The Racist Pandemic. A Semantico-Pragmatic Study of Anti-Asian Overtones in COVID-19-related Twitter Discourse

2019 saw the emergence of a new human pathogen, SARS-CoV-2, which causes a disease currently known as COVID-19. There are, however, other names which expose the Asian origin of the virus. These ways of reference – although discouraged by the scientific community – still remain in frequent use in various COVID-19-related discourses. Such names explicitly point to the geographical place of origin of the virus, but at the same time are likely to provoke associations and solidify pre-existing stereotypes about Asians as well as strengthen misconceptions about the virus itself. The intention of the use of terms such as Chinese virus may be purely referential, but they are, nonetheless, marked with accusatory or downright racist overtones. The present paper is maintained within the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework (van Dijk 1993), as CDA aims specifically to examine the ways in which discourses shape power relations, maintain social stigmas, perpetuate stereotypes and widen inequalities. We use CDA as a framework for conducting a semantic analysis of expressions such as Asian virus, Chinese virus, Sinovirus or Wuhan virus used on Twitter. Specifically, we intend to select the usages that are unequivocally intentional and whose aim is not only to emphasise the geographical origin of the virus, but also to justify blaming China for the global pandemic that SARS-CoV-2 eventually has caused. We have found that potentially harmful names such as Chinese virus have been used intentionally and are accompanied by even more blatant cases of defamatory and accusatory language targeting the Chinese. It is even more significant, as the proliferation of anti-Asian hate speech has culminated in a serious aftermath in the form of anti-Asian violence, especially in the US.