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For Chinese at Columbia University, pro-Palestinian protests evoke sympathy and fear

  • Decision whether to take part in demonstrations fraught with concerns as ‘it is already precarious to be Chinese in the US in these times’, says one
  • While most Chinese students have opted to stay away from the protests, some hope to ‘be a bridge and raise people’s awareness’

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People occupying Hamilton Hall at Columbia University unfurl a banner at the main campus in New York on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters
Khushboo Razdanin Washington

“I have to cover my face with scarves even when I donate pillows and bedsheets to the campers,” a Chinese student at Columbia University in New York told the Post this week.

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The 29-year-old, who asked only to be identified as “Lu”, acknowledged taking part in some of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have brought the hallowed campus to a standstill and triggered a crisis for the institution not seen since the Vietnam war.

And compared with other international students who have joined the protests roiling the Ivy League school, Lu believed the “risk levels” were different for her as a Chinese student amid heightened Sino-American tensions.

“They would wear sunglasses and masks, but for me I had to do more,” she said of her fellow protesters from abroad.

“It is already precarious to be Chinese in the US in these times.”

Palestinian supporters chant outside the Columbia University campus in New York on Tuesday. Photo: AP
Palestinian supporters chant outside the Columbia University campus in New York on Tuesday. Photo: AP

Numbering more than 6,800 students and scholars last autumn, Chinese nationals make up the largest international contingent enrolled at Columbia, which has become the focal point of student-led, pro-Palestinian protests sweeping across American universities.

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