Fang Fang - Wuhan Diary - Dispatches from a Quarantined City

We eventually did decide to keep them home, and a week later, on March 13, the huge Los Angeles Unified School District announced its temporary shutdown; roughly halfway through my translation work, Los Angeles also fell under quarantine, which California’s governor called his “Stay at Home Order.” So there was Fang Fang, quarantined in Wuhan writing her daily diary, while I sat halfway around the world, quarantined in Los Angeles, translating her diary. I began almost every day with a flurry of texts back and forth between Fang Fang, our agent, and our publisher; that would usually last from around 6:00 a.m. until close to 9:00 a.m.; and then it would be time to translate. Over the course of the project, I developed an extremely close relationship with Fang Fang, and often my heart would break when she would recount stories of all the vicious and vile attacks that had been waged against her online by various ultra-leftist groups. I always tried to be empathetic and understanding of what she was going through: It was hard for me to imagine being quarantined in one’s beloved city that had become the epicenter of a major outbreak, being trapped in one’s home where one of the few lifelines you have to the outside world is your computer, and knowing that every time you turn it on you receive literally thousands of threats and attacks. But then, Fang Fang and I had one more thing in common: On April 8, they came after me.

After receiving a series of texts from friends warning me about what was happening, I checked my Weibo account to find more than 600 messages and comments filled with hateful comments and threats against my family and me. These were all in response to news that an English edition of Fang Fang’s Wuhan Diary was to be published and that I was the translator. Wuhan Diary was going global—and Fang Fang’s detractors did not like that one bit. Aligned with the internet trolls’ attacks to my own Weibo site were dozens of perfectly timed articles alleging everything from the book’s being part of a CIA plot to attack China to various conspiracy theories regarding the pace of the translation (which to some seemed “impossibly quick”), to allegations that Fang Fang was “selling out” to the Americans. The headline of one of these disturbing articles rhetorically asked, “So, Fang Fang, How Does It Taste to Feed Off a Steamed Bun Dipped in the Blood of the Wuhan People?” The author of that article seemed oblivious to the fact that all her profits from this publication will go to relief charities in Wuhan. Coincidentally enough, April 8 also marked the day on which the quarantine in Wuhan was finally lifted.

And that brings us up to the present and to what each of us can take away from Wuhan Diary. For me, Fang Fang’s courage to stand up, speak truth to power, and demand accountability has been a revelation. I got a small taste of the price she pays when the “trolls” turned on me, but I also know that it is but a tiny fraction of the thousands of attacks she faces day after day. If, as the trolls allege, Fang Fang’s Wuhan Diary is indeed to be “weaponized,” I hope it will be a weapon to show the power an individual possesses to cut through the noise and perhaps to effect real change. Wuhan Diary was the lightning rod and Fang Fang was the voice for Wuhan during its darkest hour; but in the West where is our lightning rod? Whose voice can we look to that will cut through the noise and demand truth and accountability? Against all odds, Fang Fang rose to the occasion… and so can we.

I would like to acknowledge my profound admiration and thanks to Fang Fang; working with her on this project was an experience that I will always treasure. J. L., our agent, provided unflinching support for this project from day one, and even when we hit bumps in the road, she was always there to defend us and fight for this project. I feel fortunate to have had her with us along this journey. Thanks to Juan Milà at HarperVia for championing this important project and for all his editorial feedback. Judith Curr was a staunch supporter from day one and I appreciate her efforts in helping Fang Fang’s voice to reach a wider readership. I also wish to acknowledge the efforts of the editorial, design, and promotion teams at HarperCollins, who also worked on this book from their homes, especially Terri Leonard, Lisa Zuniga, and Kim Nir. Thanks to my colleagues and friends Michael Emmerich, Satoko Shimazaki, Esther Jou, King-kok Cheung, Hongling Zhang, Yongli Li, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Li Cheng, and all my students at UCLA. Thanks to my parents and my brother, John Berry, who provided support and advice along the way. Special thanks to Professor David Der-wei Wang, whom I am fortunate to have always had in my corner. Finally, thanks to the support of my children, who put up with hearing “Daddy needs to work on the book!” many more times than they would have liked while quarantined at home. And enormous thanks to my wife, Suk-Young Kim. Despite her own teaching duties and deadlines, she took on extra childcare responsibilities so that I could complete this project as quickly as possible; the world needs to know. I dedicate my translation to the memory of all the victims of COVID-19.

One of contemporary China’s most celebrated writers, FANG FANGwas born into an intellectual family in Nanjing in 1955, and spent most of her childhood in Wuhan, where she witnessed many of the political movements of Mao’s China, from the Great Leap Forward to the Cultural Revolution. She graduated from Wuhan University with a degree in Chinese literature, and her novels, novellas, short stories, and essays have appeared in nearly 100 different editions. She has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the Lu Xun Literary Prize, and the Chinese Literature and Communications Prize for Outstanding Writer.

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This diary contains discussions of various treatments of COVID-19 that took place early on during the outbreak in Wuhan. They are not to be taken as medical advice. For treatment advice concerning COVID-19, please consult your medical provider.

WUHAN DIARY. Copyright © 2020 by Fang Fang. English translation and Translator’s Afterword © 2020 by Michael Berry. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

first edition

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

Digital Edition MAY 2020 978-0-06-305265-9

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