华裔人士为什么大肆疯抢口罩？

（大中报/096.ca特稿）：在当下新冠流行期间，没有什么商品比N95口罩更抢手了。有关恐慌买家蜂拥至商店抢购口罩的新闻报道占据各大网站头条。在多伦多的华人聚居的列治文山，几乎所有商店都出现疯抢口罩潮，使通常无人问津的口罩顷刻间从货架上消失殆尽。在新加坡，零售商店的手术用口罩也被洗劫一空；而香港，囤积口罩，狂抬口罩价格，伪冒口罩商品现象也在网络商城泛滥，掀起一波又一波的口罩黑市浪潮。

News gripping the headline paints a picture of a frantic scene as panic buyers flooded to stores to hunt for N95 face masks – the most converted commodity during coronavirus outbreak. In Richmond Hill Toronto—the area with a large concentration of Chinese Canadians, much higher than average volume of sales experienced in most outlets, rapidly depleting the supply of the item that would otherwise always sit on a store shelf. In Singapore, surgical masks run out at retail outlets. And in Hong Kong, face masks hoarding, price-gouging, and counterfeiting inundated cyberspace, creating a thriving black market of face masks online.

今天你也许关心的话题：

中国网络实施最严格网络管制条例 网民指责政府没有吸取先前的教训
美国国务卿：对五家中国驻美官媒记者人数设定上限
新冠“零号患者”的来历

想要阅读与本文有关的话题？请点击本文末的链接！



抢购口罩者大部分为华裔人士，但华裔的这种抢购行为却不仅仅限于当前紧俏的口罩。当2011年出现了日本核辐射危机时，有传言说碘盐能抵挡辐射给人体造成的伤害，霎那间，食用碘盐成了最珍贵的商品，担心核辐射的大陆人士成群结队疯抢食用盐，使北京，上海和中国其他城市商店内的食用盐被洗劫一空，那些等盐下锅者也只得望盐兴叹。2013年禽流感袭击中国时，又出现一轮抢购潮，而这次的目标是名不见经传的中草药板蓝根！惶恐之中的老百姓们视其为流行病的克星，恨不得把药店和网购货架上的所有草根纳入囊中。

Ethnic Chinese are the significant drivers of face masks buying frenzy, but their panic buying behavior goes beyond the current face masks run. In 2011, panic buying of salt erupted in China when Japan faced the threat of nuclear radiation. Supermarkets in Beijing run out of salt after false rumors circulated that iodized salt can help ward off radiation poisoning.  Worried shoppers stripped stores of salt in Beijing, Shanghai, and other parts of China, causing a severe shortage of the daily necessity. In 2013, fears over a strain of bird flu in the country led to another wave of buying frenzy, as frantic shoppers rushed to pharmacies and eBay for Banlangen – a Chinese herb.



每当天灾人祸在即，抢购浪潮便风起云涌，“抢购”似乎成了华人在灾难来临时的第一自然反应。但华人骨子里的抢购欲望并非空穴来风，仔细追究可发现，这与中国苦难深重的历史和渊源分不开。历史上的中国土地贫瘠，饥荒不断，老百姓终日缺衣少粮，食不果腹。17世纪中国出现人口大爆炸，同时可耕地面积急剧减少，资源严重短缺给百姓造成巨大生活压力。18世纪，3年的自然干旱后， 中国近代史上出现了950万人死亡的最大饥荒，饿殍遍野。19世纪和20世纪，干旱和水灾的轮番攻击这个贫瘠、民不聊生的国度。清朝覆灭后，饥荒不停地骚扰着中国大陆，老百姓更是在朝不保夕的困境之中备受煎熬，苦苦挣扎。

The tendency towards panic buying seems to have become Chinese people's standard reaction to a disaster.  The behavior can find its roots in China's fraught history of hardship and adversity as food scarcity, famine, and upheavals repeatedly struck the nation, creating a survival crisis one after another. In the late 17th century, the population explosion, coupled with the rapidly shrinking land resources, put intolerable pressure on already hard-pressed resources. In the late 18th century, a three-year severe drought saw at least 9.5 million people died of starvation in one of the most disastrous famines in recent Chinese history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, flood and drought frequently attacked this impoverished land and the desperate nation. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, famines continued to be the norm of citizens' life and a test of their survival.



历史上的中国老百姓因食品短缺不断饱受饥饿的煎熬，而这种长期生活的压力不可避免地给他们造成无形的身心损害和精神创伤。食物匮乏所带来的不安全感进一步造成心理恐慌，经常担心因抢不到食品而沦为饿死鬼。在这种长期的忧虑和恐惧情绪刺激下，他们会为抢夺有限资源而你争我夺，甚至不惜大打出手，并伺机大肆抢购，囤积物品，盲目跟流，且大有越演越烈之势。尽管现代中国已让大部分老百姓摆脱了贫困，但恐慌和抢购心理却成了中华民族难以摒弃的劣根，且根深蒂固，代代相传。

The persistent threats of hunger and food shortages turned into a chorionic stressor for historical Chinese people, causing long term psychological damages. A constant state of acute food insecurity bred the fears of missing out, which fuelled their desperate urge to fight for the limited resources and to get ahead. As a result, panic buying, herd mentality, and hoarding became their natural psychological response to an adverse event.  Despite rapid economic growth in modern China that has kept the majority out of poverty, the psychological traits have deeply ingrained in the ethnic Chinese and passed on from generation to generation.

但这种盲目冲动的行为之后果不言而喻。几箱子的食用盐能把厨房堵得水泄不通，失效的板蓝根也被大批倒进垃圾桶，这时抢购者会被另一种不健康的心理状态困扰，那就是后悔。可在新冠病毒肆虐的当前，疯抢口罩造成的负面影响则不堪设想。一旦全球口罩吃紧，一线医护人员面临严重防护措施短缺，他们会在垂死的生命前束手无策，这一结局可比吃点后悔药严重多了。

But the impulsive psychological reaction can result in unintended consequences. Buyers' remorse strikes when boxes of table salt clog the kitchen drawers of panic purchasers and when stockpiles of Banlangen end up in their garbage bin. But amidst the global spread of the Coronavirus, a run on masks would have far more devastating impacts. It would put a severe strain on the protective gear around the world, risking a critical shortage to frontline medical professionals and restraining their ability to save lives.

在中国政府高调宣称消灭了贫困的今天，中国老百姓却仍无法摆脱疯狂抢购的心理之困扰。这也证实了精神创伤所留下的后遗症远比物质匮乏更难治愈和消除的这一真理。

As modern China touts its achievement of eradicating poverty, Chinese people are still grappling with panic buying syndrome.  It seems that mental trauma presents a much more tough challenge than material shortages.