武汉日记 Wǔhàn Rìjì Wuhan Diary by 方方 Fāng Fāng, translated by Michael Berry, is a nonfiction book describing the unfolding of the pandemic as it happened in real time in Wuhan. The original blog from which this book arises was banned in China for telling the truth. Michael Berry received death threats for translating it into English. It is also available in German.
I decided to save some of my favorite quotes.
"I suspect she was just too lazy to cook and that is why she wanted to go out. A good thing my daughter has a good fear of death ingrained in her! The second she heard what I had to say, she agreed to stay home. She called me back a bit later to ask how to cook cabbage (can you believe that she actually put a head of cabbage in the freezer?)." p. 16
My daughter once asked her 99-year old grandfather what his secret to a long life was. His response: "Eat a lot of fatty meat, don't exercise, and be sure to curse anyone who deserves it." p. 84
"Beautiful weather paired with some good old-fashioned elegant Wuhan cursing really put me in a good mood and helped get this day started off right." - Wuhan Diary by Fang Fang, p.140
Over time the most talented people get weeded out and those inferior managers rise to the top; meanwhile the most innovative and talented people in the field find jobs elsewhere. p. 150
The world of officialdom is filled with people who have never learned a damn thing in their entire lives, but one thing they have mastered is the art of putting on a show; and they have ways to deal with you that you would have never imagined even existed. Their ability to shirk responsibility is second to none .... p.176
"Later when all those doctors started to get sick, they all knew that it was a 'contagious disease,' but no one dared to speak out because they were being gagged. But just because someone told you not to do something, does that mean you shouldn't speak out? Isn't there a fundamental problem when everyone knows something is wrong but no one dares to speak out? How come the hospital administrators didn't allow their doctors to speak up? If they don't permit us to speak, does that mean that we should just keep silent? As doctors we have a responsibility."
I realized that this was precisely why we were all so angry about the death of Li Wenliang. After all, he was the first to speak out, even if all he did was warn his own friends, but by doing that he revealed the truth. But after he spoke out, Dr. Li Wenliang was punished, forced to sign a confession, and later he sacrificed his life - no one ever apologized to him before his death. When that is the result of speaking out, moving forward, how can we expect anyone else to speak the truth?
Since there aren't too many pedestrians outside, there isn't much garbage in the streets, besides some leaves on the ground, but those sanitation workers still carry out their jobs sweeping the streets with such zest in order to keep the city clean. From the moment the coronavirus outbreak began all the way up until now, I have noticed their consistently calm attitude. They are the group that always gets overlooked as they quietly carry out their jobs, but somehow they are always there to set the heart of this city at ease.
I wonder if this post will also be deleted by the censors.
"Even though I am locked down at home, I continue to write and record what I am seeing. Even though each one of my posts ends up getting deleted by the censors shortly after being posted, I continue to write."
"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 these 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."
When you have a group of government officials who don't care about the people and the only thing they seem to really care about is what their superiors think, then you can expect more garbage trucks delivering food in the future. One major problem facing a lot of government officials today is that none of them ever look at the people as the fundamental core of society; and none of them ever consider things from the perspective of everyday people. p. 276
My child, I also want to tell you that when I was 16 years old, I was much worse off than you are. At that time, I had never even heard of words like "independent thought." I never knew that people needed to learn how to think for themselves; we just did whatever our teachers told us to do, we followed whatever the schools told us to do, we followed whatever the newspapers told us to do, and whatever the radio broadcasts instructed us to do. p. 311
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