Wuhan Diaries
Fang Fang, an author based in Wuhan, China, kept a diary for 72 days of the unprecedented lockdown enforced following the initial coronavirus outbreak in January 2020.
Wuhan, China
The LA Times article “Two months into coronavirus lockdown, her online diary is a window into life and death in Wuhan” by China Correspondent Alice Su, reads: “For readers in quarantine, Fang Fang’s diary traverses the familiar and the unbearable: in one paragraph, she lies in bed scrolling through her phone. She notes rising vegetable prices. She wonders if anyone is at the park. She runs out of food for her dog.
In another paragraph, her high school classmate — the only other girl in the school band, who once shared a desk with Fang Fang — dies. Her neighbor’s cousin dies. Her acquaintance’s brother dies. Her friend’s parents and wife die, and then her friend also dies,” writes Su [read the Article on the LA Times]
A longtime dissident and critic of China’s official party lines, with outspoken critiques of the oppressive Maoist campaigns of her youth, Fang Fang’s diary has thus become a controversial symbol of an embattled public amid the crisis - either valorized or demonized for its simple portrayal of civic suffering.
Since the Wuhan lockdown, and hence the diary, has ended and the plans for the diary to be translated and published in English has been released, Fang Fang has faced fierce backlash, as reported by the New York Times (April 15, 2020).
Quoted in the NYT article is an interview with Fang Fang, critiquing officials and reflecting on the historical lessons from the 2003 SARS outbreak, “This lesson should have counted as profoundly searing. Still, although we experienced 2003, that was quickly forgotten. Now add to that the year 2020. Will we also forget it? The devil is always on our trail, and if we’re not on our guard, he’ll add another date until we wake up in torment. The question is: Do we want to wake up?”
Article: “Coronavirus Wuhan diary: Living alone in a city gone quiet” (Guo Jing, a social worker and activist, for the BBC, 30 January 2020)
Video: Ben Kavanagh, an Irish national who was living in Wuhan and working as a teacher when the pandemic hit, outlines his daily routine of grocery shopping under lockdown in January 2020 - before it became a familiar global experience (via Channel 4 News, Ireland).
