LIFE | Covid + Love = Co-Vive

The Covid is not racist, nor is love.
And you?

Embrace all colours and races.

As a relatively taciturn and neutral person, I rarely express views on politics, perhaps because I always feel that it is very far away from me. Or I think we vent our emotions and opinions, and we can't fundamentally change anything. Maybe I was wrong.

Living in a foreign country is not always paradise. I have also encountered racial discrimination directly or indirectly. Compared to the victims in the news on the Internet, my experience was trivial, so I just digested it silently by myself. Don't punish yourself for other people's mistakes: "If a dog bites you, would you bite the dog?" Elders often teach us this way.

I wonder: the person, the nation, or the country who bullies others may be due to their lack of self-esteem? The scared hedgehog psychology of an unknown situation? Or is it envy, jealousy and hatred even after understanding? Maybe they are the ones who need more love: love themselves, love others, and be loved by others. Understanding so, maybe when you encounter unfair treatment next time, you will have more pity and care for the abuser?

We are all other people’s mirrors. If we only look at it with our physical eyes, perhaps we don’t see “same spacies” in the mirror, then we will feel confused and scared. If you observe and feel with your heart, maybe all the packaging (skin colour, race, body type, gender...) is instantly disillusioned.

Yet, it is not enough to read people from the heart, because we often use our own knowledge, experience and worldview to judge others: Just like a dragonfly only experiences one season in its life, how can it be understood when a turtle tells him about the four seasons?

As a so-called fashion illustrator who specializes in painting portraits and an otaku who likes to study language and culture, in theory, I may be better at distinguishing Americans from Europeans than people who have not exercised to observe characters? But no, if I don’t look at the clothes and posture, the accent, or the facial morphology, I still have a misjudgment.

Not to mention that it is difficult for Asians to distinguish other races, and Asians themselves are confused about not being able to distinguish "self". I have heard these questions more than 10 times from my Asian fellows: "Are you Japanese?" When I was in a Thai restaurant. "Are you Thai?" When I was in a Vietnamese restaurant. "Ah? You speak the vernacular (Cantonese)? I thought you were a little-ghost (a young foreigner), so I didn't speak Chinese to you." I was at the Chinatown supermarket. "Hey, which city in Taiwan are you from?" I was chatting with my friends in Taiwan (I am actually from mainland China). So for people who don’t recognize where exactly we are from in Asia, we don’t need to be too harsh, right?

 
The outer packaging is important and not important. It is important to be able to distinguish our differences, but it is even more important to seek common ground after seeing the differences, then accept them, and to respect our differences and live together peacefully.

Nothing external can add value to a person's internal value: nationality, passport, foreign country residency, proficiency in a few foreign languages, can drive, able to master computer, have a brand-name bag...Compared to taking these "Privileges" as pride and look down upon others, wouldn't it be better to use these to do something beneficial to mankind as the starting point for more value-added?

Just imagine: If someday aliens do come and become the common enemy of mankind, will all races unite? Maybe yes, maybe not. Compared with aliens, are there fewer public enemies in history? ——Doesn't global issues such as the epidemic, the greenhouse effect, etc. really unite people? If the coronavirus can unite people of all ethnic groups, isn't it a totally bad thing?

Please forgive me, a pessimist who is not so optimistic. Everything in the world is so different that conflicts are inevitable. It is irrational to assign responsibility to a single party. After venting our emotions(or not always necessary), what we can do is to choose to calm down and turn it into a harmonious direction. Each colour, each music note, each seasoning is different, but they can coexist harmoniously. Who did it? Maybe it's the coronavirus? is love? Or you, me, she/he?

Covid + love = Co-vive :)

 

 

 

▶︎ Please feel free to subscribe my Youtube Channel for more fashion illustration painting processes

 

 

—

新冠病毒不是种族主义者，爱也不是。

那你呢？

我是个比较沉默寡言的，持中立立场的人，我几乎很少表达关于政治的观点，或许因为我总是觉得那离我非常遥远。也或者我觉得其实我们发泄了情绪和观点，也无法真正改变什么。或许我错了。

生活在异国他乡，自然不总是美好的天堂，我也曾经直接或间接地遭遇过种族歧视。比起网上看到的新闻里的受害者，或许我的遭遇微不足道，所以也就自己默默消化好了。不用别人的错误惩罚自己：“如果狗咬了你，你会去咬狗么？” 长辈们经常这样教育我们。

 

我时常疑问：欺负他人的人，民族，或国家，或许是因为对自身的条件不够自信？对未知种族的害怕的刺猬心理？抑或是即使了解后的羡慕嫉妒恨？可能他们更需要爱吧：爱自己，爱别人，也被别人爱。这样想着，或许当你遇到不公待遇时，也就会对施暴者多一分怜悯和关爱吧？

我们都是他人的镜子，如果只是用眼睛看，或许在镜子里没有看到与自己有相似“外型“的同类，就会感到迷惑和害怕。如果用心来看，或许一切的包装（肤色，种族，体型，性别...) 都瞬间幻灭了吧。单凭心去看人还是不够，因为我们时常用自己的知识，经历和世界观来判断他人：就像蜻蜓的一生只经历一个季节，当海龟跟他讲述四季时，它怎么可能理解？

作为一个所谓专长绘画人物肖像的时尚插画师和喜欢研究语言和文化的宅男，理论上我可能比没有长时间锻炼观察人物的人更善于分辨出美洲人和欧洲人吧？并没有，如果不看服饰和姿态，不听口音，只看面部构造，我还是有误判的情况。所以对于认不出我们来自亚洲具体哪个地方的人，也不需要太苛刻了吧？

不提亚洲人难分辨其他人种，亚洲人自己也有分辨不出“自己人”的困惑，这些问题我听过不下10遍：“你是日本人么？”当我在泰国餐馆时。“你是泰国人？”当我在越南餐馆时。“啊？你说白话（粤语）啊？我以为你是鬼仔（老外），所以没跟你说中文。”我在唐人街超市时。“哎，你是台湾哪个市的哦？”我在和台湾的朋友聊天时（我其实来自中国大陆）。

外包装重要，也不重要。能分辨出我们的不同很重要，但在看到不同后寻求共同点，再接受，尊重各自的差异和平共处，更重要。

任何外在的东西都不能够给一个人内在增值：国籍， 护照，北上广深户口，精通几门外语，会开车，会用电脑，有名牌包......比起单纯地拿这些来跟人比较，拿这些来做点对人类做点有益的事情，才是更能增值与否的起点。

试想：如果哪天外星人真的降临成为人类共同的大敌，是否各个种族就会团结起来了呢？或许也不是，比起外星人，历史上人类的公敌还少么？——疫情，温室效应，等等的全球问题不也没把人真正地团结起来么？如果这次冠状病毒真的能让各族人团结一致，那他也未必是坏事？

请原谅我这个不怎么乐观的悲观主义者。世间万物皆不同，难免有冲突，把责任归于单一的一方都是不理智的，宣泄情绪之后，我们可以做的，是选择静下心来让它往和谐的方向发展，就像每种颜色，每个音符，每种调料都不同，却可以和谐地共存。谁干的？或许是冠状病毒？是爱？或是你，我，她/他？

疫情 + 爱 = 共生。

 

Thank you, Marcus (@DrawADot.) for this invitiative !  

( #ShareYourAsianStory |  #DrawADotTogether |  #AntiAsianRacism |  #ImNotAVirus )

   art direction + illustration ⎮ benliubenda.com