Wuhan's eerie precedent

Fang Fang captures the shock and panic at the start of the quarantine

The next Chinese New Year will begin on February 12, 2021. It will be the year of the Ox. The first real publishing season since the pandemic started will begin at about the same time. In America and elsewhere, I suspect, it will be the year of the Diary.

Writers in lockdown are, like everyone else, feeling pale and postoperative. A diary, as soldiers, prisoners and invalids have long understood, can be a good way to write oneself out of a bad spot.

The Chinese novelist Fang Fang lives in downtown Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. After that