Liao Yiwu (b. 1958) is a Chinese dissident, author, reporter, musician and poet. Liao is a critic of China's Communist Party, for which he's been imprisoned. Most of Liao's writing has been banned in China, and he's been living as an expat in Germany since 2011.
Author Liao Yiwu
Liao is critical of China's early handling of the Covid pandemic, and this 'documentary novel', first published in Germany in 2022, depicts China's mismanagement of the crisis and its harsh repression of 'truth-tellers.' Liao calls Covid-19 the 'Wuhan virus' and begins his book with a note that says: "Wuhan virus" is not a political term, but rather an objective description of the truth. Wuhan is the birthplace of the powerful virus that is harming the world today; or one could say the virus was first discovered in Wuhan.
Some characters in the novel are real people portraying actual events, and the book paints a picture of a secretive regime trying to obfuscate the origin of the Covid virus, and a government determined to deflect blame for the Covid catastrophe.
Chinese officials downplayed the Covid crisis
Many non-fiction books have been written about China and the Covid pandemic, but Liao's novel takes a more personal approach, showing characters separated from their families, experiencing losses, writing poems (including a suicide poem), committing suicide, getting arrested and 'disappeared', and more.
For example, the family of Chinese film director Chang Kai fell ill one after another, and all died within 17 days. Chang left a testament of his ordeal:
'As everyone knows, a nightmare has befallen us. On New Year's Day, my father came down with a fever and a cough, had difficulty breathing, and I went with him to several hospitals for treatment. But they all reported there were no beds available. Extremely disappointed, we came home to attempt to save ourselves. A few days later, my old father left this world with recriminations in his heart. After such a heavy blow, my mother was exhausted both physically and mentally, her immune system failed, and she too became severely infected and died. After serving my parents at their deathbeds for several days, the ruthless coronavirus also devoured my wife and me.....To all the people I love and who love me, I bid you farewell forever.'
Chinese film director Chang Kai
The story is replete with this kind of hardship.
*****
The book opens with a real-life event: In February 2020, when the city of Wuhan has been sealed off for more than a month, rumors are circulating about a Wuhan virus killing thousands of people. A 25-year-old citizen reporter called Kcriss Li wants to expose the truth.
Citizen reporter Kcriss Li
So Kcriss goes to Wuhan to investigate. The number of bodies at funeral homes/crematoriums show China is vastly downplaying the number of Covid deaths, and the Huanan Seafood Market, suspected as being the source of the virus, is closed down and has been sterilized.
Huanan Seafood Market
Some people believe Covid was released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a P4 lab (highest biosafety level), and Kcriss drives over to have a look.
Wuhan Institute of Virology
While Kcriss is surveilling the lab, National Security Agents notice him, and a frenzied car chase ensues.
Kcriss
Kcriss manages to get back to the apartment he's renting, and sets up his computer to record sound and video as the National Security Agents pound on his door. After several hours, Kcriss lets the agents in, and is taken away on camera (you can see this on YouTube).
Kcriss is arrested by Chinese National Security Agents
The rest of the book largely revolves around a (fictional) Chinese man named Ai Ding, who lives in Wuhan with his family, but works in Germany. Just as Ai Ding is flying from Berlin to China for the annual Spring Festival, Wuhan and other cities are shut down tight, with no one allowed in or out.
Ai Ding's flight from Beijing to Wuhan is therefore canceled, and Ai Ding phones his wife, assuring her he'll get home one way or another. Ai Ding's wife urges him to be cautious, explaining she's looking after Ai Ding's sick 93-year-old father, and can't help if Ai Ding gets into trouble. Ai Ding's wife also describes the terrible situation in Wuhan, including seeing a crematorium van - loaded with bodies - from her window.
Ai Ding is shocked. "At the time, he still didn't understand what his wife was describing would also eventually become the daily epidemic situation throughout the country." Before the closure of the cities, anticipating the Spring Festival, millions of people fanned out across China from Wuhan, and there was no way to test them, much less diagnose and isolate them. "Hundreds of thousands of people who were fine today, without a fever or cough, might tomorrow suddenly fall to the ground, twitch a few times and die."
Intensive care units in China, filled with Covid patients
The remainder of the book follows Ai Ding as he attempts to make his way back to his family, a VERY DIFFICULT proposition. Ai Ding is frequently stopped by guards at checkpoints, where's he's sprayed with disinfectant and his papers are checked.
Sometimes Ai Ding is allowed to proceed, and sometimes he's forced to stay quarantined in a hotel (at his own expense). Along the way, Ai Ding has some good luck and some bad luck, and he meets other 'refugees', including people experiencing severe hardships. One man, whom Ai Ding dubs 'Hatchet Face' is living in his van on a short bridge, not allowed to get off at either end. Once a week Hatchet Face's wife comes to one of the checkpoints to bring her husband food and take away his trash.
Ai Ding can communicate with the rest of China via Weibo and WeChat, but Ai Ding - and everyone else in the country - has to be VERY CAREFUL about posting online. Controversial comments about Covid (or anything else) are deleted immediately by Chinese censors, and any comments that don't toe the Communist party line can lead to arrests, disappearances, and 'suicide' by "jumping' off a building. So the population is afraid to even hypothesize about China's role in the pandemic.
Ai Ding manages to get over the Chinese firewall to Skype with his Chinese friend in Germany almost every day, and the two men 'share' many glasses of wine as they talk about their families; the situation in China; philosophy; poetry; the possible origin of the Covid virus; and so on.
Slowly but surely Ai Ding gets closer and closer to his home in Wuhan, and eventually restrictions are lifted. This isn't the end of Ai Ding's story though.....
Towards the end of the book, there's a long chapter about the origin and spread of Covid, including a whole gamut of opinions. One idea is even that an American soldier was patient zero, and joint military operations in China brought Covid there. The consensus is that Covid originated in China, perhaps jumping from bats to humans, and the determination of the Chinese government to cover up the problem allowed the spread of the virus to the whole world.
Bats harbor hundreds of coronaviruses
The novel provides a sad picture of human suffering caused by the pandemic. One scene, in which a little Chinese boy covers his dead grandfather with a blanket 'to keep him warm', then subsists on crackers for days until the neighbors find him, is just one tragic tale.
This 'hybrid' book, which adds to the many tomes addressing Covid, is worth reading to get a wider picture of the pandemic.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Ernest Reid, who does an excellent job.
Thanks to Netgalley, Liao Yiwu, and Post-Hypnotic Press Audiobooks for a copy of the book.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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