The propagation of hate discourses against 'East Asians' in the covid-19 pandemic: an analysis of xenophobic discourses in online newspapers

Abstract

During the global health crisis caused by Covid-19, between 2020 and 2022, different discourses circulated in the media about the Chinese, who were accused of creating and spreading the virus around the world. Hostility towards the Chinese became more apparent during this period and other Asians of different nationalities (socially read as Chinese) also suffered from this rejection. The objective of the research was to analyze xenophobic discourses against ‘east Asians’ during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research is qualitative, descriptive-interpretative (Paiva, 2019), under the theoretical-methodological contribution of French discourse analysis from the perspective of Foucauldian discourse studies (Foucault, 2001, 2008, 2011) in interdisciplinary dialogue with other references from the human sciences (Derrida, 2003; Albuquerque Jr. 2016; Bauman, 2017; Di Cesare, 2020). After the analyses, we understand that xenophobic discourses against Chinese people were propagated in different spaces of circulation, from governmental to media, including civil society. We also conclude that groups of Brazilians of East Asian descent are also challenged by hostile discourses because they are socially read as Chinese. The study points to the need for deeper exploration of the theme in relation to the rhetoric of Brazilian hostility from a medium- and long-term historical perspective.