http://www.bjreview.com MARCH 26, 2020 BEIJING REVIEW 23
Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar
Comments to jijing#bjreview.comMoreover, in recent months, people have
also begun to read more. The photograph
of a patient reading The Origins of Political
Order: From Prehuman Times to the French
Revolution, a book by American political scien-
tist Francis Fukuyama, in a temporary hospital in
Wuhan, the city ravaged by the epidemic, went
viral last month.
The 39-year-old reader’s composure in the
face of the epidemic made netizens admire
him. A teacher at Florida State University in the
U.S., identiĶ ed only by his surname Fu, he came
to Wuhan to visit his parents, where he got
infected. He was cured after over 20 days’ treat-
ment in hospital.
“People have been feeling anxious during
the epidemic and the anxiety becomes even
more acute when they browse news about the
epidemic. It was not until I saw the photo that
I realized reading can help me calm down,”
Zheng Yushan, who works with a cultural insti-
tution in Hebei Province, told Hebei Daily.
Zheng said before the epidemic, being busy
with his work, he read mostly in a fragmented
way, so it usually took him over 10 days or even
a month to Ķ nish a book. Now with more time
and being more focused, he can Ķ nish reading
one or even two books in a day.
Books on epidemics and medicine were
among the most searched ones, according to
data service provider Shenzhen Hexun Huagu
Information Technology Co. Ltd. Its big data
shows that 3.76 million active users of WeRead,
an online community for book lovers, spent 70
minutes on average reading on the platform
every day at the end of February.
In addition to reading, many people have
taken to exercising at home, starting with easy
ones such as basic yoga poses. Videos teach-
ing how to exercise at home are becoming
more popular and exercise aids such as yoga
mats and dumbbells are selling briskly on e-
commerce platforms.New hygienic habits
The epidemic has also changed people’s
table etiTuette. Chinese often eat commu-
nally and share their dishes. However, the
health authorities in Beijing, Shanghai and
Guangzhou cities have been asking diners
to eat from their own plates and use sepa-
rate pairs of chopsticks and spoons to take
food from the serving bowl when people
eat together in order to reduce the chance
of infection. Beijing-based World Federation
of Chinese Catering Industry has issued a
guideline to Chinese restaurants and con-
sumers at home and abroad, advocating
developing healthy dietary habits and table
manners such as eating separately.In response to that, a woman in
Shanghai, identified only by her surname
An, told Xinhua News Agency that she had
always wanted to promote eating separately
in her family but elderly members opposed
the idea. Due to the epidemic they have now
agreed to do it, she said.
A survey by Guangzhou-based Southern
Metropolis Daily revealed that 85 percent of
the 1,900 plus respondents said one should
eat from one’s own plate when eating in a
group. However, 61.8 percent said they were
still not doing so. Some said they tried to do
it at home but other family members ob-
jected.
But after the epidemic breakout, washing
hands with soap upon returning home has
become a more common habit. According
to a survey in Shenzhen in south China, 98
percent of the respondents said they devel-
oped the habit during the epidemic.
According to UK-headTuartered consult-
ing Ķ rm Kantar, sales of hand sanitizers and
disinfectants on e-commerce platform Tmall
surged over 30 times during the Spring
Festival holiday. The epidemic has also
pushed up the disinfectant output, which is
expected to surpass 11.5 billion yuan (1.63
million) in 2020.
A Beijing resident, identiĶ ed only by her
surname Pan, said she bought five bottles
of disinfectant after the epidemic broke out,
and the entire family has now developed the
habit of washing hands freTuently and disin-
fecting whatever can be disinfected.
Zhang Mingliang, a doctor with the
Shijiazhuang No.1 Hospital in Hebei, said
some of the habits formed during the epi-
demic should be maintained. For instance,
“people should wear masks when they have
a cold to prevent infecting others. They
should also wear masks when they go to the
hospital to protect themselves,” Zhang told
Hebei Daily.
“Covering the mouth and nose when
coughing or sneezing, not spitting and main-
taining a distance from other people when
Tueuing in public areas—all these habits
should be maintained even after the epi-
demic,” he said. QHospital workers in Donglin, a town in Zhejiang Province, east China, give leaß ets to visitors urging them to use
severing chopsticks and spoons while eating in a group on March 17
XIN
HU
ANATION