Life In Low-Fi

Per ricordarsi sempre che, dietro le responsabilità, le colpe, le ipotesi, i complotti, le manovre, i non detti, i mal fatti, i mal pensati, i rancori, gli “avrebbero dovuto fare attenzione”, i “si sono mossi in ritardo”, ci sono persone. Ovunque.

”[...]my mother went to get tested at the isolation ward, and the day after that, she was in the car being transferred to No. 4 Hospital when she died. There was nobody by her side.” Yi, 23, studente

“[...] I heard on the news that when Wuhan reopens, business owners could negotiate with landlords to reduce rent. We thought if the landlord could give us some relief, or postpone payment, maybe we can survive.” Bai, 40, proprietaria di un ristorante

“[...] I’d made several requests to our committee but was told there were no beds, no tests. So I posted a plea for help on Weibo [Chinese Twitter] and wrote about the situation my family was facing. That was on February 5, and my post garnered some attention: People were reposting it and offering to help find vacant beds. That pressured the committee to move us up on their list.” Wu, 35, dipendente di un’azienda del settore tecnologico

“[...] I’m a dude; I’d never bought sanitary napkins before. These two months, customers were often asking me to help them purchase these things. So now when I go to the store, I know the difference between daytime and nighttime ones and where to find them. It’s something I never used to think about.” Chen, 32, fattorino

“[...] These days, I feel like I’m losing control of myself. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep, and when I do, I have strange, sometimes nightmarish dreams [...]” Yi, 23, studente “I can go out and walk around because I have a green code. These days, it’s virtually impossible to go anywhere without that code. On WeChat, you submit your recent travel history, whether you have symptoms, and other basic information, and the platform assigns you a color: Green means you’re at a low risk of having contracted the virus, yellow is medium, and red means high. Anything short of green would hinder your ability to move around.” Wu, 35, dipendente di un’azienda del settore tecnologico

“There was one person I was especially reluctant to let go. She was a waitress in her 40s. She was older than me but called me Older Sister. She made people laugh — I bet many customers came just for her. When I told her, she said that she didn’t know what to do next, because she’s divorced, and I don’t think her son looks after her, so she depends on herself for her livelihood.” Bai, 40, proprietaria di un ristorante

“We had to sell everything. The big stove we used to boil noodles, dozens of bowls, dozens of pairs of chopsticks, knives, our industrial freezer, two air conditioners. When I bought that stove, I spent over 3,000; the freezer was around 10,000; the refrigerator cost thousands of yuan. When you add it all up, it would be around 50,000 yuan. I was thinking, Could I take the stove or the refrigerator and sell them to another restaurant? But nobody is looking to buy right now. I had no choice but to sell it to scrap collectors for 2,000 total.” Bai, 40, proprietaria di un ristorante

“Before, our society rarely paid attention to delivery drivers. Now, it definitely knows more about us. Wuhan people are incredibly warm and generous and insisted on giving me masks: Sometimes when I delivered their order, they would throw masks down. Usually, the delivery fee is 5 yuan an order, but customers have been giving me tips — which is not a common practice in China — and now every order earns me 7 yuan. These two months, I’ve averaged around 10,000 a month, much higher than usual.” Chen, 32, fattorino