Figure 1: Notice at village turn back point (Weibo screenshot)

There has been ongoing international debate over China’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the specific language and semiotic resources used in China to enforce local measures to contain the pandemic require further assessment.

As a Chinese person living overseas, I have become aware of disturbing narratives around the coronavirus pandemic through my engagement with Weibo. In this post, I report my observations of selected COVID-related signs created by local authorities in China. These grassroots COVID-19 linguistic landscapes, I argue, suggest creative language use but convey exclusionary ideologies.

Roadblocks and fear

A key feature of COVID-19 linguistic landscapes in local rural communities in China is the use of linguistic and semiotic resources drawn from the immediate environment where such signs are placed. An example is Figure 1, which shows a sign stuck on a blackboard placed in the middle of the road. The sign reads:

亲情告示
各位父老乡亲，疫情依然严重，防控期间严禁出门，严守规矩，我们这没有雷神山，没有火神山，没有钟南山，只有抬上山！大家尽量别出去，别出去，别出去！别让大家的努力前功尽弃！！！
Kind Notice
Dear elders, relatives, and fellow villagers, since the pandemic is still severe, going out is strictly forbidden and rigid adherence to the rules are expected during the prevention and control period. There is no Leishenshan (Thunder God Hill Hospital), nor Huoshenshan (Fire God Hill Hospital), nor Zhong Nanshan (Pulmonary Specialist), but Taishangshan (lifting the bodies up the hill). Everyone please don’t go out, don’t go out, don’t go out! Don’t let all our efforts end up in vain! [my translation]

This sign was posted by the villagers’ committee in an early attempt to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. The word play of the last syllable 山([ʂan]) in Leishenshan, Huoshenshan, Zhong Nanshan, and Taishangshan adds playfulness and strength to the message.

For background: Thunder God Hill Hospital and Fire God Hill Hospital were temporary hospitals used specifically to treat COVID-19 patients in Wuhan. The construction of these hospitals was completed within just two weeks during the early outbreak of the coronavirus. Zhong Nanshan is a widely trusted infectious disease expert who won acclamation for coordinating diagnosis and treatment efforts during the SARS outbreak in 2008.

Figure 2. Red banner addressing village returnees (Weibo screenshot)

Villages obviously have none of these resources.

Due to the lack of hospital facilities and medical experts in this rural area, ‘Taishangshan’ is intended as a joke but also as a warning to villagers of the potentially lethal outcome of getting infected with COVID-19 – up the hill is a grave for those who might not survive. More importantly, the notice not only enforces the stay-at-home order linguistically but, positioned at the middle of the road, the blackboard on which the notice was stuck and the bamboo pole at the back physically act as a barricade restricting the mobility of people attempting to go to and from the village.

At the same time, this sign not only serves to warn and protect but may also ignite fear and prompt more extreme measures to segregate the healthy from the infected because of the implied gravity of the pandemic.

Red banners and defamatory discourses

There is also a particular genre of signs that single out members of the overseas Chinese community and portray them as the ‘culprits’ in spreading the coronavirus. These signs are situated within a broader discourse around returning overseas Chinese who fail to comply with quarantine regulations after entry into China. After countless reproductions in the online space, the debate quickly escalated into hate speech targeting all returnees.

Figure 2 illustrates an extreme example of this narrative. The image depicts a red banner which blatantly states “带病回村 不孝子孙”, meaning “returning village with disease, what an unfilial child you are”. This denigrating statement not only employs a rhythmic rhetorical device (村 [tsʰʊən] and 孙 [sʊən]) but also conjures the potential breach of filial piety – a core cultural and moral value in Confucianism and a powerful social norm in the governance of compact rural communities with their inherited patriarchal clan social system and close ties between parents and children – to warn against the movement of travellers.

Figure 3. A ‘Positive Building’ blocked by green fences (Weibo screenshot)

Red banners represent a specific genre of ideological propaganda that can be found in both cities and rural villages, although their political connotation has often given way to pragmatic usage in modern Chinese society. This disheartening message suggests a flat rejection of returning villagers from overseas and internal migrants from other provinces by characterising them as infectious and unfilial. It also discourages those who are worried about becoming the target of criticism from travelling because there is a slight chance that they might be infected and contagious yet asymptomatic during the incubation period.

A viral phrase that was part of this discourse asserts that “家乡建设你不在，万里投毒你最快” (You were absent in the hometown’s construction, but now you are travelling from afar and spreading poison most swiftly), again blaming overseas Chinese returnees for spreading the virus even though only a few members of this group were reportedly disobedient with relevant preventative procedures.

Building fences and symbolic deterrence

Such exclusionary ideologies continued to be reproduced in the recent Shanghai lockdown, starting in March 2022. As Figure 3 shows, fences were installed around the entrances to residential buildings. This type of ‘hard quarantine’ was often implemented by street or neighbourhood committees to segregate ‘lockdown zones’ (residential areas with reported positive cases) or ‘positive buildings’, as per municipal policy requirements. These fences were not made of sturdy materials, however, and did not appear to be strong or tall enough to prevent genuine rule-breakers and were more likely serving as a symbolic deterrence to residents and visitors.

For ‘controlled zones’ (other areas in communities or towns where lockdown zones are located) and ‘precautionary zones’ (areas outside lockdown zones and controlled zones), other forms of fencing were observed. Figure 4 shows the use of road fences bearing the notice “安全生产，文明施工” (Safe production, Civilised construction). This represents the appropriation of a sign from a construction site to a new context — COVID prevention and control (Curtin, 2015).

Figure 4. A ‘controlled zone’ blocked by road fences (Weibo screenshot)

Unlike the green ones, these fences were not fixed to the ground, and their portability allowed people some mobility. In a sense, the types of material objects employed as passage blockers are suggestive of allowable human movement and thus the severity of restriction. The emplacement of language in this physical environment (in front of a residential building) not only deprives the text of its original meaning but also endows it with a sarcastic perlocutionary effect, as ‘civilised’ contradicts the stringent COVID restriction measures in the broader context. It should be noted that, as I was writing this blog post, the Shanghai lockdown was lifted (on 1 June), and the removal of these fences soon followed.

In summary, I have discussed some examples of grassroots COVID signs that were created using a variety of linguistic and semiotic resources drawn from the local surroundings. These roadblocks, red banners, and building fences have illustrated the creative uses of languages including word play, rhetorical device and perlocutionary effect. Meanwhile, they constitute the COVID-19 linguistic landscape and bear witness to the proliferation of fear, defamation, and exclusion in this ongoing battle against the coronavirus.

Reference

Curtin, M. L. (2015). Creativity in polyscriptal typographies in the linguistic landscape of Taipei. Social Semiotics, 25(2), 236–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2015.1010315

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For extended coverage of the COVID-19 linguistic landscape, check out our COVID-19 archives at https://www.languageonthemove.com/covid-19/