The Politics of Masking

The so-called SARS disease (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, a.k.a. "atypical pneumonia") hit Hong Kong hard from the very beginning. 

The first patient died in HK on March 4th, 2003, I believe, and though there was (allegedly) some "cover-up" at first about the danger, it only took about a week, along with a handful more deaths, to make this disease the number one topic of news, conversation and thought here. In fact, the city ground to a halt for almost 6 weeks in the spring of 2003. 

As public knowledge of the outbreak spread, people started wearing surgical masks because they believed (incorrectly, of course) that doing so would protect them from catching the disease -- you wore a mask to protect YOURSELF. But (as a friend of mine predicted), it only took about 3 weeks before it switched to where NOW you needed to wear a mask to protect OTHERS -- (which I think I'm correct in saying that's the real reason surgical masks exist anyway -- to protect the PATIENT from the doctor's spittle and chewing gum and such during surgery). 

But this was a very interesting change in "mask-wearing political correctness" to observe, if you can follow me... Suddenly, people like me were not just being "courageous" by not wearing a surgical mask -- ("Aren't you afraid?!?")... I mean, that's how it was at the beginning, see, a bunch of "brave" westerners who obviously didn't understand that THEY were gonna die if they didn't wear a piece of tissue over their face. That's how it started out -- but NOW, though, we were the CRUEL, DEADLY foreigners who refused to protect those around us from our own CRUEL, DEADLY breath!! 

Suddenly, in other words, NOT wearing a mask was as politically incorrect as you could be in Hong Kong...

. . .

Looking back, SARS has had a much greater impact on HK than it should have. I mean, a city of 7 million people, and only about 1800 got sick -- but this thing virtually shut the entire city down for weeks on end. People were terrorized beyond anything I've ever experienced in my life. "SARS is everywhere!" someone told me at one point. 

But dude -- only 1800 people got sick here... It just wasn't that bad, I'm sorry to say... I was sorry to say it then, and I'm still sorry to say it, because HK people will only think I'm being cruel... But listen -- ONLY 1800 PEOPLE GOT SICK... 

Certainly, the families of the people who died (only a percentage of that total), and those who are (still TODAY) suffering the after-effects of the treatments (NOT the disease, by the way) -- but THOSE people surely think of SARS all the time -- the same way I think of that bus crash last July that killed my friend Erica. 

So YES -- people did, and still are, suffering tremendously from this episode. But come on, only 1800 people in a city of 7 million?!? That's something like two one-hundredths of one percent of the population (.02% -- I think)... And that's the TOTAL for the entire OUTBREAK -- not one week, or even one month -- the WHOLE THING. 

I mean, do you realize that over 35000 people die of starvation in this world EVERY DAY? Do you realize that something like 3000 people die of malaria EVERY DAY? Somebody even told me that 1000 people die in hospitals EVERY DAY from regular pneumonia -- EVERY DAY!!! -- where's the terror for that?!?

But this event -- "SARS: The Outbreak!" is what they'll call the movie -- still looms large. We are over a year and a half after it, but still it is a cloud hanging in the city's consciousness... I don't know if there have been musicals written yet, but there WILL be, seriously -- and I say that not to make you laugh, but so that you will absolutely understand that it was an "event" -- it was like living through a WAR for HK people, they really "felt" it that much... They didn't just happen to avoid getting sick with atypical pneumonia (like 99.98% of the REST of the population of the city) -- dude, they SURVIVED atypical pneumonia, you see what I'm saying? They freaking SURVIVED it!!!

They still show adverts on TV about keeping things sterile, "use 99 parts water, 1 part bleach" and all that... People still wear those stupid masks if they have the slightest sniffle... STILL!!!... Almost any building you walk into will have "sterilizing floor mats" for you to step onto ("Watch out! You stepped in some SARS!")... (by the way, "sterilizing floor mats" = "a floor mat with Lysol on it" -- I'm just going by what I've seen with my own two eyes)...  

But those are rather shallow changes -- there are actually some things that have changed in HK culture that are a bit deeper than that, I think....

Just before SARS was first blipping on the HK radar, I had lunch with a friend of mine. We spent a LONG time talking about HK culture, and one of the things we discussed the MOST was how food and "eating together" were so central to HK people. To be specific, we talked about using chopsticks at the table. 

Now, in case you don't know, in HK (and Chinese culture in general) you typically have meals served in what we in the States call "family style" -- which means the dishes are brought on large plates, placed in the middle of the table (or on a rotating stand in the middle), and then everyone helps themselves from those central dishes through the meal. 

So all through the meal, everyone is sticking their chopsticks -- which they have just stuck in their mouth -- into the central dishes. And listen, when you're eating mushrooms in sauce, or steamed vegetables, for instance, you are NOT just gonna be politely touching only the food YOU are eating -- dude, you're gonna be sticking your old spit-covered chopsticks all OVER that food. You're gonna touch every single mushroom on that plate, cause there ain't no WAY you can just do some surgical 'shroom removal... Those suckahs is too SLIPPERY, man... You might as well pick up the plate and LICK the stuff, you know? 

(joking, joking)...

OKAY. But that's the culture, see? And my friend was saying that it MUST be done that way -- and to make his point, he told me how, if his son said he wanted to use a set of "serving" chopsticks (ones that were not being used by anyone but were set aside as "clean" ones to use to serve the food) -- but if his son wanted to use "serving" chopsticks (and not stick his own chopsticks into the dishes), then my friend would, as a good traditional Chinese father, be mildly offended... "You mean, we're not good enough for you to share these dishes with us? You want to use these "clean" chopsticks so it doesn't get "dirty" from us?!?"

See how that works? Using separate "serving" chopsticks at the table feels less "intimate" somehow... 

But since SARS, now that everybody is concerned about GERMS, it seems everyone uses serving chopsticks!! In fact, I don't think I've shared a meal with anyone in HK since March of 2003 that we haven't had two or more sets of "serving" chopsticks on the table for people to use... *

So the disease is GONE -- but its effects live on...

. . .

Anyway, back to MASKS -- here are some photos I collected from that time:

  
This photo above is of a sister from the Shatin CP Church who worked as a nurse
in the SARS ward. She's the one on the right, and she was one of the few HK people
actually in danger of catching SARS. 

. . .

* One footnote: It is very true that in the past, when dining with westerners, HK people might sometimes use "serving chopsticks" -- this is because they know that some un-Hong-Kong-ified westerners might not be comfortable with everyone sticking their own chopsticks into the dishes. But pre-SARS, almost none of my friends continued with that foolishness when I was around. So I stand by my observation, and submit that the post-SARS use of "serving chopsticks" is not just the result of some kind of deference to MY germ fears, but is in fact symptomatic of a significant change in the way THEY share meals... But whatever -- maybe I'm wrong... ha!

This article was first posted: 30 August 2004

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