by Yvette Depaepe in collaboration with Editor Yan Zhang 
Published: 13th of March 2020

Australian 1x member and editor Yan Zhang  went to China to visit his family and celebrate the Chinese New Year when he got trapped in Wuhan due to the outbreak of Coronavirus.  He was evacuated to Christmas Island by the Australian government where he completed his quarantine and is save and well back home in Sydney.

While in quarantine, photography helped him get through this difficult period, forced to leave family and friends behind. Frustrated and depressed by seeing the suffering of Wuhan's people, he processed these image taken a few months earlier, revised it to BW and titled it 'Hope' as an homage to them, expressing his deepest wish for his Wuhan family and Wuhan people to overcome the coronavirus crisis very soon and to get their lives back to normal.

'HOPE'

This is his story published in the Australian newspapers and some photos he took during his quarantine.

Evacuees Hospital in Christmas Island
Yan Zhang, March 2020

Camera Sony A6600, lens 16-70mm F4 AZ OSS, ISO 100, 10 seconds, f/11, focal length 16mm (in 35mm: 24mm)

On 7 January 2020, I arrived in Wuhan, started my academic development program (sabbatical leave). I was involved in research collaboration with Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) and was scheduled to return home to Sydney on 29 January, after spending Chinese New Year with my parents in Wuhan.

In mid January, a local friend mentioned to me that there were rumours of an anticipated virus outbreak. Some hospitals were preparing to significantly increase the number of patient beds in the vicinity.

I didn’t pay much attention to this rumour, as everything appeared normal. People went to work, and shops and restaurants were operating as usual. I travelled to HUST every day via the newly built Wuhan Subway network. It was always crowded during the peak hours. No one wore protective facemask.

On 23 January 2020, when the city lockdown came into effect, I finally accepted the coronavirus situation: it was completely out of control. Locking down an entire city was the last line of defence for the government to fight the deadly contagion.

Since then, I stayed at home with my parents. As each day passed, we received more depressing information about Wuhan citizens suffering from the coronavirus outbreak.

At the end of January, the Australian government announced its Wuhan evacuation plan. Having much consideration, I decided to apply for it.

After nearly 40 hours on the road, on 4 February, I finally arrived in the Detention Centre at Christmas Island, and started two weeks quarantine there.

In the centre, I had my own room, it was small but contained everything one would need: a bathroom, a single bunk bed, a desk with a small colour TV on it, a fixed chair, a small refrigerator and a narrow cabinet. Our activities were restricted within a limited but big enough space – the Oval ground which was about the size of 2 football grounds.

During my two weeks quarantine in Christmas Island, the Oval became a place where I went two or three times a day. I observed that the Oval was an incredibly interesting place, full of photographic features. In these thirteen days, I searched every corner of this place, and shot hundreds of photos and time lapses at different times and from different angles. Each time I could always discovered something fresh – amazing sunrise/sunset lights shone on the ground, beautiful Chinese red lanterns hung on the trees, an eye-catching red crab crawled on the road, etc..

I took this photo in a drizzling and misty morning. Behind these trees, there was the temporary hospital set up for evacuees. The hospital consisted of two big tents – the right one was used for outpatients, where the green colour pergola next to it was the patient waiting area; the left tent, on the other hand, was the ward including four patient beds; and in the middle of between two tents there was a mini SUV used by AUSMAT staff to transport patients if necessary.

“We brought four tents to Christmas Island, but eventually only two were needed”, an AUSMAT staff said to me.

During the two weeks quarantine in Christmas Island, all 243 evacuees were well looked after. The centre staff not only closely monitored everyone’s health conditions, but also provided all kinds of supplies for our everyday needs. I would like to thank the Australian government to make Wuhan evacuation successful and brought us back to Australia safely.