Society

Han Yong Hong opines that viewed through the lens of the coronavirus outbreak, two views come into focus about China’s prospects of emerging weaker or stronger from the crisis. But whether it is one or the other, it is the innocent members of the public who are hurt, and especially the 2000 over people who have paid the price of this calamity with their lives. No amount of economic progress will be able to compensate for the pain they have endured.

ThinkChina takes you on a pictorial journey tracing the heartwarming deeds by the Japanese people amid the Covid-19 epidemic. These actions have won praise from Chinese society. However, with the Chinese's panic-buying of masks in Japan, and Japan's increasing number of confirmed cases, it is uncertain how long these gestures will last.

Political analyst Zheng Yongnian says that in the current panic of the Covid-19 outbreak and against the backdrop of already fractured US-China relations, the US and the West’s racism complex is bubbling to the surface and could taint their foreign policy approaches to China even more. He looks forward to a future where multiple “gods” co-exist.

Amid uncertainty, netizens are indulging in speculation about the origin of the Covid-19 virus. Their conjectures lead to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Viruses know no borders, more so in a globalised world. Even after the epidemic is arrested, it will take time for an interconnected world to recover. Chen Nahui opines from Beijing that this marks the beginning of more challenges to come.

In a heartfelt Weibo post, Dr Cai Yi, head of the Department of Pain Management at The Central Hospital of Wuhan, remembers Lin Jun, a shopkeeper at the hospital who passed away from Covid-19.

The possibility of Covid-19 being a US-related biological weapon has been swirling around in the press and on social media. While little weight is given to the conjectures, just like in the case of sinophobia, a climate of fear could continue to cause panic and cloud China’s interactions with the world.

Views on the afterlife interestingly shed light on one’s approach to life, says Gordon Mathews of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He and his team find out what American, Chinese and Japanese views on death say about their lives. As the Covid-19 epidemic rages across the world, an understanding of different countries' philosophies on mortality may even be more apt.

Chinese social media has been rife with commentaries asking if Singapore is being too lax and defeatist in its approach to tackling the coronavirus outbreak. Han Yong Hong says beneath the veneer of calm lies characteristics that are peculiar to Singapore society.