Sars humour
Beijing has been under siege from Sars for three weeks, dating from April 20, when the government raised the official number of Sars cases 10-fold. Beijingers, known for their irrepressible wit and humour, have risen to the occasion with jokes and ditties.
Thanks to mobile phone short-messaging, jokes circulate faster than the virus itself. When people chuckle after peering at their mobile phones, chances are a new joke is making the rounds.
Have you heard of the six ways of dying of Sars without catching the virus? You suffocate from wearing a mask; burn from boiling down vinegar; overdose on Chinese medicine; get beaten for sneezing in public; are cursed to death for sounding an alarm; and perish from boredom of being cooped up at home.
Many jokes involve wordplay that defies translation. Sars is commonly called atypical pneumonia, or atypical feidian for short. A diner wants to order his favourite hairy crabs over his friend's objections that the crustacean is not in season. He shouts, 'I dare to order.' Instantly he is manhandled into an ambulance. Wo fei dian sounds the same as 'I have Sars.'
Punsters are having fun with the name of acting health minister Wu Yi, a homonym for 'free of disease'. Sars has set creative juices flowing in letters and the performing arts. Poetry, songs and inspirational essays on the theme of fighting Sars will be showcased on air from May 12 to 23. CCTV is rushing to finish a 90-minute Sars documentary, poetically entitled April in Beijing, due for completion by May 15.
In the Name of Nightingale is a drama set in a hospital for Sars patients. The movie script, written in just three days, centres on the heroism of the head nurse. Actress Gong Li is said to have accepted the title role.
In Guangdong, the birthplace of Sars, scribes are hard at work. In 10 days, editors put together a book, Diary of a Nurse, based on the personal account of Zhang Jihui, whose bravery has earned praise in the People's Daily and an interview on CCTV.
The book's preface was written by Zhang Dejiang, the party boss in Guangdong, a born-again Sars fighter. Who says the Chinese lack a sense of dark humour?
