. Probably the biggest one, China or Chinese people telling Taiwanese people that a name is offensive to them, and that Taiwanese people should say something that is not offensive to China or Chinese people, will never resonate here. They see it as tone policing / censorship.

4. Finally, for some its not even about making a political statement, its just the first name they learned. The media has been using the name since January before it became heavily stigmatized, some who use it do not mean to give it, or see it as having deep political meaning.

Again, I cannot emphasize this enough: the name is not OK, I push back against its use with my friends as much as I can (its been many hard conversations). Please do not read these as justifications to use the name, they are not. I simply want to partially explain why TW uses it.

To clarify, I dislike the name because it's racialized and contributes globally to the stigmatization and discrimination of East Asian ppl. Yes I know the CCP used it first and it didn't used to have this meaning, but meanings change. Using it now has consequences beyond Taiwan.