The sealing off of Wuhan from January 23 to April 8, 2020 was an unprecedented event in modern world history. Recently published by Columbia University Press, Guobin Yang’s "The Wuhan Lockdown" recounts this history by presenting a galaxy of dramatic scenes and characters.

This talk introduces the main features of the book and then zooms in on one theme – stories of ordinary people during the lockdown. Whether they were COVID patients or health care workers, students or teachers, young parents or retirees, residents in Wuhan performed remarkable acts of citizenship as they faced up to the COVID crisis. An examination of these acts of citizenship sheds light on the meaning of ordinary culture in extraordinary times.

Guobin Yang is the Grace Lee Boggs Professor of Communication and Sociology at the Annenberg School for Communication and the Department of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Center on Digital Culture and Society and serves as deputy director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China. He is the author of The Wuhan Lockdown (2022), The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China (2016), and The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online (2009). He is also the editor or co-editor of six books, including Engaging Social Media in China: Platforms, Publics and Production (2021).

Respondent: Peter Gries is the Lee Kai Hung Chair and founding Director of the Manchester China Institute at the University of Manchester, where he is also Professor of Chinese politics. He studies the political psychology of international affairs, with a focus on China and the United States.