Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands(!!!)
Hello, dear reader. How are you? How's the situation at your location right now? Are you staying home? What’s the general atmosphere, are you stocking up on food (and toilet paper as we’ve heard), and are you wearing mask?
This is going to be a long fight. We are all doing a lot of thinking, and we all know a lot of things will be changed after this pandemic. Yan and I want to send our thoughts and prayers to all of you. We hope all of your family members and closed ones are staying healthy, and more importantly, keeping calm, and washing your hands frequently (please!!!).
Till next time, (Stay indoor!!! Do not go out!!!)
-Biyi and Yan.
P.S. A few days ago, a Chinese female internet influencer we followed got into trouble. While paying a visit to London with her British spouse, the influencer expressed on Weibo that she was heart-broken by the local situation and “felt apologetic (as a Chinese)”. Such comment triggered massive online hatred to the extent that she took down her post and apologized to her Chinese followers.
Zhuzi, the influencer's now-deleted post: "I know a pandemic like this is beyond human control, but having witnessed what's going on in Europe, I cannot help but to say endless sorry from my heart".
“While I’m being proud of our nation’s effort of fighting against the pandemic, you are being apologetic to foreigners, assuming the virus comes from China. How dare you to draw that conclusion without any clear evidence! Who gave you the right to feel sorry!” A classical response from angry netizens.
We don’t know how to think about this incident, so we want to reach out and ask your opinion. Should we apologize? Is it necessary? Is it right? Who should represent whom? Or perhaps, in the end of the day, should we even be arguing about such matter in the current situation?
As always, so many questions, never a right answer.
(Wash your hands!!!)
In US or UK, if something sad or bad happened to a person, his(or her) friends would always say “I feel so sorry to…” If translate this into Chinese, shouldn’t it be “我很抱歉”……？
As always it’s a balance, the priority should be on coming together and overcoming the challenges we face. However, the false stories that have been allowed to circulate on a very regulated domestic social media do not help the situation (there is still no evidence of a case outside China prior to those in Wuhan). Eventually, honest dialogue and accountability are needed to provide lessons learned and improved processes for a proper response. I’d break down this as the main topics that need a hard look at. 1. Initial response to the outbreak in Wuhan 2. Regulations on wild animals… Read more »
You wrote,
“Should we apologize? Is it necessary? Is it right? Who should represent whom? Or perhaps, in the end of the day, should we even be arguing about such matter in the current situation?”
If government has misrepresented the seriousness of coronavirus, it should apologize to Chinese citizens and citizens around the world. It should also ban so-called wet markets.
I don’t think she needs to apologize and doesn’t feel right to me for the following reasons: a) Even if it was proven that the virus originated from China, you can’t really control and apologize for a virus. It’s not man-made and once the population was made aware of it, it changed everyone’s behavior in order to stop the spread. It’s not as if people in China chose to be careless once they knew about it. You could say that it’s because of the practice of eating wild animals (assumed its proven) and lack of sanitation during various processes, but… Read more »
As an original people, we are all the victims of coronavirus. During the past two months, most of us keep on staying at home, try our best to aviod infecting and control the speed of the spread of virus. From this perspective, I don’t know why we need to feel apologetic. As a Chinese, even if the birthplace of the virus is China (recently some indications show it may be from the United States), I even don’t think we need to apologize. We keep on fighting with this disaster and make it under control and we bought enough time for… Read more »
Comparing the development and impact of the outbreak across countries, I think the origin of the virus pales in comparison to the other man-made elements of the current crises. The presence and extent of information suppression in China is one. But even today, after knowledge of the virus has become widely known, the governmental response, and concomitant impact, observed around the world continues to vary considerably. China is a convenient target to blame, but there are multiple charges involved and the list continues to grow. More importantly, I think the more pressing issue is for Chinese citizens to hold their… Read more »
Her original words were “在心里说了无数声抱歉”, it doesn’t mean feeling sorry for someone but being apologetic as if the situation was caused by herself.
As a Spaniard, I don’t feel China nor any country should apologise. Situations like this one are imposible to foresee and very difficult to handle. It’s nature against the humankind, after all.
Thank you all for the thoughtful and compassionate comments. I guess the interesting part of the question “should we apologize” is how we define “we”, as human beings, as Chinese citizens or on behalf of our government? As a Chinese citizen, I am still waiting for the government to give us an explanation on the initial stalling and suppression. If we could have acted sooner, none of us would be at this stage. But calling it the “Chinese virus” as Trump puts it, is simply unacceptable and won’t help with the dreadful situation across the world. This is a time… Read more »