Editor’s note: Lorin Ledger, the narrator, is a Canadian teacher at Houhai English, an English
training school in Beijing. Ledger told his experience fighting COVID-19 in China to the People’s
Daily in an interview.
I’m a writer and English teacher. While I teach children English, I love to tell them stories. I have
been in China for three and a half years and I now live in Xiangmiwan Community, Shunyi
District, Beijing. During the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic, the neighbors cared
for each other like a big warm family.
I was in China when the COVID-19 epidemic broke out here. My daily life has been largely
affected by the pandemic, especially my work. I had to teach my students online from my home.
I wanted to help the parents in my community to give their children something to do during the
epidemic. I have three children, and I cannot imagine what it would be like to stay with them
during the quarantine. I hoped to give people a happy time staying with their families in this
special time.
So I decided to read kids some books as a volunteer. I helped the students understand the books
and fortunately the general reception was pretty good and the kids were entertained. A neighbor
left a message that I sat too far away from the camera. I took this feedback seriously and adjusted
my camera.
I think in the future, it would be nice to provide a proper English lesson, and teach a subject
related to the story. For example, a lesson on colors for the story of Little Blue and Little Yellow.
My goal was to entertain the students. I would like to do more, and hopefully I can in the future.
The epidemic prevention work done by the community workers is outstanding. They have been
diligent yet friendly. I am impressed how thorough they are. I also hope I can help the community
workers take a break from manning the gate and other activities.
All over China, people were helping each other. I saw the spirit of unity and encouragement. I saw
Chinese people doing what was best for the community by staying quarantined. But most of all, I
saw doctors and nurses working until they dropped because they were so tired.
China has helped other countries, and it helped the most by shutting Wuhan down. I think this is
very commendable. Also, I see other countries blaming China for the virus, and this is not helpful.
To blame China for the virus is just wrong. We should stop the blame and simply work together to
figure out how to get a vaccine out quickly, how to show compassion, and how to become less
fearful of people from other countries.
A virus does not care where you are from, what religion you are, and what genetic structure you
have. This is a human problem experienced by countries all over the world. We are not out of the
woods yet. In the rest of the world, there are still problems. There is no vaccine yet, and until we
find a vaccine or until there are no more cases, we have to be diligent to maintain a healthy
lifestyle. I hope all of us could get back to normal in a short period.
