Up until the eve of the COVID-19 crisis, the prevailing narrative about Asian Americans was one of
the model minority. The model minority concept, developed during and after World War II, 21 that Asian Americans were the ideal immigrants of color to the United States as a consequence of their
economic success. Yet, in the US, Asian Americans have long been referred to as a threat to a nation that promoted a
whites-only immigration policy. They were called “yellow 22 ”: unfit for citizenship in the US. In
the late 19th century, white nativists circulated 23 propaganda about Chinese uncleanliness in
San Francisco. This fueled the passage of the notorious Chinese Exclusion Act, the first law in the United
States that prohibited immigration solely based on race. Initially, the act placed a 10-year 24 on
all Chinese migration.
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 to 25 people under suspicion of being enemies to inland internment camps. The vast majority of those
imprisoned in 1942 were naturalized citizens, second-and third-generation Japanese Americans. Internees
fighting in the celebrated 442nd Regiment were 26 by the United States military to prove their
fidelity to a nation that locked them up simply for their ethnicity.
In the 21st century, even the most “multicultural” North American cities, like Los Angeles or New
York, are hotbeds of malicious racism. During the 2003 SARS outbreak, both of the cities witnessed a(n) 27 of anti-Asian racism. In her 2008 research, sociologist Carrianne Leung highlighted the everyday
racism against Asian American health care workers in the years that followed the SARS crisis. While
publicly celebrated for their contributions, these Americans of Asian 28 still found themselves
fearing for their lives on their way home. No expression of patriotism—not even being front-line workers
in a pandemic—renders Asian migrants immune to racism.
(AB) coerced (AC) descent (AD) placate (AE) renounced (BC) intensification
(BD) perils (BE) moratorium (CD) posits (CE) xenophobic (DE) incarcerate
【題組】21.