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ghiblies's review against another edition
3.5
This was a valuable and informative read, but I feel like I read it all wrong. This isn't the fault of the book, just the circumstances. To clarify:
1. I don't think I should have read this as an audiobook. I know that I speed through them and usually put them on in the background while doing something else (i.e. not fully focusing). I think this should have been read as it was intended, as daily posts, allowing time for reflection. Some of the things Fang Fang touched on really impacted me emotionally and I didn't process any of those feelings, I just squashed them down and moved on. I think that's why I feel hollow when I recall my time reading this book.
2. I should have read this in Chinese. Michael Berry's translation is very good but I wish I could have connected with Fang Fang's meaning directly. I think it would have had more emotional impact and I'd be able to understand why her daily posts became so important to all those thousands of people. All this to say, I'm probably going to reread this in Chinese at some point.
I’ll also add, it did become very repetitive in the middle, but 1. that's exactly how quarantine was lol and 2. it's a diary and Fang Fang did say she didn't edit her posts for this book. So long as you can discern that I think most readers will take a lot from this book.
1. I don't think I should have read this as an audiobook. I know that I speed through them and usually put them on in the background while doing something else (i.e. not fully focusing). I think this should have been read as it was intended, as daily posts, allowing time for reflection. Some of the things Fang Fang touched on really impacted me emotionally and I didn't process any of those feelings, I just squashed them down and moved on. I think that's why I feel hollow when I recall my time reading this book.
2. I should have read this in Chinese. Michael Berry's translation is very good but I wish I could have connected with Fang Fang's meaning directly. I think it would have had more emotional impact and I'd be able to understand why her daily posts became so important to all those thousands of people. All this to say, I'm probably going to reread this in Chinese at some point.
I’ll also add, it did become very repetitive in the middle, but 1. that's exactly how quarantine was lol and 2. it's a diary and Fang Fang did say she didn't edit her posts for this book. So long as you can discern that I think most readers will take a lot from this book.
careinthelibrary's review against another edition
3.0
Wuhan Diary by Fang Fang was a glimpse into the beginning of our new world. This is a first-hand account of the disbelief and uncertainty of the early days of COVID-19. This is a diary from one of China's most beloved writers though it's the first from her that I've ever read. Spanning about three months, Fang writes about the public, medical, and governmental reactions and response to the coronavirus and the phases of the lockdown that happened in the Chinese province where she has lived for decades. This book, despite being one woman's experience written in a short period of time and a small amount of space, relies on early observations from friends in the medical field, news reports (false and accurate), hateful and supportive comments on her diary entries, rumours, and videos to build a picture of Wuhan's millions in isolation. It felt like she made an effort to represent the emotions, thoughts, and concerns of the people of her city, not just her own privileged perspective. It was too long with lots of repetitive thoughts and refrains.
This is a diary, of course. Just compiled together thoughts that probably were repetitively chiming through her mind. Very little if any editing has taken place to make this volume more cohesive and "narrative-like". That being said, some parts of this were poetic and emotionally heavy. When Dr Li Wenliang, an early death in the coronavirus crisis who is seen as a whistleblower about the spread and severity of the illness, died, Fang Fang's reaction to his loss was beautiful and affecting. "During the afternoon someone here in Wuhan was heard screaming, "The people of Wuhan will take care of Li Wenliang's family!" There are many people who share that sentiment. To commemorate Dr. Li, tonight everyone in Wuhan plans to turn off their lights, then at exactly the time he passed away overnight, we will shine flashlights or cellphone lights into the sky while whistling for him. During this dark, heavy night, Li Wenliang will be our light. This quarantine has been going on so long now, what else can the people of Wuhan do to release the depression, sadness, and anger in their hearts? Perhaps this is all we can do."
If you're curious about the perspective of a moderate Wuhanese perspective of the pandemic that affects us all, I recommend this title.
