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Excerpts from:
Coronavirus journal Wuhan Diary continues to upset Chinese nationalists
- At least two academics have been put under investigation for supporting Fang Fang’s work, an English-language version of which is set to be published next month
- Backlash comes despite Amazon saying the work praised the ‘courage, resilience and perseverance of Wuhan’s 9 million residents’
The publication of Wuhan Diary – a first-person account of Chinese writer Fang Fang’s life in the city at the epicentre of the initial coronavirus outbreak – continues to fan the flames of nationalism in the country.
Besides the online backlash to the work from some quarters of the internet, authorities have put pressure on intellectuals who supported the writer, launching investigations into at least two people for making “inappropriate comments”.On April 26, Hubei University said it would investigate Liang Yanping, a language and literature professor, for making “inappropriate speech” on social media, an indirect reference to her social media comments in support of Fang.
Four days later, Hainan University made a similar announcement regarding one of its retired teachers, Wang Xiaoni. The announcement did not specify an offence, but came after Fang had reposted one of Wang’s tweets about Liang.
Wang has since become a target of online trolls who accuse her of being unpatriotic, backing up their claims with references to some of her earlier published work.
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