Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City – A Powerful Real-Time Record of Forced Isolation and Human Resilience | Fang Fang, Michael Berry

“[Wuhan Diary] remains a glimpse into a distressing future.” - The New Yorker

“This is an important and dignified book...[Wuhan Diary] is most scorching in Fang Fang’s calls to hold to account the leaders who downgraded and minimized the virus."  - New York Times

“Voices like Fang Fang's...remain increasingly rare in China." - NPR

"This is a book that will be referred to in the future when people want to know how many Chinese felt about the pandemic."    - Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China and Wild Grass

“The go-to unofficial account of events unfolding in Wuhan.” - Financial Times

“[Wuhan Diary] is the personal account of a layperson reacting to confusing, conflicting, and distressing circumstances in real time. It is an emotional work that finds its charm in its spontaneity and wit.” - South China Morning Post

"Fang Fang’s account makes clear that as the geopolitical differences between the Chinese regime and the United States grow by the day, the lives of middle-class Chinese meanwhile seem ever less exotic and ever more similar to those of Americans." - Washington Post

"Imagine this: the author Fang Fang did not exist in today’s Wuhan. She did not keep records or pen down her personal memories and feelings... What would we have heard? What would we have seen?" - Yan Lianke, author of Three Brothers: Memoirs of My Family and The Explosion Chronicles

Author Biography | Fang Fang

Fang Fang (方方), born Wang Fang in Nanjing in 1955, is one of China's most prominent contemporary novelists and essayists. Known for her unflinching social realism, compassionate portrayals of ordinary people, and exploration of historical trauma, she has established herself as an influential voice in modern Chinese literature. Raised in an intellectual family, she spent much of her childhood in Wuhan, where she witnessed the political upheavals of Mao-era China, including the Cultural Revolution. These experiences profoundly shaped her literary perspective and her enduring concern with the relationship between political power, social change, and individual lives.

Fang Fang graduated from Wuhan University with a degree in Chinese literature and began publishing fiction in the 1980s. She became a leading figure in China's New Realism literary movement, distinguished by its unsentimental depictions of everyday life and the struggles of ordinary citizens. Her extensive body of work includes novels, novellas, short stories, and essays, published in nearly one hundred editions.

Among her best-known works are Scenery (《風景》), A Thousand Arrows Piercing the Heart (《萬箭穿心》), The Personal Sorrow of Tu Ziqiang (《塗自強的個人悲傷》), and Soft Burial (《軟埋》). Scenery portrays the harsh realities of a working-class family in Wuhan, while A Thousand Arrows Piercing the Heart examines the emotional and social pressures faced by a woman navigating marriage, family obligations, and economic hardship.

Her novel Soft Burial explores the traumatic legacy of China's land reform campaigns through the story of a woman whose suppressed memories gradually resurface. Addressing political violence, collective amnesia, and the lasting consequences of historical injustice, the novel received the Lu Yao Literature Prize and was subsequently translated into English by Michael Berry.

During the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan in 2020, Fang Fang gained international attention for her online accounts of life under lockdown. These writings were published in English as Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City, translated by Michael Berry. Combining personal observation with social commentary, the book documents the fear, uncertainty, resilience, and everyday experiences of Wuhan residents while raising questions about public health, government accountability, freedom of expression, and the responsibilities of writers during a crisis.

Fang Fang has received numerous literary honors, including the Lu Xun Literary Prize and the Chinese Literature and Communications Prize for Outstanding Writer. In 2026, she and Michael Berry were jointly recognized with the 2025 Baifang Schell Book Prize for Fiction for the English translation of The Running Flame, further highlighting the international significance of her work.

Through her powerful yet restrained prose, Fang Fang gives voice to individuals whose experiences are often overshadowed by larger historical narratives. Her writing offers an important literary perspective on contemporary Chinese society, class inequality, women's lives, historical memory, and the enduring struggle for human dignity.

Explore the Author’s Literary Genres

#Chinese Neo-Realist Fiction · #Wuhan Urban Literature · #Land Reform Historical Fiction · #Historical Trauma and Memory · #Working-Class Women's Fiction · #Pandemic Lockdown Diaries

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Author & Translator Biography | Michael Berry

Michael Berry (白睿文) is an American scholar, literary translator, and specialist in contemporary Chinese literature and cinema. He is Professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies and Director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His research spans modern and contemporary Chinese literature, Chinese-language cinema, cultural memory, historical trauma, and translation studies.

Berry earned his Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University. Throughout his academic career, he has worked to introduce the literature and cinema of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to international audiences, examining how artistic expression reflects political change, historical experience, and cultural identity.

His major scholarly publications include Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers, a collection of conversations with leading filmmakers; A History of Pain: Trauma in Modern Chinese Literature and Film, which explores representations of historical violence and collective memory; and Jia Zhangke on Jia Zhangke, an in-depth examination of the influential Chinese filmmaker's work.

As a film scholar, Berry has interviewed prominent directors, including Hou Hsiao-hsien, Zhang Yimou, Stanley Kwan, and Jia Zhangke. He has also served as a consultant and jury member for numerous international film festivals, including Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards and Hong Kong's Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival.

Berry is equally recognized for his contributions to Chinese-to-English literary translation. His translations include Yu Hua's To Live (《活着》), Wang Anyi's The Song of Everlasting Sorrow (《長恨歌》, co-translated with Susan Chan Egan), and Wu Ming-yi's Remains of Life (《餘生》). Through these works, he has helped bring important voices in modern Chinese-language fiction to a wider English-speaking readership.

His collaboration with acclaimed Chinese novelist Fang Fang has attracted particular international attention. In 2020, Berry translated Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City, Fang Fang's firsthand account of life during the initial COVID-19 lockdown in Wuhan. He subsequently translated her novel Soft Burial, which examines the suppressed memories of China's land reform campaigns, as well as The Running Flame.

In 2026, Berry and Fang Fang received the 2025 Baifang Schell Book Prize for Fiction for The Running Flame. His contributions to literary translation have also been recognized with two National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowships, and he received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2023.

Bridging literary scholarship, film studies, and translation, Michael Berry has played a significant role in expanding international understanding of Chinese-language cultural production. His work is particularly distinguished by its attention to political violence, historical trauma, collective memory, and the ways literature and cinema preserve experiences that might otherwise be forgotten.

Explore the Author’s Literary Genres

#Sinophone Literary Translation · #Chinese-Language Cinema Studies · #Historical Trauma and Cultural Memory · #Filmmaker Interviews · #Pandemic and Information Politics · #Cross-Cultural Translation Studies