• 1 See MigraChiCovid project presentation (ANR-20-COVI-0046-01), [online]. URL: https://www.migrations (...)

1Between December 2019 and January 2020, the COVID-19 virus began to circulate in the city of Wuhan. Subsequently it spread throughout China and to the rest of the world. In France, from January, hundreds of thousands of people of Chinese origin were alerted to the arrival of this pandemic. The MigraChiCovid research project1 examines the experiences, representations and personal stories of people of Chinese origin in France at the time of the pandemic. Drawing on both qualitative (ninety-three semi-structured interviews with a total of 106 interviewees) and quantitative (387 comprehensive, self-administered questionnaires) approaches, our study is structured around three components. First, we looked at the roles of health professionals and medical and biological researchers of Chinese origin residing in France in the fight against the pandemic. Second, we analysed how relations of Chinese migrants and their descendants with their country of origin evolved, as well as the multiple forms of transnational solidarity deployed to address the pandemic. Finally, we examined the experiences of racism and discrimination faced by people of Chinese origin residing in France and their struggles against racism during the COVID-19 crisis.

• 2 In June 2020, we launched a call for photographic contributions entitled “The life of Chinese peopl (...)
• 3 See the full documentary subtitled in English and Chinese at [online] URL: https://www.canal-u.tv/c (...)

2Through the photos and stories presented in this portfolio, we aim to highlight the multiplicity of the experiences of the Chinese population in France during the pandemic. It brings together economic migrants from different professional backgrounds, people from various regions of China, descendants of migrants (young adults and children) as well as first-generation migrants, elderly people, students, etc. This series of photographs also represents the multiple temporalities of the health crisis: from the weeks before the first national lockdown (Photograph 5), through the first lockdown and its aftermath (Photographs 1, 3 and 8), to the summer period (Photograph 6), the curfew and the most recent periods (Photographs 2, 4 and 7). In addition, these perspectives on the Chinese population in France during the pandemic derive from different sources including respondents, ordinary citizens of Chinese origin, researchers and people from outside this ethnic group.2 As a result, in this portfolio, the Chinese population is both photographed and photographer. Finally, from a spatial perspective, this series of photographs illustrates urban places in the Parisian agglomeration where Chinese presence is concentrated: the Belleville district, the Crimée district, the 13^th arrondissement, Place du Trocadéro, the Opéra district, and the Seine-Saint-Denis and Seine-et-Marne departments. The constraints of the portfolio format do not allow us to include a wider variety of photographs (from a geographical and thematic perspective, as well as in terms of viewpoints), however this gap is addressed in the production of a documentary film and the organisation of two photographic exhibitions3 as part of the MigraChiCovid project.

• 4 Chinese Evangelical Church in Paris (EECP), 巴黎华侨教会; Chinese Evangelical Church of France, 法国华人福音教会; (...)
• 5 Medical personnel were not alone in their involvement in transnational shipment of medical equipmen (...)

3In January 2020, health professionals of Chinese origin in France were among the first to react to the health crisis in China. For example, Dr Lei, a general practitioner in Bussy-Saint-Georges (Seine-et-Marne), sent Ffp2 masks from her personal stock to her counterparts and former fellow students in China — where she completed part of her medical training before continuing her studies in France. At the same time, from January 2020, she started wearing a mask and a protective suit to receive her patients and encouraged her colleagues and patients to adopt early protective measures. In March 2020, as the viral circulation in France was intensifying and the country was experiencing a shortage of medical equipment, Dr Lei helped to coordinate the donation of protective suits from three Chinese churches in France4 to the anti-Covid Centre in Seine-et-Marne located in Lagny-sur-Marne. In photograph 1, Dr Lei (centre), the centre’s nurse coordinator (left) and the doctor on duty in the centre (right) can be seen standing in front of some of the packages that arrived from China, which contained 1,700 protective suits.5 Another doctor, Dr Zhong, who was born in China in 1976 and came to France in 2009, was working in a private clinic in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine in Seine-Saint-Denis and contracted the virus at work in April 2020. To avoid infecting his family members, he spent several days sleeping in his car in the garage. In photograph 2, Dr Zhong, wearing his protective clothing, mimics a martial arts gesture before entering the separation zone. To him, this gesture conveys a symbolic message: fighting the virus and the pandemic as a health professional.

• 6 The situation is very different for descendants of Chinese migrants and unskilled first-generation (...)

5The COVID-19 pandemic also revealed the different representations of the disease and perceptions of the risks in particular between those in the migrants’ country of origin and that of settlement. As of January 2020, Chinese people decided to wear masks in public spaces. Such practices, in a media context marked by a tendency to racialise the disease — for example, by using expressions such as “Chinese virus” and “yellow alert” — triggered a proliferation of racist acts and remarks against the population of Chinese origin, and more broadly against those of Asian origin. Many skilled Chinese newcomers directly experienced — or witnessed — episodes of racism from which they had previously been spared due to their living conditions and lifestyle in France. These young skilled migrants became aware of anti-Asian racism which they had not experienced before the onset of the pandemic.6 This awareness was accompanied by many forms of collective and/or individual anti-racist reactions. For example, the Free Hugs collective, initiated by a dozen people, mostly Chinese students, carried out a series of symbolic actions from January 2020 on Place du Trocadéro and in front of the Opéra House. In photograph 5, members of the collective, wearing masks, offer hugs to any passer-s and display banners such as “I am not a virus” and “I protect myself, I protect you”.

• 7 Photograph 6 was taken by a person of Vietnamese origin, showing the sociability between descendant (...)

7Photographs 1 to 6 were taken by people from the Chinese population and Asian cultures (health professionals, project members in the field, ordinary citizens, both first-generation migrants and descendants of migrants).7 The last two images, taken in public places, offer an external perspective on the Chinese population. Indeed, the streets are among the first places where the transformations caused by the pandemic became visible: masked faces, closed shops, signs encouraging people to respect protective measures, etc. Once the lockdowns were over, inhabitants reinvested public spaces by adapting their previous activities to the new health measures. In February 2021, in the 13^th arrondissement, a street vendor sold his peanuts wearing a mask (Photograph 7). While this photograph shows a traditional representation of people of Chinese origin in the public space, as small retailers, the following photograph shows another image of Chinese people, as “consumers”, “tourists”, who visit the shopping centres in commercial districts: in May 2020, they resumed outings with their children and shopping in the Opéra district (Photograph 8).