Living in Fear: A Look into China’s Municipality during the Coronavirus Pandemic

By Peixuan (Linda) Huang, aged 16

Walking on Beijing’s busiest shopping street, Wangfujing, where traffic jams used to line up into a river and be flooded by people, the view now is empty and desolate. The fear of the Coronavirus pandemic has turned all the large venues into deserted wastelands. As of March 2nd, 2020, the total number of coronavirus patients in mainland China had reached a total number of 80175, with 44559 recovered cases and 2915 deaths.

In Beijing, the municipality of the People’s Republic of China, the total number of Coronavirus cases had accumulated to 414 by March 2nd, 2020. While the speed of increase has gone down by folds, and the number is just so little in comparison to the number of infected patients in Wuhan, the fears of the people still do not abate.

As most Mainland Chinese will remember, the coronavirus outbreak isn’t the first epidemic that China has faced in the past two decades, with the SARS-CoV outbreak in 2003 that infected for than 5000 people in China. The COVID-19 virus recalled the nightmare of those who survived the SARS outbreak.

The SARS-CoV and the COVID-19 vary greatly in characteristics, from the speed of the spread to the fatality of the disease itself; but there is one huge commonality amongst them—they have both brought enormous panic and paranoia to the public.

Yali Xiao, a Chinese woman, who has lived in Beijing for more than 20 years, has been through both SARS-CoV and the COVID-19 virus outbreak. “When the SARS virus took place, I was pregnant with my first daughter. We [pregnant mothers] were terrified to go to the hospital for normal pregnancy checks.” Ms. Xiao recalls.

Speaking from personal experience, Ms. Xiao expresses that the SARS outbreak back in 2003 had a way larger impact on Beijing than the COVID-19 does now, which is one of the reasons why she takes strict precautions now for the COVID-19 because the SARS epidemic “prepared [her] well for the new pandemic.”

“Trying to maintain a healthy mentality towards this outbreak is extremely crucial for parents like me, as I think the reason why teenagers and children are extremely paranoid over this virus is that the parents are scared,” Ms. Xiao confesses. “Youths can't face diseases as well as adults do in the first place; therefore it's not surprising that they feel more scared and anxious.”

Ms. Xiao asserts firmly that parents should set a good example for their children and control their fears, as it will be best for their children and the family in the long run.

Yuchen Li, a teenage Chinese student who attends school in Beijing, expresses her fear towards the virus, “I think social media has overdramatized the seriousness of this disease.  However, the fact that the virus itself is invisible to the naked eye is terrifying. You never know what you would encounter and the thought of accidentally encountering the virus unknowingly really scares me.”

Yuchen says that her family has cut out all social interactions with people other than family members and that they have established a strict routine of house sanitizing every other day. She exclaims that staying at home has “never felt so safe”, and that being stuck at home now seems “like bliss” to her rather than “boredom”.

Fearing death is a natural human instinct, but paranoia and apprehension usually do not come on their own. Instead, they are usually accompanied by an internal or external factor; in this case, the Coronavirus.

“I think the possibility of catching [the virus] in Beijing is relatively low, and I know that not all patients who catch the virus end up dying from it,” says Yuchen, “but I just cherish life too much, and even just the tiniest thought of catching it haunts me.” 

Helen Highland, a 16-year-old American-born Chinese girl who has been living in China for many years, recognizes a factor that could have led to fears about the COVID-19, which Yuchen has also previously mentioned: public apprehension caused by the mass media.

“The virus does cause fears and perhaps traumatize a lot of people, as the news and the reports emphasize and exaggerate some scary points,” Helen argues. “But to me, I think it’s not that scary. You just have to make the right preparations and be safe at home.”

Social media tends to amplify information too quickly, sometimes misinformation gets spread around and the truth gets nuanced. Misinformation regarding this virus ranges widely, from the origin of the virus to the number of coronavirus cases worldwide, to the total death toll. Regardless, there is one trait that they all have in common: arousing unnecessary panic.

“Sometimes even not watching the news can help,” Helen explains. “Just trying to do something you like, or trying to be ignorant, will help with the situation.”

Articles and news published about the COVID-19 vary greatly.  Some publishers see the future of this pandemic and try to be empowering, whilst a lot of other publishers themselves are scared and anxious, therefore their published works can easily subconsciously promote fear in the vast audience reading the news.

With the novel Coronavirus now the world’s most discussed topic at the center of the mass media, public fears and apprehensions are undoubtedly triggered. Panic, paranoia, and uneasiness will continue to thrive as long as this pandemic does not cease. Fear is a double-edged sword; people must learn to properly manage their fearand harness it for the health and safety of themselves.