National Service: A Coronavirus Diary
“In the West, you talk more about freedom or human rights, but right now in China, we’re talking about the matter of life or death”
On January 23rd I flew to Shanghai from the UK to spend Chinese New Year with my family. My family live across Shanghai, Shenzhen, Harbin, and Dongguan. Since leaving China in 1994 I have never spent Chinese New Year with them. I have two nephews I have never met, my auntie has been diagnosed with cancer, and my grandfather had a serious hospitalisation over Christmas that left us all very worried. I bought a polaroid camera so that when we took family pictures I could give them a physical copy immediately; my grandfather finds it hard to look at things on screens. But we ended up cancelling our trip to Harbin amid fears of travelling during the 2019-nCov outbreak and potentially increasing the risk of infection for my auntie and grandfather. Instead, I used the camera to document the restricted days in Shanghai.
The images, text, and reflections document up to 9th Feb 2020.
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