I've spent a lot of time in Seoul. Many Koreans routinely wore masks in their day to day lives. https://www.voanews.com/a/science-h...ans-have-worn-face-masks-decades/6185597.html https://globalsecurityplus.org/ive-...an-countries-wear-masks-and-whether-they-work
I have spent a lot of time there as well (I am half Korean). Saying "they have worn masks for most of their lives" is simply inaccurate. Yes, Asians have been wearing masks more when traveling and sometimes in public transit, which is extremely crowded in some of these cities, because they had previous pandemics (SARS, etc.) and got scared, and in general, they are much more obedient towards government rules and warnings. I have always found it a bit silly, but to each their own.
actually, bobrek's statement is accurate. The Reasons Why Masks Took Root in Japan in the 1870s, some 150 yrs ago this mask-wearing routine was later migrated to Japanese-controlled colonial Korea in the late 19th / early 20th century. you need to read your history book, it was the Spanish flu. shortly after WW1, some 80 years before SARS
What context? If he wants to keep wearing the mask "because the virus ain't over", he will have to keep it on forever. This is just a fact. The virus is now endemic.
No, the statement is not accurate. Nobody there wears masks "most of their lives". They wear them when they travel and sometimes in public transportation. Not as excessively as we have during this pandemic.
So... you've never seen Asians (pre-Covid) walking outside wearing masks? You've never seen Asians at amusement parks or other tourist venues in the USA wearing masks? Because what I said was PLENTY (not all) of Asians have been wearing masks most of their lives. Nowhere did I say every single minute. The articles I posted (and there are many more) back that up. Did you even bother reading the articles I posted and what @adoo posted? As an aside I am still waiting on you to let us know what is so bad about the "What Are Your Words" book? It's not hard to find a version on the internet. You don't even have to leave your house or go to a sketchy site or pay one penny to do it.
I have seen a lot of Asians wear a lot more masks than Westerners. But not for the majority of their lives. And it doesn't mean it makes sense to prevent Covid. It's just a silly thing to do.
This sentence is from the adoo article... there is plenty more but it looks like you don't like to read... "However, many people abroad may find it curious to know that Japanese people have had a culture of wearing masks on a daily basis even before the novel coronavirus spread....."
I don't care about your sentences from articles. I have spent enough time in Asia to know that Asians don't "wear masks for most of their lives". That's just a dumb thing to say.
I love my anecdotal, but I'm a fool to believe it's always right. A child with a respiratory infection wearing a white mask in the streets of Tokyo. Credit: Takeshi Takahara https://web-japan.org/trends/11_culture/pop202008_mask-culture.html Pop culture Demand for masks increased rapidly in Japan following the spread of influenza in the country starting in 1918. Apparently, informative posters were put up in the streets to encourage people to wear masks at that time. Later, influenza spread again in 1934, and masks grew hugely popular in Japan as a means to prevent infection. From then on, masks became more and more widespread in Japan each time influenza spread. In this way, the practice of wearing a mask if one has a cold or is unwell gradually took root among Japanese people. Since ancient times, Japan is home to a culture of being considerate of other people around oneself and placing importance on cooperation. These defining characteristics of the Japanese people reinforced their awareness so as to avoid causing trouble to others around them, and this may have made it easier for masks to come into extensive use. With the spread of the novel coronavirus, it is now a common part of daily life in Japan to wear a mask regardless of the season. There is now an active trend for using masks as a stylish fashion item, rather than just a healthcare product. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2012.01466.x March 2012, Sociology of Health & Illness Abstract: This article begins to develop an understanding of surgical mask-wearing in Japan, now a routine practice against a range of health threats. Their usage and associated meanings are explored through surveys conducted in Tokyo with both mask wearers and non-mask wearers. It contests commonly held cultural views of the practice as a fixed and distinctively Japanese collective courtesy to others. A historical analysis suggests that an originally collective, targeted and science-based response to public health threats has dispersed into a generalised practice lacking a clear end or purpose. Developed as part of the biomedical response to the Spanish flu of 1919, the practice resonated with folk assumptions as making a barrier between purity and pollution. But mask-wearing became socially embedded as a general protective practice only from the 1990s through a combination of commercial, corporate and political pressures that responsibilised individual health protection. These developments are usefully understood amidst the uncertainty created by Japan’s ‘second modernity’ and the fracturing of her post-war order. Mask-wearing is only one form of a wider culture of risk; a self-protective risk ritual rather than a selfless collective practice.
That one sentence from the tweet about Psaki was enough to convince you that she said things she never said. Is that because it agreed with your view(s)? Meanwhile numerous articles from around the world don't change your anecdotal view. Is that because they disagree with your view(s)?
In many countries in Asia even well before COVID you were expected to wear a mask when you were sick out in public.
When you were sick, you should stay home. And wearing one if you are sick and still go out is slightly better than not wearing one, I guess - but it still doesn't mean wearing one for "most of your life". Do you guys even realize how absurd your position has become? You are seriously looking for sources to back up a completely ridiculous statement - that people in Asia would "wear a mask for most of their life". That's just dumb.
I posted that plenty of Asians have been wearing masks most of their lives. That's a true statement. No where did I say every Asian and no where did I say every minute of the day. Years and in some cases decades before COVID Asians started wearing masks.
