On 20 January, the 11-million strong city of Wuhan was gripped by fear. It was to face the first major lockdown of this year. A deadly, highly contagious virus had already taken fourteen lives and the state media was shifting its stance on the fatal virus with every new infection.
Fang Fang’s first reaction was shock, followed by
anger. On 25 January, the first day of the Lunar New Year, she logged on to her
Sina Weibo account to write her first diary entry. It started with the words: Technology
can sometimes be every bit as evil as a contagious virus. Fang Fang, 65,
had had her account shut down before, not surprising in China. The first day’s
post ends with the words: “Let’s see if this post is able to be uploaded.”
*****
In February, Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer, travelled
400 miles from Shanghai to Wuhan. She began going around Wuhan with her video
camera and smartphone documenting what was happening on the streets. She tried
to talk to people, but many refused to talk in front of the camera, requesting
that it be directed at their feet instead. Police sometimes stopped Zhang asking
her what she was filming and why. Zhang was not an accredited journalist. She was
a street reporter, better known as a Citizen Journalist. She videorecorded the
overflowing hospitals, empty shops, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Her filming
of crematoria suggested people were cremated day and night, far more than officially
reported.
*****
Fang Fang began posting an entry every day. This was a
candid first hand account of a Wuhan resident. The simple straight-from-the-heart
prose went viral. Tens of millions of Chinese readers would stay up late each
night just waiting to read the Wuhan diary’s next installment. She continued to
write for two months.
Michael Berry, a professional Chinese-English
translator, was one such reader who decided to share the diary with the world
by translating it into English.
*****
Zhang Zhan was uploading her video clips on WeChat,
Twitter and YouTube. Twitter and YouTube are blocked in China. In February,
Chen Qiushi, who had live-streamed videos from Wuhan during the city’s lockdown
and posted reports on social media, disappeared. Two other independent journalists
were detained. Zhang began questioning the authorities about the detentions and
disappearances.
In March, China expelled thirteen journalists from the
New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. Their
crime was to criticize China’s initial response to the coronavirus. Beijing said
the journalists were dispatched because of US restrictions on how Chinese State
media operates in the USA.
Zhang continued to do her bit, until May 2020, when
she too was arrested.
*****
Fang Fang had planned sixty entries. On the last day,
coincidentally, the government announced Wuhan would reopen on 8 April. On that
day, websites in the US uploaded pre-sale information for the English edition
of Wuhan Diary, written by Fang Fang, translated by Michael Berry.
In the introduction, Fang describes the whole thing to
be a dream, as if the hand of God had been silently arranging everything behind
the scenes.
*****
Zhang Zhan was in jail without being charged until November.
After she announced a hunger strike, she was handcuffed and force-fed through a
tube in her throat. On Monday, 28 December, she was brought to the court room
in a wheelchair. She was charged for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” (article
293 of China’s Penal Code). The court sentenced her to four years in prison.
Her mother who was present, sobbed.
*****
I wonder why the Chinese state treated the two women
so differently. Age? Or material presented - is textual matter less dangerous
for the state than the visual?
In terms of quality, Zhang’s clips look ordinary. The
Chinese clips are without subtitles, and in many, she simply talks facing the
camera. Her viewership was small. That can’t be the reason to put her behind
bars for four years.
Wuhan Diary is short, honest, readable, in a book
format. That may have kept Fang Fang free, while Zhang Zhan languishes in prison.
Ravi
interesting
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