Roving Reporters Coronavirus Chronicles were sparked by this Facebook post from a colleague, Robin Martin Challenor. This was before many of us had even begun to think about lockdowns happening in other countries around the world.
I live in China, and have been here for 865 days. Kathy Challenor and I are thus caught up in the sadness that is the coronavirus.
We venture out of our apartment on our Ebikes only to buy food.
Non-essential businesses have closed. Bars and restaurants, and even some malls, have closed.
The medical authorities keep us updated on the virus through WeChat.
One aspect I have noticed is that people here respect the government and what officials are doing to combat the virus. There is faith in the government.
One aspect I do not care for is the racism and silliness that I read about the virus and China on global social media platforms.
If you are a father, please remember, so are about 500 million Chinese men. They are as concerned for their beloved families as you would be.
Chinese people are actually no different to anywhere else in the world. They love, they fall out of love. They are kind, and sometimes unkind. They try to improve their lives and sometimes they fail at that.
If you consider yourself a friend of mine, please pray for the people of China. And please read about the success the government has achieved over the past 40 years in helping to lift possibly six hundred million people out of poverty. Probably more. My expectation is that if the virus takes hold in other countries, the first people to step forward to help will be people from China. They will be kind, generous and thoroughly efficient. And when they invite you afterwards to come visit China, do so.
