A diary from the original focus of Corona ... a Chinese writer who brought Wuhan's suffering to the world

For two months while closing the city of Wuhan due to the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, Chinese writer and writer Wang Fang, who uses the pseudonym Fang Fang, shared daily online notes on the life and suffering of people in the Chinese city that witnessed the outbreak.

The memoirs not only provided a window through which readers can learn about developments in Wuhan, but also a rare and critical Chinese voice who dared to discuss the government's mistakes in dealing with the crisis, and of course the matter was not without major difficulties, as it was subjected to widespread abuse and criticism via the Internet from media figures and activists From the ruling party.

"I am offended by everything I say now," Fang wrote on the social networking platform Weibo. "I have already received a lesson in online violence", followed "The Extremist Left is Really Strong", and compared the abuses she experienced during the period of political turmoil during the so-called revolution era Cultural in China (1966-1976).

Fang Fang started the diaries on January 25, the third day of the total closure of the city that left millions of people stranded in their homes, talked about her friends and family, how uncomfortable she wore the mask, the death of corona patients, and also mocked her critics who crowded the platforms e.

Fang updated the diaries periodically until March 24, ending it with the phrase "I have fought the best battle ever", and the diaries are published in a book coming soon in English and German.

Sad and prohibited diaries
"How many people have died in Wuhan and their families have been destroyed?" Fang said in her diary. On January 31, she added, "But so far no one has apologized or assumed responsibility. I have seen a writer using the phrase" complete victory. "What are they talking about or what are they talking about?"

Her posts quickly spread widely on social media even when the censors quickly removed her, according to the Japanese magazine The Diplomat.

Fang's publications, which turned into "Wuhan Diaries: Telegrams from the Original Focus", revealed the widespread impact of the pandemic in Wuhan, the government's stone of the city's residents, the fears, frustrations, anger, and hopes of millions of ordinary Chinese whose lives were greatly affected, and dealt with the psychological impact of forced isolation, the role of The Internet is a vital resource for society and a source of misleading information as well, and the most tragic diary deals with the lives of neighbors and friends who have died from the deadly virus.

The Fang account on the Chinese website, Weibo, which had more than 3.8 million followers, was closed in February and later restored, and its fans in China say it is the "Wuhan conscience".

The Chinese writer recently wrote, "Dear Internet Monitor, you should let Wuhan residents speak" and added, "If you don't allow us to express our suffering, our complaints or our reflections, do you really want us to go mad?", According to the New York Times.

HarperCollins' house will be published by Amazon, Wuhan Diaries in English, and the publisher's promotional propaganda says "In a country where authorities use technology to closely monitor citizens and control the media tightly, writers often exercise self-censorship of their writing, however, the stark reality of this situation The destroyer pushed Fang to speak courageously against social injustice, corruption, abuse and systemic political problems that impeded the effective response to the epidemic, "and the author paid a price for her posts by deleting many of her posts and temporarily closing her blog several times.

The diary captures the challenges of daily life, the changing mood and quarantine emotions without reliable information, and while Fang Fang documents the start of the global health crisis, the Chinese experience is realistically presented to many countries dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic.

Realist writers
The Diplomat report says that Fang is certainly not the most famous living writer in China but thousands of Chinese value her as the literary voice of Corona-stricken China, and Fang won many literary prizes before the outbreak of the pandemic including the prestigious Lu Xun Literary Prize in China in 2010 and worked as a vice To the President of the Hubei Provincial Book Association.

Fang's early works, most of them short stories, focused mainly on the poor of Wuhan - from urban factory workers to the city's middle-class intellectuals - and her writings belong to the "New Realism" literature of China in which she was born to a literary family in 1955 and lived a harsh life in her youth. "The secret of Fang Fang's success is that she can capture the intricacies of an ever-changing life without losing its streak," the American Journal of well-known Chinese literary critic Han Shaojong said.