How China Deceived the World?! 中国怎么欺瞒世界了 II
"I read what seduces me, I write what perverts me. "
- Heather Cai -
---Amazon Book Cover by Chris Clark | 亚马逊出版书封面
---Mike Clark, Spring Festival of 2020 | 今年春节的麦克
Written by Mike Clark, this is a detailed account of what he knew and saw in Shenzhen during the lockdown of China. It will be posted every Monday 7am till the end. Put PLUGH at the start of your email title to avoid going to junk, if you like to contact Mike:
Mike-in-Shenzhen@outlook.com
感谢麦克·克拉克撰写和分享他就中国封城期间深圳疫情发生的所见所想。本栏目于每周一早7点定时发布，直至结束。
---Chinese Swipe Left | 左滑中文---
Covid-19
How China Deceived the World
By Mike Clark
June 16th, 2020
新型冠状病毒
中国怎么欺瞒世界了
麦克·克拉克
2020.6.16
Special Thanks to Holly, Jane and the Gang at Shenzhen Daily
特别感谢Holly、Jane以及《深圳日报》的伙伴们
The Spring Festival Break
The SZDaily published nothing for a few days, so all I can talk about is what I did and saw. It was obvious that people were very nervous and started self-isolating without any instructions to do so – not even “Stay Alert”. By their reactions, they must have been seeing pictures and descriptions of what was happening in Wuhan and did not want it to happen to them or their families.
I just carried on as usual. I had come back from England with a good stock of books, so I only had to fill my fridge. “I can’t remember what the question was, but the answer is beer.”
On the 26th of January I had my first ‘dining alone’ experience. That’s the Old Bowl In Yannan Lu which serves Xi’an style food, except for the buns which are now filled with pork instead of lamb. The staff all had masks on and gave me one so that I had two at this point. That’s what it looked like in May. But these pictures do not tell the full story because behind me there is the larger part of the restaurant, which was closed off in January but full in May.
On the 27th an ex-colleague asked if I needed more masks, so I thought it would be best to get some from her. We met in the open and stood as far apart as possible to allow the handover of twenty (thanks Kelly). I had dinner with her at a restaurant at the end of April and that was her first time in a restaurant since mid-January. She has two kids and parents staying with her and wanted to protect them.
By the 30th of January the Spring Festival break had been extended for an extra ten days, and I decided to go into Luohu District. So you can see the Weipeng Gardens’ compound, the walk to the metro and the metro itself. Shenzhen is always pretty much of a ghost town during Spring Festival, but this was a ghost town after the ghosts had left.
A Hong Kong friend with a wife from Guangzhou, spent Spring Festival up there. He told me that they just spent all their time in the flat, never going out. There was no big New Year’s Eve dinner, and that means they were really taking it very seriously (thanks Patrick). A British guy spent Spring Festival in Huizhou with his Chinese wife and found much the same (thanks Ade).
There is another ‘dining alone’ restaurant. It is the one in the Tian Tian Hotel. I have other examples from that period but I think you can understand what I was seeing – nobody.
At this time I was having small discussions with my daughter in London. She thought I would be safer in England, but I felt fine in Shenzhen. She voiced the opinion that the masks gave almost no protection, but I said they acted as a badge showing that you were doing all you could. I told her that there was a lot of publicity here, unlike SARS in 2003, which arrived in Beijing and the doctors knew nothing about it because Guangdong had not been sharing news. By this time anyone who cared, in China or elsewhere, could know as much as was known here, despite China concealing the information by publishing it in the SZDaily. She said that I was stubborn, and I said that the second half of February would be the time to decide. So I stayed.
春节假期
《深圳日报》有好几天都没有发布新闻，所以我只能谈谈我的所见所闻。明显人们开始紧张，并且开始自发地进行自我隔离，没有人强制要求——甚至连“保持警惕”的要求都没有。从他们的反应来看，他们应该是看过一些关于武汉疫情的照片和描述，他们不想让同样的事情发生在自己和家人身上。
我只能照常生活。我从英格兰带回了足够多的书，所以我只需要填满冰箱就可以了。“我不记得问题是什么，但答案是啤酒。”
1月26日，我经历了人生第一次“独自进餐”。那是在延安路上的一家西安风味餐馆，他们的肉夹馍现在不用羊肉改用猪肉了。服务员都戴着口罩，还给了我一个，所以当时我有了两个口罩。这是餐馆五月份的样子，但这些图片并不全面，因为在我身后还有很大的空间，一月的时候这边都是封起来的，到五月份已经都座满了。
1月27日，我的前同事问我是否需要口罩，我想最好还是找她拿一些。我们约在室外见面，而且尽可能保持距离，当然也要能递得了这20只口罩（感谢Kelly）。到4月的时候，我和她在一家餐厅吃了晚饭，当时也是她自1月中以来第一次在餐厅吃饭。她有两个小孩，父母也和她同住，她想保护他们。
1月30日，春节假期延长了10天，我决定去罗湖区。下面的图片分别是是小区内、到地铁站的路上、以及地铁车站。深圳在春节期间总是像鬼城一样，但那时候连鬼城里的鬼魂都走了。
这是我“独自进餐”的另一家餐厅。我还有很多这样的照片，但我相信你能理解我所见到的景象——一个人都没有。
当时，我在和伦敦的女儿讨论了一下。她觉得我在英国会更安全，但我感觉在深圳挺好的。她认为戴口罩没有保护作用，但我跟她说，他们已经在按部就班了，你要做的就是做你能做的事。我告诉她，现在这里有很多报道，和2003年的SARS情况不一样，当时病毒扩散到北京时医生对病毒一无所知，因为广东当时封锁了消息。现在这个时候，大家都很关心疫情，不管是在中国还是其他地方，都知晓所有情况，除非中国在《深圳日报》上发布的是欺骗新闻。她说我太顽固，我说等2月底的时候再看情况决定。因此我留了下来。
- To Be Continued 待续 -
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Heather is the daughter of a subsistence rice farmer from Fujian Province, China. She tells stories from her experience as one of the poorest. She writes her dream to share with the world, a very personal place. She has now written two English literary novels and is looking to being published in the UK. Her passion is a splendid cocktail or milkshake of word, image, music and art. She likes collecting books, DVDs, papers, stones, shells and leaves. She desires for all forms of natural beauty. She is currently working for Shanghai Taichi Center.
希瑟·蔡太莲是福建一个自给自足稻农的女儿。她作为穷人的穷人之一，讲述的故事来自最底层的仰望。她写就她的梦想与世界分享一些个人独特的亲身经历。她完成了两本英文文学小说，喜欢收集树叶、书本、影碟、贝壳和剪报，向往各种自然美。目前在上海从事太极文化行业，也在努力打造“阿太的密室”，集文学、艺术、文化、哲学和世界女性于一体的个人公共服务平台。
Copyright © 2019-2020 Heather Cai. All Rights Reserved. 所有版权归作者蔡太莲所有