Sandra Leong: 'Recovering from Covid is hard – as an Asian place, it's even harder'

A couple of weeks into a small Facebook ad campaign I’m running to promote our Singaporean restaurant and delivery business, these comments start popping up on my feed.

“Probably has bats in it.”

“If you expect me to eat your food, I want to see the names of the dishes in English.”

“No. Just no thank you.”

Words like little pin pricks. Nothing to call the doctor – or the police – over, but just enough to sting.

I run Old Chang Kee. We have two grab-and-go style Singaporean restaurants in central London and like everyone else in the trade, we’re fighting tooth and nail for survival. Severely reduced footfall in the West End, the end of the furlough scheme, looming rents... it's a perfect storm to make any business owner lose sleep. A lot of it.

As though that weren't hard enough, east and southeast Asian restaurants also have to fend off irrational prejudices that we – and "our people" – are somehow responsible for Covid. We aren't.

Racism against east Asians isn’t new, but the pandemic has given racists a new weapon, a new angle of attack. Who can blame them, when its been dubbed the "China virus" by Donald Trump? Here in the UK, reports recently emerged detailing the rise of hate crimes against people with an “oriental'' appearance – they're up a third since lockdown eased in May, with figures significantly higher than previous years.

The effect on business owners like myself is chilling. Honestly, I’m worried for our future, and currently, I'm worried for the safety of my staff, not to mention their morale.

Some things we’ve heard: that "we" got the virus from eating bats, dogs and other exotic species. That "we" spread it around the world. That "we’ll" continue to spread it, because of where "we" get our food – from some indeterminable place in Asia, apparently – and unhygienic practices in our kitchens.

The "we" is problematic. I can perhaps understand vitriol against the Chinese government, and even, to some extent, that some will be nervous of eating in Chinatown. Whether that’s fair is a debate for another day. But just because we share a skin colour, that doesn’t mean that we are all the same and in this case, all Chinese. There are Chinese (and even within this many regional variations), Thai, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Singaporean, Indonesian restaurants all over the UK. We are all different, and our food is all different.

Take Old Chang Kee for example. Our food is Singaporean, which you could describe as fusion of Chinese, Malay, Indian and even Western cuisines. Our signature item is a savoury pastry called a curry puff, something you’d never associate with being Chinese. But to a bigot who walks past my shopfront and yells "go back to China you people" or "don’t bring your virus here" – both things I've heard lately – we are just a large threatening yellow mass.

To be absolutely clear, I’m not saying that this burden is one Chinese businesses should have to bear (they shouldn't; no-one should have to). But look at the lunacy of it all. Imagine a similar virus erupting from Italy. Would every pasta and pizza restaurant in London – no matter their true ownership – suffer to the same extent?

I doubt it. While Italians have for a long time suffered their own prejudices, the vocal racism against east Asians and their businesses appears to me to often be more apparent, a little closer to the surface. It always been around, probably since the very first Chinese takeaway was blamed for killing all the dogs in the neighbourhood. I heard this urban myth again only recently, recounted by a well meaning British friend who said this happened in his small town up north (“true story” he added, earnestly).

It does eat away at you. I’ve spent the past few months running myself ragged to rescue our business, so it’s disheartening to know that some people will be against us, just because of who we are. If we get a bad review, will it be a fair one, or motivated by something else more sinister?

The "Asian" thing to do about this always-present undercurrent of prejudice – and I know this from seeing it in the older generation of restaurateurs – has always been to brush it off stoically. Some of them even laugh along and normalise it, sadly becoming complicit to the crime. After all, east Asians are often seen as model minorities in society: we keep to ourselves and look after our own problems.

But this time round – a starter of Covid followed by a main of racism – is going to be too hard to swallow. Please don’t let this become the new normal for us.

Sandra Leong is the owner of Old Chang Kee, which has restaurants in Covent Garden and Fitzrovia. For more information, oldchangkee.co.uk