Wuhan Diary by Fang Fang Summary

Wuhan Diary is a firsthand account of life during Wuhan’s 76-day COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Through daily entries, acclaimed Chinese writer Fang Fang documents personal struggles, communal resilience, and systemic challenges like censorship and miscommunication. Blending intimate reflections with anonymous interviews, the diary captures the fear, solidarity, and political tensions of a city battling an unknown virus.

This book is essential for readers interested in pandemic narratives, Chinese society, or grassroots journalism. Historians, students of political science, and journalists will value its unflinching portrayal of crisis management, while general audiences gain insight into human adaptability during isolation. Fans of memoirs like The Plague by Albert Camus will find parallels in its exploration of collective trauma.

Yes—it offers a rare, real-time perspective on the early COVID-19 outbreak and its societal impact. While criticized in China for its candidness, the diary is globally praised for humanizing pandemic experiences and challenging authoritarian transparency. Its blend of personal vulnerability and macro-level critique makes it a vital historical document.

• Resilience: Communities organizing mutual aid amid shortages.
• Censorship: Fang Fang’s calls to “let Wuhan people speak” as posts face deletion.
• Mortality: Grief over neighbors and friends lost to the virus.
• Accountability: Critiques of bureaucratic delays and misinformation.

The diary sparked intense debate. While gaining international acclaim, it faced censorship and backlash from Chinese netizens and officials. Traditional Chinese medicine physician Zhang Boli publicly criticized Fang Fang’s “distorted values,” igniting online clashes. Supporters praised her courage; detractors labeled her a “traitor” for highlighting systemic flaws.

Yes. Her daily posts were frequently deleted, and her Weibo account (with 3.8M followers) was temporarily suspended. Despite this, Fang Fang continued publishing, urging an end to internet censorship: “You should let Wuhan people speak”.

The book compiles 60 daily entries from January 25 to March 25, 2020—mirroring the lockdown’s timeline. Translated by Michael Berry, it blends personal anecdotes, interviews with frontline workers, and philosophical musings. The raw, diary-style format creates immediacy, distinguishing it from retrospective pandemic accounts.

Unlike analytical works like The Premonition by Michael Lewis, Fang Fang’s diary provides visceral, day-by-day emotional tracking. It shares ground with Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl in its intimate portrayal of confinement but uniquely addresses modern censorship and digital community-building.

Critics accuse Fang Fang of embellishing hardships and undermining China’s pandemic response. Nationalists criticized her privileged perspective (writing from a villa) compared to frontline workers. Others dismissed it as “misery peddling,” though Fang Fang defends it as a patriotic act of documentation.

Neighbors exchange supplies, volunteers deliver medicines, and strangers share grief online. These acts contrast with bureaucratic inefficiencies, underscoring Fang Fang’s belief in grassroots solidarity. One entry notes: “The people saved themselves long before the cavalry arrived”.

Yes. The English version (translated by Michael Berry) debuted in June 2020, followed by German, French, and Spanish editions. Berry received death threats for his work, reflecting the diary’s politically charged content.

As a Lu Xun Literary Prize winner and former Hubei Writers’ Association chair, Fang Fang leveraged her credibility to amplify marginalized voices. Her literary skill transforms raw experiences into evocative prose, while her political connections likely shielded her from harsher retaliation.