The China Times is a daily Chinese newspaper published in Taiwan. It was briefly mentioned in “An Official Reply” in Ha Jin’s book. A visit to the website of the China Times clearly indicates the concern for the coronavirus epidemic.
There is a separate tab on the China Times website for all stories related to coronavirus as well as the top news stories being about the virus or issues related to the virus. All the stories I read were translated with Google Translate, so there could have been translation errors in the actual text. Nevertheless, it was still very interesting to read the stories about coronavirus from a Chinese newspaper’s perspective.
One of the stories that stood out to me most was a news article titled “When does the new crown pneumonia epidemic recede? A fortune teller reveals mystery.” This news article reported how a woman known as the master of psychics looked for signs about the epidemic. According to the article, the teller received the 13th sign. The 13th sign indicated the “government will meet in a dignified manner to discuss” the Wuhan pneumonia and work with the appropriate medical professionals to face this epidemic. The article continues to discuss many signs and signals that I am not familiar with, including the way the seasons, stars, and moons are aligning. The article recommends the people should be following government regulation more than trying to conquer the epidemic themselves.
This article stood out to me for two reasons. Primarily, an article that pertains to “signs” would not be printed on the first page of a newspaper here in America. I correlate this to astrology, which would not be trusted by Americans when it comes to an epidemic like the coronavirus. Media that pertain to issues related to illnesses and diseases would likely be accompanied by an official statement from the CDC. The second reason this article stood out to me was that the end of the article pointed back to following government regulation. This is a focal point for China and the government is highly regulatory. Chinese media is strictly regulated by the government, so it made sense that the final suggestion pertained to following government instruction.
One reply on “Coronavirus according to China Times”
Fascinating! It looks like a number of what we can classify as religious responses are involved here – prayer to the Bodhisattva (Buddhist prayer) and consultation of the I Ching, the Book of Changes, which is (as you put it) a very ancient form of Chinese “fortune telling.” Thank you for finding a relevant source in Chinese and sharing the gist of it for English speakers!