Say no to bat fried rice: changing the narrative of coronavirus and Chinese food

Abstract

The fear of Chinese food in the United States has risen with the advent of COVID-19, amidst widespread news reports pinpointing a wildlife wet market in Wuhan, China as the origin site of the novel coronavirus. Although scientific evidence for the exact pathway of zoonotic transmission is not yet conclusive, racist, anti-Chinese memes were quick to circulate, including a T-shirt design posted on social media by an art director at Lululemon, which featured an image of “bat fried rice” with the words “No Thank You” in chopstick font on the sleeves. It is important to address the facts of wildlife trade and consumption in China, but it is equally crucial to fight back against racist characterizations of Chinese food as “bat fried rice” with a different kind of Instagrammable image. I have taught an undergraduate seminar on the cultural history of Chinese food at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the past eight years, and this year, one of my students shared a photograph of a Chinese family celebrating the New Year in one of her assignments. This image distilled everything I associate with Chinese food— the joy of gathering with family—and stands as a powerful rebuke to the narrative of fear and disgust, replacing it instead with a vision of Chinese food as familiar source of comfort.