Virus, masks, unwashed hands, and too much panic. A perspective as the Wuhan Novel Coronavirus is spreading throughout China.
I am back in China.
Originally, I have come here only for Chinese language classes. As assumed, it would be very difficult to get my Mandarin knowledge kickstarted. The strategy: intensive courses - six hours a day, five days a week. The outcome is - how to put this - rather interesting. I can only use a handful of sentences and most of these only in a very limited capacity as I am then not yet capable of understanding their replies. So either they immediately get what I stuttered, or they have me staring into the shop or restaurant smiling while taking out my phone to use a technology-based alternative to speaking. My performance in class feels no different. My teachers have all been giving their best to teach me how to structure sentences and use words that more and more sound all the same to my ears. Still, I am mostly just staring onto the whiteboard and replying 我不知道 (I don’t understand) or 我忘了 (I forgot). It is somehow as I had expected, nevertheless I start feeling bad for my teachers . We all need to continue to have some patience.
Happy Chinese New Year - a special experience.
Since I have come here, I could read every now and then about a new virus spreading, originating in central China. Now, a few weeks later, rumours have the first case reported in the town I am living in.
What to believe and how much worrying is healthy?
It has been three days since the news has rapidly caught up with reality. There had been barely any cases reported outside of Wuhan until then and only a few students I know sounded seriously worried about getting sick.
Well, that has changed. Yesterday was Lunar New Year’s Eve and people have travelled all over the country to meet their loved ones. An impressive logistical effort with a major side effect - the virus has also travelled on high-speed rail and it started to spread. From about 500 cases, there are now way over a thousand reported cases with many more to come.
While I had not been able to find much information on how the virus spreads, I begin to observe how fear circulates. Unsurprisingly, I have learned about a particular conspiracy theory I find particularly interesting. The USA under Donald Trump experimenting on biological warfare in China, his declared enemy. Now, as tempting as this sounds, this would backfire terribly with about 3 million Chinese visitors to the US each year, almost immediately infecting most major American cities.
Visibly the fear has spread around many individuals’ mouths. Now the vast majority is wearing surgical masks in public. While they do not prevent inhalation of airborne germs and viruses, they have still become quite symbolic. Collective behaviour is not collective thinking. On occasional toilet visits soap seemed only occasionally used, hand sanitiser was rarely seen, but nose picking and reaching into the mouth with bare hands were a frequent sight.
The growing fear has also reached our school. Before our common CNY dinner, we were all asked to wear a mask to enter the restaurant - including me. Half of our CNY activities were cancelled and we are as of today discouraged from going outside at all.
After sitting and studying all day in the local Starbucks - to only heated, dry and comfortable coffee place I could find - I am now utterly exhausted in bed, writing. Surprisingly, the slight panic, the constant sight of face masks, nervous staff disinfecting, me rubbing my hands in sanitiser and thinking of The Virus each and every time someone coughed, has got to me.
I am in China. I hear the rain outside my window and dozens of questions in my head. I am not wearing a mask.
