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Wuhan Diary is an online diary written by Chinese author Fang Fang, who shares her personal experiences of living through the Wuhan lockdown through documenting daily posts on Weibo. Although her posts were consistently censored from the time of her initial post in January 25 2020, she continued to post daily until her last post in March 24 2020. In her posts, Fang Fang expresses the psychological challenges of an unprecedented virus and isolation, while speaking out against social injustices, abuse of power, and problematic aspects of the polices put into place during the lockdown. Simultaneously, Fang Fang attempted to create a sense of hope and solace for her local community members who also experienced this frightful period. Wuhan Diary has caused polarized critiques. Although some readers believe the purpose of Wuhan Diary is to represent the feelings of locals of Wuhan, there is a substantial amount of negative critiques surrounding Fang Fang and Wuhan Diary. Several critics believe Fang Fang's posts do not accurately portray the lockdown in Wuhan. These negative criticisms escalated during the announcement of translation into English by Michael Berry and published by HarperCollins. Some of these criticisms included that she was intentionally trying to expose the initial mishandlings of virus for the purpose vilifying the Chinese government, and has created an array of anti-Wuhan Diary acts. Wuhan Diary has received positive reception in international communities, including becoming a bestseller in Germany, and has translated in 18 languages, but has not been published in China.

Wuhan Lockdown
Wuhan was the epicenter of the COVID-19 virus, which resulted in it being the first city in the world to experience the lockdown phenomenon which spread throughout the world. This was only exacerbated by the failure to properly explain the virus to the public, as well as specific events that were held during the time of the virus's discovery, such as a sizable meeting between two Chinese congresses, the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. The government tried suppressing the pandemic with a fair amount of swiftness with very ubiquitous, unbreakable rules and regulations, as well as certain assigned hospitals for containing it. In addition to this, social media was quite heavily utilized by the government, both when it came to reporting on updates and when it came to tracking and monitoring the population's health status using the specific health QR codes. Many people, including the people in Wuhan, took issue with how the Chinese government handled these measures, yet there was also the presence of Chinese nationalists promoting their own nation's handling in comparison to other nations. The people of Wuhan suffered greatly throughout the lockdown period, even going so far as to post their own online diaries to websites like Weibo. For example, a man named Old Ji, a delivery man, would post about his experiences through photos and using hashtags. His posts, extending from the beginning to the end of lockdown, reached an average number of 400. Social media was also used as a platform for movements, such as feminist movements against domestic abuse triggered by the conditions under lockdown; its name was #StandByHer. There was also a food distribution system put in place by the city of Wuhan that distributed food throughout the city, with a significant number of supermarkets and stores being under the ownership of the city of Wuhan itself, as well as companies like the Wuhan Non-staple Food Reserve Company, which handled the distribution of foodstuffs like mutton and pork. Eventually, the lockdown was brought to an end on April 8, 2020, which was met by celebrations in the form of parties and light shows.

Fang Fang
Fang Fang is an author that has courted significant controversy over her years in her profession. She was born in Nanjing, but since she moved along with her family to what is today known as the modern incarnation of Wuhan two years after her birth, she spent most of her life in the city. She grew up amidst the Cultural Revolution and The Great Leap Forward, major events which changed China forever, and as such, they have inspired her prior works to some extent, such as Stakeout, where two intellectuals are found to be criminals. Other works of hers include Min's 1911, which details the beginning stages of the overthrowing of the Qing Dynasty, yet her work, Burial Soft, has been seen as problematic and controversial among left-leaning Chinese, as they claim it depicts China from a more negative viewpoint through its analysis of the ever-widening gap between the rich and poor that Fang Fang has herself observed. Her works have led to her being the recipient of several awards and prizes throughout the duration of her career, such as the Lu Xun Literary Prize, and the Chinese Literature and Communications Prize for Outstanding Writer. It was Wuhan Diary which garnered Fang Fang her most international attention and acclaim, as well as getting her a place on BBC's top 100 women of the year in 2020. Most recently, her novel, 武昌城, has been released under the translated title of The Walls of Wuchang on November 18, 2022. The translation was done by Olivia Milburn and the book was released under the brand, Sinoist Books.

Synopsis
Fang Fang’s Wuhan Diary is a 380-page book that is divided into three sections by months January, February, and March. Wuhan Diary collects 8 weeks of Fang Fang’s nightly entries from her social media. Fang Fang captures her first-hand personal experience of living through the Wuhan lockdown, including her opinions on daily events and news she encounters. Additionally, Fang Fang depicts the psychological challenges of self isolation and living through a time of great uncertainty, while attempting to provide a sense of empathy and hope for her readers who are facing similar experiences. Fang Fang also "also speaks out against social injustice, abuse of power, and other problems which impeded the response to the epidemic and gets herself embroiled in online controversies because of it.”

Style
Wuhan Diary is written in first person and is not written in the typical diary style of writing ‘Dear Diary,’ but the tone and structure of her posts is casual and is not structured in a particular format. Each entry is divided by date and will often start with a single sentence that reflects the content of that entry. In addition to Fang Fang sharing her perspective on news or information surrounding the virus from her ‘doctor friends’, often she will share about her encounters with her friends and family, her online critics, the weather, what she sees, and anecdotes of Wuhan.

