A resident of Hubei province, the center of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, has been keeping a personal log since late December when the “rumor” of the virus had not begun spreading yet. These day-by-day entries show the readers how ordinary families in the Hubei province cope with growing hardships caused by the epidemic. As the original author is still updating the log, we will follow this story and release the translation of the latest entry accordingly. In this issue, we have included entries from late December to mid-February. If you are interested in following this Hubei resident’s story, please refer to the Series page (coming up soon) and follow our social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Humans of Wuhan has received the author’s authorization to translate this journal and publish it on our website. We hope our readers of the English language world will be touched by this resident’s experience during this devastating event.
Original Author: Fun404Translators: Daisy D, Schewimmer, Vivien Xi, WQ, Bella_ZEditors: Sheepea, Bella Z, S.GaoProofreaders: Dana D, EH
Late December, Before the outbreak | We are getting engagedAt the urging of my parents, my boyfriend and I decided to introduce our parents to each other and get engaged during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday. Thus, I planned my itinerary in advance: flying to Wuhan, taking a high-speed train to my town, visiting my boyfriend’s family on the second day of the CNY holiday, and coming back to my parents’ house with them. (Every stop of this entire trip was required to go through Wuhan airport or Wuhan railway station.) Early January | The whistle-blowerI saw a screenshot of Dr. Li Wenliang’s chat history in Wechat on Douban (Editor’s note: a popular social media platform where original authors post their journal entries) saying that there had been two cases of a SARS-like virus diagnosed in Wuhan. (Editor’s note: Dr. Li Wenliang was one of the eight doctors who warned about the outbreak but was investigated by the police for “spreading rumors”.) My anxiety immediately kicked in. After talking to my boyfriend, we decided to change our tickets to avoid transit in Wuhan. Before we left, I ordered a lot of masks and alcohol wipes and sent them to our families. At that time, it only cost 228 RMB (about $33) for fifty N95 masks and 39 RMB (about $5.60) for fifty medical masks. (Again, we are grateful for Dr. Li Wengliang for what he did.) January 21st | I need to go back homeThe news of the severe epidemic outbreak began to spread, and my train back to Hubei province was the next day. I was debating whether or not I should go back to Hubei because I already knew how severe the situation was. I know my father too well: he is a stubborn Communist party member. He firmly believed that this was undoubtedly a false alarm because of the government’s official announcements: the epidemic was “preventable and controllable,” and the publicized severity was just a rumor. But if I go back and repeatedly tell him how severe the situation is, he would be willing to stay at home just to prevent me from being infected or to relieve my anxiety. Also in the worst-case scenario, they would need me.After pondering over and over and discussing with my boyfriend, we decided to cancel his parents’ visit to my parents’ house. I canceled all the plane tickets and prepared to head back to my hometown the next day. January 22nd | I’m homeI did not take off my mask even once during the whole trip. At the station, most of the people wearing masks were young, but I barely saw a senior doing the same. My parents picked me up. After getting into the car, I told them that the situation was very serious and that we shouldn’t take it lightly. It wasn’t until this moment that Mom complained to me that my Dad went out drinking and playing mahjong with friends who came back from Wuhan on the night of Jan 21st.This hit me like thunder from the clear sky; I was so angry. I asked my dad, “Why didn’t you take my repeated advice seriously? Why did you go to a gathering at such a risky time, with people from Wuhan?”Dad blamed me for making something out of nothing, saying that the government had announced this virus outbreak was “preventable and controllable,” there was “no human-to-human transmission,” and “those reports about the severity were rumors.” January 23rd | Day 1 of Quarantine | My Dad had a mild coughWuhan declared a lockdown. Dr. Zhong Nanshan confirmed human-to-human transmission of the virus. (Editor’s note: Dr. Zhong Nanshan is a highly regarded Chinese epidemiologist and pulmonologist who discovered the SARS coronavirus in 2003.) It wasn’t until then that my parents began to realize how serious the situation was. It made me even more worried that Dad now had a mild cough. Although according to my parents, he had been coughing for a few weeks so it should have nothing to do with the virus. We rushed to a pharmacy and bought a thermometer before it closed. With that thermometer, we took our temperatures several times in one day. Fortunately, they were all normal. By my request, we started using serving chopsticks strictly, kept our distance when talking to each other, and stayed in our separate rooms as much as possible. January 24th | Day 2 of Quarantine | I started volunteeringMy dad’s temperature was normal and so was his mental state. Although his coughing didn’t get worse either, we still needed to continue observing his condition.I was invited to a volunteer group to support local hospitals in Hubei province. I wanted to volunteer with the hope that it would help me feel less powerless and distract me from my anxiety.I made some progress. My former colleague A connected our volunteer group to the alumni association of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Editor’s note: one of the most powerful non-government organizations during this epidemic). A friend of another former colleague B was able to donate medical supplies to some hospitals with the help from a social media company called New Post-90s Generation. My former colleague C raised funds from a food company, Baicaowei. A lot of friends forwarded me the contact info of doctors from different hospitals that needed supplies. Some friends sent me their donations directly through Wechat.It was at that moment when I realized that every individual plays a key role, not only in the chain of infection but also in the spread of kindness. January 25th | Day 3 of Quarantine | My WeChat account was reportedMy dad was still coughing, but at least his temperature was normal. I finally convinced him to stop smoking. For some unknown reason, my WeChat account was reported for inappropriate use (Editor’s note: attached is a picture of the system warning from WeChat). I was quite upset today.
