{"id":243536,"date":"2022-09-29T14:23:51","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T21:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=243536"},"modified":"2022-10-06T19:01:35","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T02:01:35","slug":"li-wenliangs-wailing-wall-september-2022-how-to-voice-this-desolation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2022\/09\/li-wenliangs-wailing-wall-september-2022-how-to-voice-this-desolation\/","title":{"rendered":"Li Wenliang\u2019s Wailing Wall, September 2022: \u201cHow to Voice This Desolation?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years and four months after whistleblower <\/span>Dr. Li Wenliang<\/span><\/a>\u2019s death from COVID-19, the \u201c<\/span>Wailing Wall<\/span><\/a>\u201d that emerged in the comments under his last Weibo post continues to serve as a repository for the hopes, dreams, worries, and opinions of countless Chinese citizens. CDT editors regularly collect and archive <\/span>Wailing Wall content<\/span><\/a>, including the selection of comments translated below.<\/span><\/p>\n

In September, many Wailing Wall comments referenced current events such as the deadly <\/span>bus crash in Guizhou province that killed 27 people and injured 20<\/span><\/a>; the death of Queen Elizabeth II; the protests in Iran; and pandemic lockdowns or restrictions in various Chinese cities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Guizhou bus crash, which occurred in the early morning hours of September 18, was particularly galling to many because the 47 passengers being transported to a far-flung quarantine facility were not even COVID patients, but \u201cclose contacts\u201d of COVID patients. Some netizens suspected that officials in Guizhou\u2019s provincial capital of Guiyang, under pressure from higher-level authorities to quash COVID outbreaks before the CCP\u2019s 20th Party Congress in October, were trying to \u201cjuke the stats\u201d by transporting potentially infected individuals to locations outside their city. Online commenters pointed out the preventability of the accident, criticized state media silence and online censorship of the story, and commemorated the victims with words and artwork including the image below. A number of Weibo users noted that the accident occurred on China\u2019s National Humiliation Day, which refers to the start of the Japanese invasion of China in 1931, and <\/span>suggested that it gave a new layer of meaning to the day’s name<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Making the rounds on wechat today. Never underestimate the powerful creativity that can flow out of the need to skirt censorship. pic.twitter.com\/HKGtethanB<\/a><\/p>\n

— Even (@Even_Pay) September 19, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n