This is a diary, of course. Just compiled together thoughts that probably were repetitively chiming through her mind. Very little if any editing has taken place to make this volume more cohesive and "narrative-like". That being said, some parts of this were poetic and emotionally heavy. When Dr Li Wenliang, an early death in the coronavirus crisis who is seen as a whistleblower about the spread and severity of the illness, died, Fang Fang's reaction to his loss was beautiful and affecting. "During the afternoon someone here in Wuhan was heard screaming, "The people of Wuhan will take care of Li Wenliang's family!" There are many people who share that sentiment. To commemorate Dr. Li, tonight everyone in Wuhan plans to turn off their lights, then at exactly the time he passed away overnight, we will shine flashlights or cellphone lights into the sky while whistling for him. During this dark, heavy night, Li Wenliang will be our light. This quarantine has been going on so long now, what else can the people of Wuhan do to release the depression, sadness, and anger in their hearts? Perhaps this is all we can do."
If you're curious about the perspective of a moderate Wuhanese perspective of the pandemic that affects us all, I recommend this title.
surbhibee's review against another edition
4.0
Wuhan Diary is a collection of blog posts written by Chinese author Fang Fang, over the course of 60 days of Wuhan’s citywide quarantine starting January 25, 2020 during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The blog posts were originally written in Chinese and shared on social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo as an account of Fang Fang’s daily life under quarantine. I read the book in June 2020, as cases in Delhi continued to rise, and the emotional states and thought processes Fang Fang describes felt eerily similar to what I had experienced during various points of my own quarantine.
In the prologue (or it might have been the epilogue) Fang Fang notes that she did not edit the blog posts when they were compiled into the book. The collection is particularly unique because of its rawness — it offers insights into her thinking in the moment, untainted by any retrospective reevaluations. Wuhan Diary is a fantastic account of the early days of the pandemic precisely because it does not give us the luxury of 20/20 hindsight. Fang Fang powerfully documents the paranoia, fear, sadness, and anxieties the people of Wuhan experienced. Many entries are a pastiche of social media posts and WeChat forwards. Unlike mainstream media coverage, she rarely looks to studies or authorities for information, instead relying on messages from friends and forwards in group chats — perhaps a more accurate representation of many people’s experiences of the pandemic. She is aware of this, writing, “As an independent writer, [I] only have my own tiny perspective on things. The only things I can pay attention to and experience are those little details that are happening around me and those real people I encounter in my life. And so that’s all I can write.”
In consuming Chinese language social media posts in the form of an English language book, we irreversibly change some aspects of the experience that real-time readers in China would’ve had.
The translation from Chinese was ably executed in record time by Michael Berry. As a consequence of being a translation of real-time Chinese blog posts, the writing feels simplistic at times and there were some entries that I skimmed through. However, the book still has some exquisite turns of phrase and metaphors, such as, “The powerful people of this world, the so-called victors, often don’t really care about literature; for them, literature is just a flowery adornment. But for the weak and dispossessed, literature is often a bright light that shines through one’s life, it is a wreath of straw you can cling to for support while floating down the river, it is the savior you can turn to when you are reaching the end.”
Fang Fang was targeted with a lot of vitriol from some sections of Chinese society due to her critiques of the government response (critiques which are mild by many international standards). She touches upon some of these trolls and criticisms in her later entries, though by rendering dynamic social media posts into static pages, we lose the ability to see the comments that she didn’t choose to explicitly reflect in her writing. By being unable to scroll through comment sections and having no access to the universe of Chinese social media, I only know of those aspects of the trolling (as well as support) that Fang Fang talks about (though internet searches for news articles fill this gap somewhat).
Initially, I was also annoyed by the seeming changing tone of the entries. At many points Fang Fang questions government authorities and calls out their missteps, at some others she urges readers to “put our faith in our leaders; we need to believe in them.” Upon more thought however, I realised that this sort of vacillation does not point to inconsistencies or incoherence, but rather is a truer depiction of our changing daily mental states. I, too, am not beyond being satisfied by responses of the Delhi government on one day and frustrated the next. The critiques offered by Fang Fang may seem mild to foreigners but the severe backlash it attracted is a testament to how bold her writing was.
I don't always post on Goodreads (ahem Amazon ahem) but you can read this and other reviews here!
