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Wuhan Survivors,'¯Caught Between Grief and Surveillance, Want Accountability

Xiao Yu

   WASHINGTON, DC - Editor's note: All names in this report are pseudonyms
   chosen by the interviewees who are concerned for their safety.

   The Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, is here and Zhang Jun has
   not yet'¯collected'¯his father's cremated ashes from the'¯Wuchang
   Funeral Parlor.

   There is a Chinese saying, "Burial brings peace to the deceased" and
   the thought of his 76-year-old father in that cold funeral home, still
   wandering like a lonely ghost, made tears roll down his face.

   Zhang's father died Feb. 1 from COVID-19. After the death, Zhang had
   trouble sleeping. In the middle of the night, he thought he heard
   someone calling: "Son, why don't you come and pick up your dad? You
   don't want him anymore?"

   Every single day, Zhang wants to bring his father's ashes home. He has
   a lot to say to him.

   In early March, he called the funeral home, one of the eight in Wuhan
   where the virus emerged late last year. He was told that he had to wait
   for a notice from the city's Epidemic Prevention and Control Command
   Center. He called again in mid-March. The response was the same--wait
   for the government's notice.

   Finally, at the end of March, Zhang was told he could collect the
   ashes.

   But he didn't want to go.

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