How drawing a comic strip in coronavirus quarantine helped artist see the funny side of 14 days alone in Room 1419

Sketching comic- strip frames kept Carol Bellese Choi sane during her time in quarantine in Hong Kong after her boyfriend fell ill with Covid-19
Finding humour in the situation ‘really was the best medicine’, says Choi – and health care professionals who use laughter as a therapeutic tool agree

Wellness

Kylie Knott

Published: 3:00pm, 3 May 2020

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Just as prisoners rarely forget their inmate identification number, Hong Kong artist Carol Bellese Choi is unlikely to forget 1419 – her room number at a government quarantine facility in Fo Tan where she was isolated for two weeks.

“The whole experience was very surreal,” says Choi, settling into a chair at a coffee shop in Wong Chuk Hang, the industrial district on the south side of Hong Kong Island where she works as a painter at the Elsa Jeandedieu Studio.

“My boyfriend contracted [Covid-19, the disease caused by the] coronavirus while travelling in France and, two days after arriving back in Hong Kong with his travel mate, who also tested positive, he was sent straight to Queen Mary Hospital,” says Choi. “We live together, so I was told by government health officials to pack as if I was going on holiday, so in went the laptop, books, towels and enough clothing for two weeks because I was told I couldn’t do laundry.”

At midnight on March 16, men in hazmat suits collected Choi from her North Point flat, put her on a minibus (she was the only passenger) and ferried her to the facility in the New Territories.

The room that Choi stayed in at the government quarantine facility in Fo Tan.

The 36-year-old soon fell into a routine: rise at 7am, meditate, have breakfast at 9am, host an 11am online yoga session with four other quarantined friends, including her boyfriend, eat lunch and dinner – “Chinese food such as rice, noodles, congee, mixed vegetables” – have video chats with her boyfriend and family (including her mother, who lives in Honduras in Central America), meditate some more, have regular temperature checks, read and indulge in a nightly fix of Netflix fare.

But it was her Corona Chronicles – daily sketches that captured the funny side of life “inside” – that kept her sanity intact.

Choi turned to painting and drawing to keep her spirits up while in quarantine. Photo: Kylie Knott

“Every day felt so long. I had zero physical contact with people and I couldn’t leave my room. The health care workers were doing an amazing job – for me and my boyfriend – but I was stressed about whether I had contracted the virus and was worried about the health of my boyfriend,” says Choi who, after 12 days in isolation, was tested for coronavirus. It came back negative.

“It was like riding an emotional roller-coaster … there were lots of tears,” she says, adding she was also not prepared for the anxiety attacks she experienced after leaving quarantine.

“I didn’t pack my paints, so I tried out a new medium of comics – initially for myself, then I shared them with my boyfriend and then with other quarantined friends. Laughing at the funny side of this bad situation really helped us all.”

Choi created the Corona Chronicles to keep her spirits up. Photo: courtesy of Carol Bellese Choi

One sketch shows her blue-faced boyfriend in a beanie hat and sunglasses. “His hospital room didn’t have curtains, so the sun was blazing in on his, let’s say, delicate skin. And the room was freezing because the air-con was on full blast,” she laughs. “The cold temperature was necessary, as it was a special air-pressurised room, but he did look as if he was at a ski resort.” The pair celebrated their fourth anniversary as a couple while in quarantine.

Small victories were sketched – such as day five, when Choi received fresh fruit for the first time. “I was so excited about those two bananas,” she recalls, adding she would often daydream about avocados and cinnamon coffee.

Another sketch shows her soaking up a tiny ray of sunlight in her room. “I was trying to get as much of my body into a small sliver of sunlight – all that was missing was a piña colada,” she says. Another comic strip captures her quarantined friends taking part in her yoga class.

While in isolation, Choi’s boyfriend (who has since fully recovered from the virus) volunteered to try out an experimental treatment made up of a cocktail of three antiviral drugs, which resulted in some harsh side effects. That did not escape Choi’s comic treatment.

Another sketch shows her boyfriend with an egg named Wilson, a nod to the 2000 survival drama Castaway, starring Tom Hanks as the lone survivor of an aeroplane crash on a tiny, remote island. And yes, the irony that Hanks also contracted coronavirus was not missed.

“It was about finding humour in the mundane,” Choi says of her sketches. “Some things were just too funny – I mean, you couldn’t make it up! Laughing while sketching the comics really boosted my mental health. It really was the best medicine.”

Madan Kataria is the founder of the laughter yoga movement. Photo: courtesy of Madan Kataria

Madan Kataria agrees. The self-proclaimed “laughter guru” has been advocating the health benefits of a good giggle since he established the laughter yoga movement in the Indian city of Mumbai in 1995, a discipline that combines laughing with breathing techniques. There are now 200,000 laughter yoga clubs in 110 countries.

Speaking on the phone from Mumbai, Kataria – who got the conversation rolling with a deep, endorphin-releasing belly laugh – says just 10 to 15 minutes of laughter yoga can help reduce stress, boost the immune system and promote a positive mindset. He says it should be practised now more than ever as people face the challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic.

“It seemed natural to combine yoga with laughter because they both use similar techniques – breathing exercises that strengthen the immune system and oxygenate your lungs by expelling residual air and filling them with fresh oxygen,” he says, noting it helps in the fight against infection – he has not had so much as a cold in 25 years.

The inside of the flat Choi stayed in for two weeks.

There’s a huge body of research showing the role of humour in medicine, with laughter therapy having numerous health benefits, from improving anxiety in patients with Parkinson’s disease to serving as an effective intervention for elderly patients suffering from depression.

One study found that laughter also acts like an antidepressant, releasing the brain chemical serotonin – the natural mood stabiliser that controls well-being and happiness – while a 2017 study found laughing helped reduce blood pressure (hypertension), which is a huge risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

A fake laugh is just as effective as a real one, Kataria says; moving the face muscles needed to smile, and using breath and vocal cords to create laughter, are recognised by the brain and body, generating feelings associated with laughter.

People participate in a laughter club in Mumbai, India. Photo: Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Neelam Hiranandani, a psychologist at MindWorX, a private mental wellness clinic at OT&P in Central, Hong Kong, says health care professionals often use humour and laughter as therapeutic tools.

“Laughter therapy is non-invasive, cost-effective and an easily accessible intervention. There are many social, psychological and physiological benefits such as reducing perceived stress and anxiety, improved sleep quality, alleviating depression as well as helping people cope with loneliness and poor self-esteem,” she says.

“As an intervention, laughter therapy positively influences those who experience various forms of strain in life, whether in the home, school or work.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Quarantined artist looks on bright side

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