January 26th | Day 4 of Quarantine | My dad had chest painMy dad started to have chest pains when he coughed. Everyone was panicking.But I insisted on not going to the hospital. He’d be exposed to greater risks in the hospital, given that the epidemic was also quite serious here. I started to regret not taking my parents out of Hubei earlier; at least they’d be able to see a doctor. Just to give it a try, I downloaded the WeDoctor app (Editor’s note: an online doctor service platform) and found a chief respiratory physician. The doctor gave him a prescription for his condition.
Thanks to the lax regulations on prescriptions, my dad was able to buy some antibiotics after visiting several pharmacies. January 27th | Day 5 of Quarantine | My Dad’s getting better Dad took some medicine, and his coughing immediately calmed.We felt a little relieved. January 28th | Day 6 of Quarantine | Will the lockdown end by Mid-Feb?Dad’s symptoms kept getting better.At that time I still had the fantasy that the lockdown would end by Feb 14th. January 29th | Day 7 of Quarantine | We are running out of veggiesDad stopped taking his medication and started smoking again. Thank God, his coughing didn’t come back.We are running low on vegetables. Mom called some friends who own restaurants. Some farmers who normally deliver produce for the restaurants said they would send us some vegetables. January 30th, Day 8 of Quarantine | The farmer was stopped at the city borderThe farmer’s truck was stopped on its way into the city. We made an appointment to pick it up at the city border tomorrow. We will have to walk there. January 31st | Day 9 of Quarantine | A colleague of my aunt diedWe got vegetables. Mom went to get some fruit from a fruit wholesaler we know. They were complaining to Mom that a roomful of fruit was rotting and that they had no idea when they would be able to start selling again.Mom wanted to buy some more but could only get one bag before she had to return home; some staff from the neighborhood committee were rushing everyone.Aunt called and told us that a colleague of hers had a fever after coming back from Wuhan. She was hospitalized but died before she could be diagnosed today. February 1st | Day 10 of Quarantine | We are alive while others are crying for helpWe have been self-quarantined for ten days. It seems that we are not infected. We were even able to feed ourselves some fresh fruits and vegetables. It is so surreal for me to live in the same world as those who are crying for help online. February 5th | Day 14 of Quarantine | We are past the safe periodWe are finally clear. I opened a bottle of wine to celebrate. February 6th | Day 15 of Quarantine | More people are dyingMy mom called her friends in Wuhan to ask about the situation and felt relieved that her friend got a lot of vegetables from the farmers nearby before the lockdown. Her friend lived in Hanyang, which was not as severely affected by the epidemic. However, we heard that the situation in Hankou was far from optimistic as she described how “families are dying one after another.” (Editor’s note: Wuhan is a city named and conglomerated by three towns, Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang).At 9:30 p.m, Dr. Li Wenliang passed away. February 7th | Day 16 of Quarantine | Mandatory temperature checkOut of nowhere, residents in our town are now required to cooperate with the door-to-door temperature checks going forward. Having self-quarantined for sixteen days with my family, I was extremely angry. Those neighborhood committee staff went from house to house to do their check-ups, but their thermometers were not sterilized at all. Under my strong opposition, the staff agreed that they would no longer come inside our house. Instead, they would just ask for updated temperatures outside the door. February 8th | Day 17 of Quarantine | The streets are being cleaned My town began to clean the streets with disinfectants. February 9th | Day 18 of Quarantine | Our financial lossMy mom roughly calculated our financial loss around the CNY as she owns a shop. The loss would be about 40K to 50K RMB (about $6K to $7K). She asked my dad, “Who will compensate us for our loss? Will the government gives us money?” My dad burst out laughing and said, “You gotta be dreaming.” February 10th | Day 19 of Quarantine | A mainstream song and a censored functionOur neighbors in the same building were playing the song “Over the Golden Hill of Beijing” (Editor’s note: a Tibetan