In the prologue (or it might have been the epilogue) Fang Fang notes that she did not edit the blog posts when they were compiled into the book. The collection is particularly unique because of its rawness — it offers insights into her thinking in the moment, untainted by any retrospective reevaluations. Wuhan Diary is a fantastic account of the early days of the pandemic precisely because it does not give us the luxury of 20/20 hindsight. Fang Fang powerfully documents the paranoia, fear, sadness, and anxieties the people of Wuhan experienced. Many entries are a pastiche of social media posts and WeChat forwards. Unlike mainstream media coverage, she rarely looks to studies or authorities for information, instead relying on messages from friends and forwards in group chats — perhaps a more accurate representation of many people’s experiences of the pandemic. She is aware of this, writing, “As an independent writer, [I] only have my own tiny perspective on things. The only things I can pay attention to and experience are those little details that are happening around me and those real people I encounter in my life. And so that’s all I can write.”
In consuming Chinese language social media posts in the form of an English language book, we irreversibly change some aspects of the experience that real-time readers in China would’ve had.
The translation from Chinese was ably executed in record time by Michael Berry. As a consequence of being a translation of real-time Chinese blog posts, the writing feels simplistic at times and there were some entries that I skimmed through. However, the book still has some exquisite turns of phrase and metaphors, such as, “The powerful people of this world, the so-called victors, often don’t really care about literature; for them, literature is just a flowery adornment. But for the weak and dispossessed, literature is often a bright light that shines through one’s life, it is a wreath of straw you can cling to for support while floating down the river, it is the savior you can turn to when you are reaching the end.”
Fang Fang was targeted with a lot of vitriol from some sections of Chinese society due to her critiques of the government response (critiques which are mild by many international standards). She touches upon some of these trolls and criticisms in her later entries, though by rendering dynamic social media posts into static pages, we lose the ability to see the comments that she didn’t choose to explicitly reflect in her writing. By being unable to scroll through comment sections and having no access to the universe of Chinese social media, I only know of those aspects of the trolling (as well as support) that Fang Fang talks about (though internet searches for news articles fill this gap somewhat).
Initially, I was also annoyed by the seeming changing tone of the entries. At many points Fang Fang questions government authorities and calls out their missteps, at some others she urges readers to “put our faith in our leaders; we need to believe in them.” Upon more thought however, I realised that this sort of vacillation does not point to inconsistencies or incoherence, but rather is a truer depiction of our changing daily mental states. I, too, am not beyond being satisfied by responses of the Delhi government on one day and frustrated the next. The critiques offered by Fang Fang may seem mild to foreigners but the severe backlash it attracted is a testament to how bold her writing was.
I don't always post on Goodreads (ahem Amazon ahem) but you can read this and other reviews here!
ericattang's review against another edition
3.0
The title speaks for itself –– a diary.
To those who lash out on this book and denouncing it for being biased, read it like you read a diary. A diary is a momento, a piece of oral history. You don’t read Voices from Chernobyl and expect to understand a comprehensive, objective, deductive research paper with all facts about the nuclear disaster. You read a diary to hear a voice, to learn about perspectives not fit for traditional journalism. Fang Fang’s diary is one of the tiny puzzles that make up the big picture. Read critically and respect the author’s vantage point.
Everyone has the right to reflect on their own thoughts, obtain information, and document history from their microcosmic point of view. Less nationalistic sentiments entangled when you review Fang Fang’s book, please.
I also admit that the quality of her writing in this book is quite mediocre.
To those who lash out on this book and denouncing it for being biased, read it like you read a diary. A diary is a momento, a piece of oral history. You don’t read Voices from Chernobyl and expect to understand a comprehensive, objective, deductive research paper with all facts about the nuclear disaster. You read a diary to hear a voice, to learn about perspectives not fit for traditional journalism. Fang Fang’s diary is one of the tiny puzzles that make up the big picture. Read critically and respect the author’s vantage point.
Everyone has the right to reflect on their own thoughts, obtain information, and document history from their microcosmic point of view. Less nationalistic sentiments entangled when you review Fang Fang’s book, please.
I also admit that the quality of her writing in this book is quite mediocre.
busboysandbellhops's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
3.5
thea_h's review
3.0
was a little reddundant, but i guess that could have been expected.
interesting when it comes to learning about Chinese Culture and mindset a little more, but didn't necessarily raise a lot of new ideas, especially when it comes to the virus - it wasn't necessarily a unique take on lockdown or anything.
interesting when it comes to learning about Chinese Culture and mindset a little more, but didn't necessarily raise a lot of new ideas, especially when it comes to the virus - it wasn't necessarily a unique take on lockdown or anything.