HarperCollins Presents The Wuhan Lockdown by Guobin Yang

An unparalleled account of the first moments of the Covid crisis that would define this age

About the Book
A metropolis with a population of about 11 million, Wuhan sits at the crossroads of China. It was here that in the last days of 2019, the first reports of a mysterious new form of pneumonia emerged. Before long, an abrupt and unprecedented lockdown was declared – the first of many such responses to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world.

This book tells the dramatic story of the Wuhan lockdown in the voices of the city’s own people. Using a vast archive of more than 6,000 diaries, the sociologist Guobin Yang vividly depicts how the city coped during the crisis. The book features compelling stories of citizens and civic groups in their struggle against COVID-19. These snapshots from the lockdown capture China at a critical moment, revealing the intricacies of politics, citizenship, morality, community, and digital technology.

Praise for the book

Based on dozens of online ‘lockdown diaries’ written by Wuhan residents, this book offers a revealing and humanizing perspective on one of the most controversial and consequential events of our time. – Elizabeth J. Perry, Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government, Harvard University

This brilliant book offers two expertly intertwined accounts. In the first, local diarists narrate the terror, boredom, and creativity of Wuhan residents as they lived through an emerging catastrophe. In the second, Yang shows how the Party, social media, health workers, patients, and citizen activists shaped people’s understandings of what was happening to their community. – Gail Hershatter, University of California, Santa Cruz

This book allowed me to relive what people in Wuhan have gone through the pandemic. It is truly incredible how timely it is. – Rongbin Han, author of Contesting Cyberspace in China: Online Expression and Authoritarian Resilience

He presents a far more detailed and nuanced view than the US media ever did, allowing those of us would limited knowledge about China and the Chinese lockdown to have a greater and clearer understanding of what happened. ― Fish Shelf

A thorough account of the events leading to the Covid-19 lockdown in Wuhan, China, in early 2020, drawing from dozens of personal accounts (‘lockdown diaries’). ― Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A uniquely valuable contribution to the growing literature on COVID-19 as well as that on contemporary China. ― Los Angeles Review of Books

Enriched by Yang’s expert understanding of Chinese culture and politics, this is a valuable record of the early stages of the pandemic. ― Publishers Weekly

About the Author
Guobin Yang is the Grace Lee Boggs Professor of Communication and Sociology at the Annenberg School for Communication and the Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Center on Digital Culture and Society and serves as deputy director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China. His previous Columbia University Press books are The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China (2016) and The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online (2009).