Initial Reactions from Chinese Readership
During the initial publication of Fang Fang’s posts, there were several polarized responses from Chinese readers. Some readers questioned Fang Fang’s authenticity of her historical accounts. Several believed Fang Fang was not accurately conveying legitimate and unbiased accounts of Wuhan’s lockdown, as a result of this, many believed Fang Fang’s posts denied the true efforts being made by the Chinese government. Additionally, several have criticized Fang Fang for her critical tone of the Chinese government and claimed that she is unpatriotic. In Fang Fang’s February 17th 2020 submission, Fang Fang describes a response from a reader who asks why her daily posts are primarily focused on her daily life, rather than including mainstream news which celebrates China’s progress against the virus and the government's heroic deeds.

On March 18th 2020, a significant attack that was directed towards Fang Fang in a form of a letter which was posted on social media by an anonymous Chinese high school student which caught widespread readership. In this letter to Fang Fang, the alleged 16-year-old shares their doubts of Fang Fang’s role and responsibilities as a writer during the Wuhan lockdown, shames Fang Fang for exposing the pitfalls of the Chinese government’s handling of the lockdown, and guilts Fang Fang for being ungrateful to her country. Aside from publicly condemning Fang Fang for exposing the Chinese government, the purpose of this letter was to justify the concealment of the unpleasant happenings during the Wuhan lockdown.

At the time prior to the announcement of the publication of Wuhan Diary into English and German, supportive voices for Fang Fang's posts outweighed the negative. Residents of Wuhan have expressed their support for Fang Fang’s posts, as they believed these posts accurately illustrates Wuhan resident’s experiences and emotions during the lockdown. In a South China Morning Post interview, a 63-year-old Wuhan resident who is in support of Fang Fang, believes the critics of Fang Fang's posts misunderstand Fang Fang’s intentions behind her criticisms. The resident explains that her criticism do not represent a distain for neither China as a whole or its people, but rather a criticism of the government. Other contemporary Chinese writers including Yan Lianke and Zhang Kangkang, have also expressed their support for Fang Fang. On February 21st 2020, in an online lecture taught by Lianke at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Lianke conveyed to his masters students of the importance of remembering and documenting individual memories and experiences, as he believes they provide a tool for not repeating both individual and collective mistakes. Lianke goes on to criticize the celebration-focused media that was being produced by Chinese media during the midst of the lockdown, and asserts that this narrative is harmful since it shifts collective awareness to celebrating heroic deeds from investigating those who had died. Lianke suggests writers like Fang Fang are necessary since she provides personal accounts to history, therefore providing real context to the historical events of the Wuhan lockdown.

Chinese Reaction to the International Publications
On April 8th 2020, it was announced that Fang Fang’s posts would be published by HarperCollins in the US and would be available for presale on Amazon. Additionally, Hoffmann and Campe would publish a German translated version soon after. This announcement caused great commotion, conversations surrounding Fang Fang were revitalized on social media and created a surge of overwhelmingly negative debates. At the time of this announcement, infection numbers began to lessen and lockdown restrictions in Wuhan began to be lifted. However at the same time, international communities were experiencing rising infection cases and restrictions were put into place. Due to the widespread infections across the globe, international leaders criticized China for their initial mishandling of the outbreak. With the creation of negative connotations of China and the virus made by international communities, including the US government’s naming of the virus as the ‘Chinese virus’ and ‘Kung Flu,’ caused a surge of narratives which framed Fang Fang as being a liar and a dangerous conspirator against the state. Several critics believed Fang Fang’s negative and critical portrayal of Chinese government’s handling of the outbreak would provide more evidence for China's fault for spread and justified the international community’s anger towards China. They believed Wuhan Diary would create further escalating tension between China and the international communities and would potentially damage these relationships. Critics also believed that Fang Fang was exploiting the dead at expense of her hunger for fame. Additionally, some critics believe that Fang Fang has conspired with the Western powers and had been paid by the CIA to attack China through writing deceitful depictions of the Wuhan lockdown. Although there were still some negative and neutral stances towards this publication, the number of negative opinions overwhelmingly outweighed other opinions.

Government Response
According to the South China Morning Post, there has been little response to Wuhan Diary from government officials. Wu Qiang, an independent political analyst in Beijing, claims that the negative attention placed on Fang Fang’s posts was a tactic to shift public attention from pressuring the government to partake in a in depth investigation of the outbreak. Wu describes “channeling people’s attention into nationalistic sentiment can effectively offset people questioning what is the real social justice after such a severe disaster.” Furthermore, Wu suggests that despite the backlash Fang Fang has endured and due to her past accolades, she is still a trusted voice. Wu explains this logic to be that “many voices from Wuhan have been silenced. The fact that her work was allowed to survive is the art of censorship: to let out a relatively moderate voice to avoid the embarrassment of a completely blank canvass.”

