Intercultural Communication

Topic: Elaborate on the crisis of Wu Han and its global effects in the late 2019 and
early 2020, using the concepts and/or perspectives of cultural studies.

Essay
Covid-19 or corona virus has been a notorious name recently because of what it has caused
on globle scale. Outbreaking Breaking out in Wuhan, China, covid-19 has increasingly spread to
other countries in both Asia and Europe. There are many reasons for coronavirus outbreak as
well as serious consequences brought by this virus. This essay will focus on these two aspects
depends on the concepts and the perspectives of cultural studies.

Many people wonder what corona virus is and why it can be lethal. According to Chris
Olsen, emeritus professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine, the original sourse of Covid-19
is probally bats. This virus has the ability to transmit to people and it also cause human-to-
human transfer through coughing and contact with saliva, mucus or tears of people sick with the
virus. Not only does nCoV virus cause preumonia when entering the respratory system but also
can cause death in human.

Originating in Wuhan, China in December last year, Covid-19 has increasingly spread to
other countries on global scale, especially in early 2020. There are many reasons for the virus’s
widespread, one of them are related to cultural belief and collectivism. Strong belief and well-
built collective orientation has inadvertently contributed to the rapid spread of the pandemic that
leads everal countries around the world to suffer from this matter. For example, there was an
infected case in Korea who is the member of Shincheonji religious group. As a member of this
organization, this woman or even other members believed that they would be immortal or
immune to disease. A strong belief in these people's minds led them to not believe that they
could be infected and refused to take proper medical measures during the epidemic. They
believe in their congragation, believe in God; therefore, they go to church to pray every day.
Especially, the attendees are not allowed to wear facemask during prayer time while they
genuflect very closely to each other. This is a favourable opportunity for nCoV to transfer from
person to person faster.

On the other hand, in this case, collectivism is also considered as a reason. According to
Hofstede’s (year of publication) theory of collectivism, , people have allegiance to their group
and always give top priority to the group’s benefits. “For the members of Shincheonji religious
group, their priority is not their safety, their priority is to protect their organization”, said Ji-il
Tark, a professor at the Busan Presbyterian Christian University, who specializes in studying the
sect. Because of the fact that they want to hide their operation, the Korean Ministry of Health
can not know who is on the edge of being infected. All of them are the potential reasons that
give a good chance for covid-19 extend quickly in this country.
Another cultural reason is language and communication style. Take Italy, the country that
has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of corona virus infections, and the
government has declared a whole country blockade in recent days for a typical example.
According to Vietnamese BBC News, one of the possible causes for the virus’s extension in this
country is language and communication style. When communicate with each other, Italian have
a tendency to stand close and use a lot of gestures, which leads to a high risk that tiny droplets
will transfer from one person’s mouth to other and balloon the infection. Therefore, in addition
to other common reasons, cultural-realated causes are also considered as contributer to the
spread of Covid-19 globally.
Erupting in Wuhan in a short time; however, Covid-19 quickly arrived in other countries at
a dizzying speed and caused terrible consequences for people in many aspects such as economy,
finance, human and one of them is cultural field. In fact, the Covid-19 pandemic has aroused
racism or discrmination against the Asians. Since corona virus initiates from China, an Asian
country, there has some ideas that every Asian is a pathogen and should be avoided. This
actually happened in the UK that one Asian assistant for the exhibit at the Affordable Art Fair
was dropped by an exhibitor as they think Asians carry corona virus (Mattha Busby, 2020).
Similarly, in California, Vietnamese students were bullied and harassed by their schoolmates
calling them names “coronavirus, coronavirus” (Carl Samson, 2020) or a group of Belgian
students wore traditional Chinese and Japanese costumes while wearing Vietnamese conical hats
with the words “corona time” that contained a sense of disdain, prejudice because of the corona
outbreak. Moreover, Donald Trump even calls this virus “Chinese virus” and the Americans
stigmatize and prejudice against Chinese people and even the Asians, despite the statistics given
by The Guardian newspaper that the number of covid-19 cases in this country has increased to
82,404 cases, surpassing both China and Italy. Thus, it is obvious that Covid-19 has brought
about racism and discrimination against the Asians.
In addition to the negative effects, covid-19 also brought positive effects in terms of
perspectives of cutural studies. In this situation, hegemony which describes how the powerful
keep their power in society is made stand out. For instance, during this pandemic, when other
countries around the world are reeling with the number of Covid-19 cases increasing rapidly, in
Vietnam, the epidemic is always under the best control thanks to the ingenious and clever
direction of the government and the state. Specifically, by making full use of their power, the
Vietnamese government applies strict policies such as immediately quarantining people
suspected of being infected, imposing penalties on those who leave the road without face masks,
closing all unnecessary shops or services, and restricting travel and concentration in crowded
places. Thanks to that, the power distance between the government and the people was also
clearly shown. While the government provides solutions and regulations during the pandemic,
the Vietnamese people acknowledge its leadership and adhere to those policies. In addition, the
Vietnamese always respect and pride on the leaders, who are on the front lines fighting the
Covid-19 day and night.
To sum up, there are many causes of the nCov crisis on the global scale as well as many
ominous consequences that have been produced by this problem. Now, with the complicated
and unpredictable developments of the pandemic, it is hard to know for sure when it will be
completely discontinued.Though it is obvious that if all people join hands and take practical and
thorough measures so that people will soon be able to fight off the disease.

Bài của em trình bày rất tối, các luận điểm chưa rõ ràng sáng tỏ. Nếu phân tích nguyên
nhân và hậu quả thì sẽ là 1 công trình tương đối kì công, với cách khai thác hiện giờ là chưa
hiệu quả.
1. Nguyên nhân: hãy nêu thẳng nguyên nhân em nghĩ nó là gì hơn là việc cố ý gán ghép
nguyên nhân cho 1 khái niệm văn hóa nào đó. Ví dụ, cứ nói thẳng là do thói quen sinh hoạt của
cộng đồng X nào đó. Từ đó để thấy hiện tượng này là do trong văn hóa của cộng đồng này,
người dân đề cao niềm tin Y, giá trị Z, etc. Cách diễn đạt của em hiện tại rất khiên cưỡng, đọc
ko tự nhiên.
2. Hệ quả: hãy tìm hiểu 1 khía cạnh nhỏ nào đó thôi. Em ôm đồm cả kinh tế, tài chính, xã
hội, văn hóa, nhưng em có làm rõ được điểm nào đâu. Chỉ toàn nói về nạn phân biệt với cả nỗ
lực của chính phủ VN. Phân tích một hồi cũng ko hiểu đang nói tập trung về cái chủ điểm gì,
vẫn cứ khiên cưỡng gán ghép hiện tượng vào 1 khái niệm nào đó. Giờ em tập trung vào 1 thứ
thôi, ví dụ như là discrimination chẳng hạn. Ko chỉ có tây kì thị ta, mà cả ta cũng kì thị ta, đối
tượng nào bị attacked, đối tượng nào đi attack, lí do, hành vi kì thị được thể hiện qua cái gì, điều
đó nói lên cái gì, cái gì đc confirmed hay reinforced, cái gì đang bị violated, trend của xã hội sau
giai đoạn này sẽ là gì, values hay norms hay social practices mới là gì, em học được điều gì
trong cái thời nhiễu nhương nhiều social dramas này, etc. Em có thể ko làm về discrimination
mà làm về cái khác, ví dụ như quan hệ và hợp tác quốc tế, nhưng cũng với cơ chế như cô nói ở
trên.