by Fang Fang (Author), Michael Berry (Author)
From one of China’s most acclaimed and decorated writers
comes a powerful first-person account of life in Wuhan during the
COVID-19 outbreak.
On January 25, 2020, after the central
government imposed a lockdown in Wuhan, acclaimed Chinese writer Fang
Fang began publishing an online diary. In the days and weeks that
followed, Fang Fang’s nightly postings gave voice to the fears,
frustrations, anger, and hope of millions of her fellow citizens,
reflecting on the psychological impact of forced isolation, the role of
the internet as both community lifeline and source of misinformation,
and most tragically, the lives of neighbors and friends taken by the
deadly virus.
A fascinating eyewitness account of events as they unfold, Wuhan Diary
captures the challenges of daily life and the changing moods and
emotions of being quarantined without reliable information. Fang Fang
finds solace in small domestic comforts and is inspired by the courage
of friends, health professionals and volunteers, as well as the
resilience and perseverance of Wuhan’s nine million residents. But, by
claiming the writer´s duty to record she also speaks out against social
injustice, abuse of power, and other problems which impeded the response
to the epidemic and gets herself embroiled in online controversies
because of it.
As Fang Fang documents the beginning of the global
health crisis in real time, we are able to identify patterns and
mistakes that many of the countries dealing with the novel coronavirus
have later repeated. She reminds us that, in the face of the new virus,
the plight of the citizens of Wuhan is also that of citizens everywhere.
As Fang Fang writes: “The virus is the common enemy of humankind; that
is a lesson for all humanity. The only way we can conquer this virus and
free ourselves from its grip is for all members of humankind to work
together.”
Blending the intimate and the epic, the profound and the quotidian, Wuhan Diary is a remarkable record of an extraordinary time.
