“A dust of times, when falling on the individual, becomes a mountain,” reads a widely shared line from Fang’s Wuhan Diary.
The writer updates her Weibo diary every night. Fang’s entries have drawn tens of millions of clicks and reposts. For many readers, waiting for her late-night updates has become a pre-bedtime ritual.
As a lifelong resident of Wuhan, Fang said she feels as if her characters also live here.
“When I’d roam Haizheng Street, I’d unconsciously search for Li Baoli (the protagonist from novel Feng Shui). Or when I passed the Rainbow Bridge, He Hanqing (from novella Go Out to Die) would pop into my mind,” she told our reporter.
Feng Shui was adapted into a critically acclaimed feature film in 2012, which earned a 8.6/10 rating on Douban, China’s leading review website.
Having witnessed her beloved city stricken by the Covid-19 outbreak, the writer feels its pain, fury and sorrow.
“It was December 31 when I first heard of a quasi-SARS virus found in Wuhan from my eldest brother. My three brothers and I have a family WeChat group. We warned each other to wear masks when going out, avoid crowds and stay at home. I became highly cautious on January 18. More rumors about the outbreak spread online,” Fang told NewsChina.
The virus threatened her own family. Her aunt was diagnosed with Covid-19. Her ex-husband showed symptoms, fever and cough, and was labeled a suspected case. Her cousin had similar symptoms.
Then she learned the local government had concealed knowledge about Covid-19’s human-to-human transmission from the public.
“I was furious about that. The local government repeatedly told us that human-to-human transmission was impossible. Though we were cautious about the virus, we still trusted the government. My brother even said it was impossible that the government would lie about such a huge issue. Many of my friends believed so as well. [On January 20] When Zhong Nanshan informed the public of human-to-human transmission, people finally panicked. Fear crept into everyone’s hearts,” she said.
But not many foresaw the coming lockdown. On January 20, Fang Fang recalled urging her family to stock more food and supplies for a possible quarantine. Her family called her a drama queen.
The eve of the lockdown saw a mass exodus from the city. “On the early morning of January 23, I got the news of the impending lockdown. There was enough time for me to pack and escape. But I didn’t think about that at all. Countless residents are locked down at home. My living conditions are better than lots of them, almost among the best. If they can endure it, so can I,” she said.
She began writing her observations and feelings on January 25 and posted them daily to Weibo.
“Trauma has grown in the heart of everyone in Wuhan. Such pain is so inevitable that no one can evade it. It grows in the hearts of the healthy (including children) who lock themselves at home for 20 days or more, of the sick who struggle to reach the hospital in the cold rain, of the grieving who witness the body of their beloved family members being shrouded and driven away, and of the medical workers who helplessly watch as the Grim Reaper’s sickle harvests souls. This trauma, for a quite long time, will become a stubborn disease. The scars of Wuhanese won’t scab over just by shouting slogans,” Fang Fang wrote on February 12.
“We must preserve our honesty and sense of justice,” she said. “In fact, there are many people documenting the epidemic in different ways, and they all have their own perspectives. It’s a good thing. Our records will let future generations know the truth about the 2020 outbreak.”