MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, a Chinese doctor started warning his colleagues about a mysterious pneumonia-like illness. That doctor, Li Wenliang, was reprimanded by police for doing so. Then he caught the coronavirus and died exactly a year ago today. NPR's Emily Feng covered his death and the outpouring of grief that followed last year, and now she has the story of how his legacy has lived on. We have a warning for you. This story discusses suicide and depression.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: For thousands of people, Dr. Li Wenliang feels very much alive. They flock to his social media page each day to write to him.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Dr. Li, spring is here.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Hey, Dr. Li. I just got a second COVID shot. It hurt a little. I miss you.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Dr. Li, I pet a cute orange cat today. I'm happy.
FENG: In life, Li was an ophthalmologist in the Chinese city of Wuhan. In death, Li is a jack of all trades. He'll be whatever you need him to be. For some, he's a therapist.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Will I pass my graduate exams tomorrow, Dr. Li?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Dr. Li, my boyfriend just broke up with me.
FENG: Others uses his page to remember their lost loved ones.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: Yesterday, my friend died. He loved playing the guitar. Maybe you two will meet.
FENG: And as the anniversary of his death drew near, thousands of people a day turned to a social media page to collectively mourn.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: I cried again. It will soon be February 7. I still remember.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: I'm so afraid that I will forget you, Dr. Li.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: One year on, my respect still stands for you, the whistleblower.
FENG: Chinese Internet is heavily censored, and a general cultural reluctance to express emotion means I rarely see Chinese people this openly vulnerable. Publicly, China is adamantly proud it controlled its epidemic so quickly, despite initial failures in late 2019 to identify the virus and warn people. And those who write to Dr. Li often express their misgivings about China's political climate.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #10: Society is changing so quickly. I'll stay true to myself. You and I, we are the same people, getting by every day, but with our conscience intact.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #11: We have lost our progressiveness. But fortunately, there are still people like you.
FENG: Some people appear to write to Dr. Li regularly, even if their missives are never answered.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #12: I have postpartum depression. I feel that there's no one to talk to, but I want to be healthy for my son.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #13: I argued with my mother today.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #14: Please help me, Dr. Li. Every day beats me down, and I'm swept away by a crushing sensation.
FENG: And a shocking number of posts express a desire to self-harm. Mental health is still a bit of a taboo subject in China, but a Shanghai University study estimates that about a third of people nationally suffered from depression, insomnia and other anxiety-related conditions during the peak of China's coronavirus epidemic. So people are turning Dr. Li's social media page into what the Chinese call a tree hollow.
HUANG ZHISHENG: (Through interpreter). You find a tree hollow in the forest and seal your written secret in there so you can feel better.
FENG: This is Professor Huang Zhisheng, an artificial intelligence researcher at the Free University Amsterdam.
HUANG: (Through interpreter) Now despairing young people are turning to social media, finding profiles of those already deceased to quietly tell them of their emotional suffering.
FENG: Huang built an AI algorithm that scans Chinese social media, including the 1 million posts or so written to Dr. Li, and identifies those who need immediate help. A team of volunteers in China then reaches out to about 100 people a day this way. During the pandemic, they saw a 40% surge in urgent cases. Once, they were able to reach a mother as their son was attempting to take his own life and stop him.
HUANG: (Through interpreter) Through the Internet, we were able to identify an urgent case even before his loved ones right next to him knew something was wrong.
FENG: When Dr. Li died, millions of Internet users posted the phrase (speaking Chinese) or (speaking Chinese) - I can't or I don't understand. They were asking, why do we ignore those who speak the truth? Does what I think matter?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #15: This society seems to only allow one kind of voice to exist. I'm so fed up.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #16: The human brain atrophies when it only hears one type of voice.
FENG: And so they continue writing to Dr. Li about the weather, their pets, their past traumas. Maybe, just maybe, someone is listening.
Emily Feng, NPR News, Beijing.
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