Wuhan Residents Mourned the Dead | Qingming Special Issue

Qingming, also known as Tomb-sweeping Day, is one of the most important traditional festivals in Chinese culture. During the Qingming Festival, people visit the graves of their ancestors and lost family members with offerings of flowers, food, incense, and joss money. This year, China made the first day of Qingming, April 4th, Saturday, a national mourning day for those who died in the COVID-19 pandemic: flags were flown to the half-mast; website pages were turned to black and white; public recreation activities were suspended. Chinese across the country observed three minutes of ‘silence’ at 10 am while sirens wailing and vehicles sounding their horns. Amid the fear of another outbreak, authorities have suspended the regular Tomb-sweeping customs this year. Many people found their own way to pay tribute to the deceased. In observing Qingming Festival, Humans of Wuhan presents the English translations of two widespread pieces on Weibo: Do Not Forget, and Wuhan Residents Mourned the Dead.

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A quote from Lu Xun, translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang. “After mourning for the dead, we must swear to be pure, intelligent, brave, aspiring and progressive. We must tear off every mask. We must do away with all stupidity and tyranny in the world which injure others as well as ourselves. After mourning for the dead, we must swear to get rid of the meaningless suffering which blights our lives. We must do away with all stupidity and tyranny which create and relish the sufferings of others. We must also swear to see to it that all mankind knows legitimate happiness.”July 1918Lu Xun, My Views on Chastity. In Selected Works of Lu Hsun, vol. 2, 11-24. Foreign Languages Press, 1957.

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Source: 凹凸镜DOC (WeChat)Photography: 沙丘 OG Editor: Sunny Translator: ZiningEditor: Ironmonger

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In Wuhan’s Dayu Legend Garden on Binjiang Avenue, a young man holding a bouquet of chrysanthemums and some spirit money walked towards the Yangtze River, shortly before the official 10 am memorial. He cast the chrysanthemum petals into the water, followed by the spirit money. After he left, a woman showed up, also holding a bouquet of chrysanthemums. Having observed a moment’s silence, she threw the bouquet into the river before bowing three times by the river’s edge. It was very quiet in the park and I didn’t go up to disturb them. Instead, I just looked on as they walked away. Shortly after, at 10 am on April 4th, the car horns honked and the sirens wailed as the river sobbed.(Translator’s Note: the chrysanthemum culturally symbolizes longevity and is usually associated with funeral services; spirit money, also known as joss paper is often burned as offerings during the Tomb Sweeping Festival)

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In Wuhan, the official memorial was held at River Bank Park on Yiyuan Road at 10 am on April 4th. At the park’s entrance, some residents who were unable to enter paid their respects beside the bouquets that had been sent from netizens across the country. The handwriting on many of the cards looked alike. I imagine these were all ordered through the same nearby florists.

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On the evening of April 4th, on Dongting Street, a few people were burning joss paper on the sidewalk to pray for their deceased family members. A man stood up, checking to see if he was being watched [as burning joss paper on streets was forbidden]. Waiting until his three fires were all but burned out, he quickly cleaned up the ashes and left, telling me that he lived close by and he had lost a family member to the coronavirus. Right next to the man, an elderly man and a woman recited as they burned joss paper. As the fires burned out, the elderly man kowtowed three times to the three little piles of ash.