On Saturday there was a march in New York from Times Square through Chinatown to City Hall. An Asian American organiser stood on the steps of the Tweed Courthouse, under the portico, recalling what it feels like to ‘have someone look at you and all of a sudden you’re not a person any more’. There has been a year-long surge in hate crimes against Asians in the United States. Last Tuesday, eight people, six of them Asian women, were killed by a mass shooter at three massage parlours in the Atlanta area.