folk song appraising the efforts made by the Chinese Communist Party, which became mainstream in the 1970s). I have been self-quarantined for 19 days now without leaving our place. I’ve been journaling simple events throughout the past two days to record what normal Hubei families like us are going through. I wanted to post them on Douban, but the social media platform has temporarily shut down the journaling function (due to censorship). February 11th | Day 20 of Quarantine | Exhausted and desperateToday is the 20th day that we have been self-quarantined. Some staff came to check our temperatures and demanded that we open the door. They even threatened to report us to the local government if we refused to open the door. After holding on for so long, this is the first time that I feel like crying over this whole self-quarantine situation. I felt relatively calm yesterday, and I was grateful that my family and I dodged a bullet. However, after waking up today, my dreams were shattered, and I began to live under the fear of all the uncertainties. I wanted to cry but had no tears. This is the reality for everybody in Hubei now: we have to try our very best and be extremely lucky to save ourselves and our family. But it also dawned on us that any destruction from the outside will crush all our efforts. February 12th | Day 21 of Quarantine | Coping with mandatory temperature checkLast night, my friend advised me to put a note with all my measured temperatures on my door. This morning, I posted the note immediately after I measured our temperatures. As expected, no one came to knock on our door today. I really hope that everything can go smoothly until the epidemic ends. February 13th | Day 22 of Quarantine | We tried to order more veggies and fruitsEver since I started putting the note with our measured temperatures on our door, no one has knocked on our door again. Today, I joined some WeChat group chats for buying fruits and vegetables. I learned that groceries could be delivered to the gate of our neighborhood, so I bought 5 lbs of strawberries and a bunch of vegetables. February 15th | Day 24 of Quarantine | Veggies were not deliveredThe groceries I ordered two days ago were never delivered. Today we were told that they wouldn’t be delivered anymore because of the lockdown in our neighborhood. No one was allowed to go out anymore. It snowed today, and I don’t know how much longer the vegetables that we have now can last. We’ll think of some other ways. February 16th | Day 25 of Quarantine | Is it difficult to get groceries in Hubei now?I tried every single way possible and still couldn’t get any groceries. Luckily, the neighborhood committee gave us a copy of a WeChat QR code and said that we could join the group chat to order groceries. After she left, we scanned the QR code only to find out that the group chat was already full, with a total of 200 people in there. My mom had to call her friend who also works in the neighborhood committee to add her to a different group chat. There was quite a variety of vegetables and even fresh meat and fish. To place an order, we had to use an app named Follow Up. The menu list on the app was so long that it was super inconvenient to navigate. After all the hassle, I finally placed my order. All I could do now was to wait for it to be delivered and to pray that I would receive it tomorrow,.Is it difficult to buy groceries in Hubei? Honestly, for now, it’s not too difficult. Take our neighborhood management methods as an example: we are not allowed to go outside but can order groceries online through group chats. The supermarket staff and neighborhood committees will deliver the food to our door, and we can place an order every three days. All in all, you can definitely get food if you’re willing to wait for a couple of days. But let’s think of those who are not as tech-savvy: the first step of simply joining the WeChat group chat to order can be a barrier to so many people. The neighborhood committee staff have kindly left a phone number for those who do not know how to join a group chat. Since there is only one number for a whole neighborhood, this would not be an easy phone call to make.Now let’s assume the situation becomes a little worse. Right now there is still relatively ample supply where we are. What if the supplies become limited after a while? If everyone starts buying and hoarding out of anxiety, would it still be easy for us to get groceries? Honestly, I have no idea.
