After hearing what the woman said, my mom stood up and replied, "please be polite." But the incident left her and my sister feeling taken aback and disappointed in our community. Zhan was photographed in front of parliament at age six, a year after her family arrived in Canada. She shows off the trophies she won at a contest at Chinese school.(Submitted by Jiayue Zhan) I would be lying if I said I'd never been the subject of these kinds of incidents before. But I have never experienced racism of this magnitude or severity as I have since spring 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began.