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In the midst of the biggest crisis in Chinese history, since the last crisis in Chinese history, I have been a homebody. I have experienced the Coronavirus saga via social media, which in China is WeChat. Still having the annoying cough I blogged about in the previous entry, I have avoided going out and interacting with people.
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What started out as the Spring Festival began with the Kaulins Family (that be my Chinese wife Jenny, our son Tony, and I) driving to the Taizhou area to spend a couple of nights with my in-laws. To get to Xinjiezhen, a part of the Taizhou district where the in-laws reside, we took a different way from last year's Spring Festival (where we took a ferry to get across the Yangtze river) and from previous Spring Festivals (where we would use the Jiangying Bridge and thus endure annoying traffic jams). This year, we took a route where we took the Taizhou Bridge across the Yangtze. This route, though a little longer in distance than the Jiangying Bridge route, was much smoother sailing because there were no traffic delays. (The Taizhou Bridge is north of the Jiangying Bridge. It as long as the Jiangying Bridge and more impressive a structure, but it doesn't seem to offer as amazing a view of the Yangtze.) Jenny, for the first time, did the driving. Much as I wanted to drive, I didn't want to take the risk of having a coughing fit that would temporarily incapacitate me. (As I said, this cough I have is annoying!)
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We spend two nights in Xinjiezhen. I only left the in-law's compound twice. The first time, to do a little bit of shopping; and the second time to go to a public shower. Because of my cough, I spent most of my time in the guest bedroom, only coming out for meals; and I had to refuse all offers of cigarettes. It also didn't help that the weather was gray, cold and damp. All I did was finish watching the first season of the Witcher (A Game of Thrones like series with overwrought dialogue and many moments where I was confused about the narrative and who the characters were.); watch the 1940 film Philadelphia Story (which I found more enjoyable than the Witcher) ; and read a short book entitled Happiness and Contemplation by Josef Pieper where he made an elegant argument to support the assertion that "the ultimate of human happiness is to be found in contemplation." (An assertion that I hope is true and is in tune with a past assertion of mine that happiness is centered between one's ears.) I couldn't wait to leave the Xinjiezhen, but when we did, I did so with a tinge of guilt because I had behaved like a null entity towards my in-laws who are sweet people.
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But it turned out that we left Xinjiezhen in the nick of time. I learned that the next day that the authorities closed the road we had taken to get back to Casa Kaulins. It wouldn't have been nice to have been in stuck in Xinjiezhen for the Coronavirus crisis with just two days change of clothes.
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Back in Wuxi, I have mostly stayed in the apartment. Our first full day back, I didn't leave the apartment and recorded only 249 steps on my walking mobile phone app. There was nothing to do but monitor news of the crisis and read reactions to the death of Kobe Bryant (on WeChat, many of my Chinese contacts posted tributes. I broke my moratorium on posting to WeChat moments, to post photos of Kobe with Yao Ming which were appreciated by these contacts.). I got an email from my supervisor telling me that I wouldn't be going back to work till February 9th, thus extending my holiday by ten days. My one Canadian contact in Wuxi told me that the grocery stores in his area had empty shelves and advised me to stock up on supplies which I did, the next morning. Then, I drove through mostly empty streets and rode on mostly empty buses. I attribute the lack of traffic to the fact that most people in the area had left for the holiday and not so much to the crisis. Tony's return to school was also delayed a week. Discussing this with Tony, he told me he wished his teachers would get the virus. (That's my boy!)
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Despite not seeing many people, I did see one local do, what I thought was, a strange thing. On the second morning after our return to Wuxi, I took out some garbage, including that from the bathroom (TP is not flushed down the loo in China). I put this and other garbage in a fancy box, with string handles, that could be folded into a easy carrying state. Because I was then going to do some grocery shopping, I returned to the apartment to wash my hands. When I went out again, I saw a man walk past me with what looked like the box I had just thrown away. Passing the garbage area, I saw the box I had thrown out wasn't there, thus confirming that the man who I walked past was a garbage picker. It just goes to show that garbage sorting need not be made mandatory – it is already being done.
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One last thing I want to mention about my return to Wuxi was being able to listen to the latest podcast of John Derbyshire, a reactionary opinionator, a former Brit turned American citizen, a husband of a mainland Chinese woman, and a bit of sino expert. His take on the Crisis was that it was more of a panic than a pandemic, which I found reassuring for I also listened to a podcast where the possibility of 65 million people dying on account on the coronavirus was raised. As Derb said, we do live in an hysterical era and the Chinese are an hysterical people. And the Chinese system of governance being what it is, there is incentive for many Chinese officials to take advantage of the crisis.
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