Fang Fang - Wuhan Diary - Dispatches from a Quarantined City

Many years from now when critics look back on your work, do you hope they regard Fang Fang as “an admirable woman writer with a strong social mission and a good conscience” or “as an outstanding writer with incredible literary skill and talent”?

Fang Fang:I really don’t care. I really have no interest in how other people perceive me. As long as I can face myself, I am happy. How critics view me is their business, not mine.

Back when you wrote the novel The City of Wuchang how did you balance the actual history with your fictional imagination? What is the meaning of recording history for contemporary people’s lives?

Fang Fang:Novels are, after all, works of fiction; they rely on the imagination. But when you write a historical novel about actual events that happened, you need to also respect the history. I just place my characters into that history. There are always fissures that exist within historical narratives. When I write historical fiction, I always have the broad historical map in my mind and then I search for those fissures where I can set my characters free to roam. The meaning of recording history for me comes down to “using history as a mirror.”

There are actually a lot of voices out there online that have been criticizing you or raising suspicions about you. Do those voices ever make you uncomfortable or depressed? Amid all this fear and chaos, how do you manage to maintain a normal healthy outlook?

Fang Fang:I don’t get depressed, but sometimes I do feel a bit uncomfortable, but, even more than that, I get angry because I find what they are doing to be utterly incomprehensible. You get angry about why these ultra-leftists are doing what they do, and I find it difficult to understand how these people could have so much hatred inside themselves. I don’t personally know a single one of them, nor have I even had contact with them; yet their hatred for me runs so deep it is as if I killed their fathers in a past life or something! I really can’t understand it.

And I don’t always maintain a normal healthy outlook; sometimes I get anxious. And then there are times when I am really at a loss as to what to do. When there are so many unknown factors that you face, you can sometimes be left very confused inside.

Does the fact that you are the former chair of the Hubei Writers Association serve as a kind of protection? Or does it come with a negative impact?

Fang Fang:I don’t think either one. I didn’t let this title affect me when I was the chair, so I certainly don’t let it affect me now that I have retired. This title has never provided me with any sort of protection, nor do I feel that it has brought any negative consequences. I had a good life before serving as chair, and things didn’t change much after I took over. Now that I’m retired, things are still like before. Those people who think serving as chair is a big deal really don’t understand the Chinese system, or me.

A large number of your stories all depict the people of Wuhan’s lives. What traits of the Wuhan people are you fondest of? Has the coronavirus outbreak revealed any new characteristics about the people of Wuhan that you never saw before?

Fang Fang:The people of Wuhan have always been straightforward and they place a lot of emphasis on what is right and wrong. They are generous when it comes to helping people out and have a sense of honor. Perhaps a lot of this is connected to the geography and climate here. But Wuhan has always been a city of commerce; most people are careless and casual, yet they aren’t the bravest. They tend to follow whatever the government tells them. They like to enjoy life but aren’t particularly interested in politics; they are very practical. Whether or not there is an outbreak, the people of Wuhan always behave the same, at least that is my impression. They are the same as they ever were.

How do you view the relationship between a writer and their city?

Fang Fang:It’s like the relationship between a fish and water; or a tree and the soil.

Once this outbreak has passed, what are you most looking forward to doing?

Fang Fang:Completing the novel that I have been working on.

March 11, 2020

Once things get to this point, do you really think you can delete it all?

Another day of nice weather. It feels good to have the early spring sun shining down. I’m thinking about how East Lake must be completely desolate and empty right now. I’m sure the plum blossoms all shed their flowers during that rainy night a few days ago. Tens of thousands of plum blossom trees and they all bloomed and withered for them alone to see and enjoy. If you had to put that in a poem, how would you convey that? “The flowers whirl and scatter as the water flows.” My old dog has been locked up at home for so long now that he doesn’t even want to go out to the courtyard anymore. He just likes to stay curled up in his dog bed. In some way, I feel the same; I don’t even want to go out anymore, I just want to stay here in my apartment. A few friends have sent me invitations; they are all telling me to come over to visit and rest for a while once the outbreak is over. They are all telling me how gorgeous the spring scenery is, trying to entice me with the images of beautiful mountains and rushing water. The old me would have been there in a minute. But right now I don’t even want to leave the house; I wonder if this is some kind of post-traumatic stress syndrome I’m going through.

My doctor friends have continued to forward me news about how much the coronavirus situation has improved. The number of new cases is now down to under 20; it should be down to zero soon. And thanks to the hard work of all the doctors, the number of deaths has also dramatically decreased. But I really can’t wait until the number of deaths gets down to zero. Today the Hubei Province Outbreak Control Center released a statement: All work units in Hubei Province will begin to gradually resume work and production according to each district, level, and type of industry. That means that we should be able to get back to our normal lives soon?

One of my friends (all these friends are real people, but I do not always reveal their names here in order to protect them from potential attacks) sent me a photo this morning—it was a group photo of Central Hospital’s Department of Thyroid and Breast Cancer, which was Dr. Jiang Xueqing’s department. The day that Dr. Jiang passed away, someone replaced the heads of all the people in the photo with candles, only leaving one person’s image untouched—and that was Dr. Jiang Xueqing. I was quite touched by that photo and by his colleagues’ sense of friendship and loyalty. If Dr. Jiang can somehow see this, I hope it gives him a sense of comfort.

For the past two days now, the name Ai Fen, [14] Ai Fen is a physician and director of the Emergency Department at Central Hospital in Wuhan. She is credited as the first doctor to disclose information about the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan after treating patients on December 18 and December 27 who exhibited SARS-like symptoms. She has been referred to as the “whistle-giver” since it was her photos and reports that reached Li Wenliang, who later became known as one of the “whistleblowers.” a physician at Central Hospital, has been circulating all over the internet. All the internet censorship has begun to elicit the wrath of the people. It is as if everyone is in a relay race; as soon as the censors delete a post, netizens repost it again online. They just keep passing the baton forward. They just keep forwarding those posts, using all kinds of different methods to the point that the internet censors can no longer keep up; there is no way for them to delete everything anymore. Over the course of this process of resistance, posts get deleted, then reposted, over and over again. Preserving these deleted posts gradually becomes a sacred duty of those netizens. This sacred duty comes from an almost subconscious realization that keeps telling them: Protect those posts, for protecting them is the only way to protect yourself. Once things get to this point, I have to ask my dear internet censors, do you think you can really delete it all?