I am part of a company called Pro-Stage. And I am over here so that I can be a good role model for kids and eventually become a theater, dance and public speech teacher. We got to work with the kids one on one and in person before. And now we've been working with students online.
I'm going to tell you about what I'm doing here. I got a phone call around October of last year, 2019, asking me if I wanted to be an artistic adviser for a theatre company. When I asked the location, she said China. And being in California and never have going abroad before, I said, okay, sure. And here I am.
武漢是我去過最大的城市,我的故鄉只有30萬人口,武漢則有1130萬。
Wuhan is the biggest city that I have ever been in. My hometown had 300,000 people in it, and Wuhan is home to 11.3 million people.
武漢還有160多個湖泊,我住的公寓剛好在三角湖旁,就是三角形的湖。
There are over 160 lakes in Wuhan. And my apartment building just so happens to sit next to the Sanjiaohu, which is the triangle or Delta lake.
I haven't seen buildings as big as the ones in Wuhan in my entire life. I currently live in a 30-story building on the 10th floor. And my entire life I lived in a single-story house. So it's a little bit different for me to be in an apartment than being in my home.
現在很慶幸當時沒回美國
剛開始隔離的時候,我和北京的美國大使館聯系,他們過了幾天打給我,說可以幫我回國,暫時離開這里。
In the beginning of the quarantine, I got in contact with the U.S. embassy that's located in Beijing. And they called me back after a few days, saying that they could help me with departure assistance, so that I could get out of here.
但是,我要向美國繳納1100美元,就是7700元,才能坐飛機離開,再去那邊隔離14天。
But the United States is charging its citizens( $1,100) 7,700 yuan, to fly out of here and then get quarantine for two weeks.
我不想這樣浪費錢,我媽媽也覺得待在這邊的公寓里,比跟許多人一起坐飛機要安全。
I didn't really want to waste my money on that. And my mom thought that I would be safer here in my apartment than on a plane with a lot of people.
So I'm just here and I'm trying to be positive about everything. And I wish I had gone home, but I'm glad that I didn't go home because I've been able to communicate with so many people and be a very real open news source for everybody.
We started making TikToks on the first day of the quarantine, because we wanted to exhibit what was actually happening. After that it's become our way of being positive news.
我們想展示出來,我們是怎么苦中求樂的。
So we try to show people the best of the worst situation that we're in.
Nothing on there is really a lie. Everything's pretty honest because I'm a pretty positive person anyways. And I just wanna spread that positivity to people all around the world who are dealing with the same thing.
As far as TikTok goes, that's not the platform that I would have first thought to do for this kind of news, but it's been one of the most beneficial ones. There's a lot of positive comments on there.
“我沒有收政府的錢”
很多人說我是英雄,我覺得有點過獎了,但我也很感激。
A lot of people are telling me that I'm a hero which I think is a little bit too far, but also I'm very gracious for that.
當然也有人要我去死,說我發視頻是收了政府的錢,都是宣傳手段。
But some people are saying that they wish I would die and that the government is paying me to make these videos and that it's propaganda.
And here I am on real China Daily news to tell you. No, I'm not being paid by the government. It's not propaganda and I'm not gonna die because I'm stronger than this virus. And you are too.
I just care about being a good role model for my kids, because I want them to be able to speak up about the things that are important to them and maybe someday have their own TikTok channels where they can have people listening to the important things they have to say.
我只是從自己的角度發布消息,美國有很多人面對病毒已經抓狂了。
I'm just here to give the news from my perspective. A lot of people in the United States are freaking out about this virus.
When I posted one of my videos, someone said, obviously, you're not going to get the virus because you're white. But that's not how the virus works. It's spread all over the world now. It doesn't care what your race is.
People that are saying that are just racist against Chinese people. So I think that everyone just needs to take a step back and meet each other in the middle, so that we can mitigate all of the negative effects that have been coming from this.
隔離前后的日常
我的日常生活也發生了很大變化。
My daily life has definitely changed.
隔離之前,我起床后就去公司完成工作,周末會出去采購,同時逛逛武漢。
Before the quarantine, I would wake up and come into the office and do various tasks. And I'd spend the weekends going grocery shopping and exploring the city of Wuhan.
One time I jumped onto the metro link and I just took it very far in one direction. And I ended up at East Lake, which is actually a really pretty lake that's famous in Wuhan. Since then I haven't really been able to go outside much.
隔離開始第一天,我們去超市, 蔬菜都被買光了, 大家都趕著搶方便面、大米,還有其他日用品。
On the first day when we went to the supermarket, all of the vegetables had been taken off of the shelves, and bought, and everybody was running around trying to get instant noodles and rice and other things for their home.
過幾天情況就好多了,可以去日常采購了。
After a couple of days, it settled down, and you could go to the grocery store pretty regularly.
But then after the quarantine got more strict, they started delivering groceries to communities. In our community, they have grocery deliveries and you can order a big bag of vegetables or eggs and fish and garlic and stuff.
社區還有專人運送大家訂的面包,就在籃球場上,用紙標好各個訂單的名字,方便大家拿取自己的訂單。
Someone from the community will bring in a couple orders of bread and will stand out on the basketball court and knock off their name on the piece of paper, so that we can make sure that everybody's getting what they ordered.
應借鑒中國經驗,齊心協力戰勝疫情
這段時間,中國人民真的百折不撓。效果也是顯著的,尤其是在武漢。
Chinese people have been very resilient during this time. And it makes a lot of sense, especially in Wuhan.
因為病毒還在繼續擴散,我覺得大家都該借鑒他國,尤其是借鑒中國,看中國怎么應對疫情。
For when this virus continues to spread, I think that everyone needs to look at other countries and especially look towards China to see what China has done for this virus.