Further Investigations into the Chinese Criticisms of Wuhan Diary
As mentioned above, one of the main criticism of Wuhan Diary is that it exaggerates and embellishes the true state of affairs in Wuhan at the time for the purpose of “handing a knife” to Western media. The motivation for Fang Fang was simply greed and she was more than happy to sell-out her country for international dollars. The quick translation and publication of the novel is a cornerstone for many of the accusations and conspiracy theories levied against Wuhan Diary and Fang Fang. The sociopolitical commentaries and undertones in Wuhan Diary acted as a lighting rod.

There have been claims that Wuhan Diary, its subsequent translation and being published, had some involvement by the United States government. Owing to its quick turn around from a simple collection of Weibo posts to a fully fledged and translated novel. Despite these accusations there is zero evidence that Fang Fang, Michael Berry, or any one from the publishing company, Harper-Collins, had any contact with anyone from the United States government.

Many critics have levied accusations against Wuhan Diary that were never mentioned, implicit or explicit, in the novel. Such as the accusation previously mentioned that Wuhan Diary reinforces the Western perception that this virus started in Wuhan and is a ‘China virus’. Therefore the book argues China should repay the international community with some kind of reparations, or that Wuhan Diary is some kind of commentary on US-China relations. None of this kind of political discussion can be found anywhere within the novel. However, the book quickly began a defining point of one’s character, a clear distinction developing between those who supported Fang Fang and her novel versus those who saw Fang Fang and the novel as a betrayal of her country. Allegedly, this divisive topic has torn some families apart.

Publication Date
The initial publication date of Wuhan Diary was planned for May 19th, (2020) however two days later on May 21st was Two Sessions(LiangHui), a large annual conference held by the CCP. Despite the publication date of Wuhan Diary being announced before the date of Two Sessions was announced, people speculated and levied accusations against Michael Berry and the publishing company(Harper Collins) that this was an intentional decision; in an attempt to disrupt the upcoming LiangHui. These accusations “generated dozens of news stories, and hundreds of Weibo attacks”. The publication date would be changed to June 2020 in an attempt to “avoid the slightest semblance that we might be trying to do something like that”.

Original Title Issue
In the announcement of Wuhan Diary’s presale on Amazon on April 8th 2020, the original title was depicted as "WUHAN DIARY: DISPATCHES from the ORIGINAL EPICENTRE.” In an academic study by Yu, Zheng & Shao describes the mechanism of this title was to “demonstrated its documentary value to readers and enticed them to be convinced of its authenticity, but also spurred the association between Wuhan and the origin of the novel coronavirus, with the concomitant potential of leading readers to a perception of Wuhan as the origin of the virus.” In its summary on Amazon, the book was described as “a powerful first account of life in Wuhan COVID-19 outbreak and the toll of this deadly calamity on families and individual lives.” It is described by Yu that this publication framed China as authoritative and oppressive, and conveyed Fang Fang as a courageous voice who spoke out against China’s corruption. Similarly to many Chinese criticisms of this book, several were outraged at the title and advertisement of Wuhan Diary, as they were concerned with its association of Wuhan being the place of origin of the virus, rather than the book’s purpose of sharing the lived experiences of Wuhan’s lockdown. Many critics directed this anger to Fang Fang and Michael Berry, however in an interview with a magazine named Scholar, Fang Fang shares that due to her limited English, she was unable to understand the nuanced implications of this title, and was not consulted on the summary of her book. Similarly, Berry confirmed that neither Berry or Fang Fang had written this summary but was created by the publisher’s sales department and was released without either of their consent. In response to the uproar on social media, two days after on April 10th 2020, the title was changed to “WUHAN DIARY: DISPATCHES from a QUARANTINED CITY” to disassociate Wuhan being the origin of the virus.

Big Character Posters
Some big character posters criticizing Fang Fang, and particularly the overseas publication of Wuhan Diary, began to appear around Wuhan. The authenticity and scale of these posters is unverifiable.

Book Reviews
Even before Wuhan Diary was published, many negative book reviews, written in both English and Chinese, were released internationally. However, many of these book reviews, such as Great Wuhan But Bad Diary and 方方日记批判, have since disappeared from international markets and are difficult to find.

English
The original posts on Weibo and WeChat were translated into English by Michael Berry, a Professor of Asian Languages & Culture at UCLA and the director of UCLA Center for Chinese Studies. Berry has translated numerous Chinese texts, such as The Song of Everlasting Sorrow and Remains of Life. Berry began translating Fang Fang’s Weibo posts in February 2020, stating “I immediately decided to put all of my other projects aside and began translating her blog; it was a story the world needed to hear.”

German
Wuhan diary was translated into German by Michael Kahn-Ackermann and published by Hoffmann und Campe on the 30th of May, 2020. Michael has a long history of study and translating Chinese literature, studying Asian studies and language at both the University of Munich and Peking University. Most known for his role in founding a Goethe-Institut in Beijing in 1988. Michael has translated numerous works by renowned Chinese writer Zhang Jie. On the 2nd of May, 2022 another one of Michael’s translations of Fang Fang’s works, Wütendes Feuer, was published.