Life on the inside: Wuhan filmmaker turns his camera on Chinese city under coronavirus lockdown

The 16th video in Lin Wenhua’s Wuhan Diary 2020 series drops on YouTube, telling stories of people who are ‘brave and are willing to help each other’

Filmmaker and volunteer driver for medical workers says the long days in isolation are unprecedented and should be recorded for future generations

Reading Time:3 minutes

Wuhan resident, filmmaker and volunteer driver Lin Wenhua brings real-life experiences from the city in coronavirus lockdown to millions on YouTube. Photo: Weibo

Published: 10:00am, 14 Mar 2020Updated: 2:32pm, 14 Mar 2020

Wuhan filmmaker and lifelong resident Lin Wenhua took a closer look at the central Chinese city after he and 11 million other people were locked down at the end of January as the deadly coronavirus epidemic hit the country.

The decision to isolate Wuhan spurred the 38-year-old into recording all walks of city life with his camera. His video series, Wuhan Diary 2020, put its 16th episode out on YouTube on Wednesday. The series included a grieving daughter who lost her father in the pandemic, the homeless stranded visitors who sought shelter in underground car parks, the restaurant owner who gave free meals to medical workers, and the barber who made calls to the city’s hospitals to offer haircuts for busy staff.

“I decided to film the city’s lockdown from day one because this was unprecedented and my finished videos might become a valuable source [of information] for the next generations,” said Lin, who began making documentaries six years ago, focusing on travel and music.

Lin’s latest videos, shot while he volunteered as a driver for medical workers, gave the world outside Hubei province, the epicentre of the epidemic, the chance to learn how Wuhan’s residents struggled in the shadow of coronavirus and bore the weight of extreme security measures. By Thursday, his videos had clocked up 1.3 million views.

“I got to know what’s really happening in Wuhan’s hospitals, places that no longer allowed ordinary people to visit, and to understand how busy the doctors were. As one told me, she had cancelled all the holidays and brought instant noodles to the office to ‘celebrate’ Lunar New Year’s eve,” Lin said.