Cartoonist illustrates the Wuhan she knows
S.F. resident Laura Gao brings to life vibrant city now tied to coronavirus
In Laura Gao’s most visceral memories of her hometown, the morning streets are bustling, brimming with the aroma of sesame paste noodles or fried doupi.
“Waking up, going outside, and left and right, streets are completely lined with stalls of all these morning breakfast foods, street foods that old grannies and grandpas have been preparing since 5 a.m.,” Gao recalls while sheltering in place in San Francisco.
The 23yearold cartoonist, who also works in the tech industry, grew up outside of Dallas after first immigrating to Louisiana when she was only 3 years old, but Wuhan, the booming metropolis of central China, is where she came from. It’s where most of her family still lives, along with 11 million other people, a fact she highlights in her selfpublished digital comic, “The Wuhan I Know.”
“Most people who have never heard of Wuhan before — now the only thing they’ll think about is the virus,” Gao says.
Since the spread of COVID19, many associate not only the city, but in some cases anybody who looks Asian, with the coronavirus — or, as Gao puts it, with savagery. President Trump and various politicians have repeatedly referred to COVID19 as the “Chinese virus,” despite warnings of the violence and prejudice such remarks can incite and exacerbate. Just a few weeks ago, Gao recalls “walking on the street, and there was a stranger that walked by and he mockingly coughed in my face, laughed and then walked away.”
And yes, she says she knows her encounter in San Francisco is nothing compared with the violence experienced by many others across the country in the weeks since the COVID19 outbreak began in the United States. The air of racial hostility in the West that has been foisted upon perceptions of the place she calls home pushed Gao to create “The Wuhan I Know.”
“It was such a dichotomy,” Gao says. “I knew that for me I just needed to tell the full story and reclaim the city for myself, away from how the media portrayed it.”
In her comic, Wuhan is illustrated in vibrant, colorful snapshots of a rich history, beautiful architecture and “unrivaled” street food. Gao was excited to return to China herself in midJanuary, when she and her family were meant to go on a trip to Wuhan to celebrate her grandmother’s 80th birthday. A couple of days before their departure, her mother heard about concerns over the spread of the virus and, playing it safe, decided to cancel.
“The day after we were supposed to land in Wuhan, that’s when the city shut off all transportation to and from. That’s when it really hit for me,” Gao says. “If we had gone, I probably wouldn’t even be here in San Francisco. I would’ve probably still been stuck there.”
Ironically, Wuhan now has reopened and the United States continues to be shut down. And although research has indicated that the virus that slammed New York mostly originated from Europe, antiChinese and antiAsian racism and xenophobia have continued, providing Gao with a stark reminder of her own experiences growing up.
“I definitely experienced a lot of internalized racism, being ashamed about who I was, not wanting to admit that I was Chinese or Asian,” Gao says.
When she was in kindergarten, she asked her parents to change her name, Yuyang, to an English one. “It’s crazy to me to think that about at 5 or 6 I had that awareness that something was wrong with who I was and I wanted to change that for everyone else around me.”
Her parents agreed to change her name to Laura. As recent
Laura Gao, above, moved from Wuhan, China, to the U.S. as a child. In “The Wuhan I Know," right, she writes about her hometown.
immigrants, assimilation — proving one’s American identity — was vital. Now, Asian Americans across the country find themselves wary of suddenly needing to prove it again amid the rise in hostile encounters and physical attacks in public spaces.
But Gao finds herself at odds with the implication that her loved ones in China are the villains. “It’s not about me versus them, because there is no ‘them,’ ” Gao says. “My family is not a ‘them,’ and my family here is not a ‘them’ either.”
By humanizing and giving dimension to her hometown, Gao hopes her comic will help combat this framing. Thus far, the response has been largely positive. People from across the world, from places as far away as Iran and Italy, have sent her messages of gratitude. Many tell her they intend to visit Wuhan when this is all over.
“If everyone just continues to share the human stories that connect each other, we can unite against this as a world problem rather than pointing fingers at who’s wrong or who’s right,” Gao says.
Her family back in China has thankfully stayed safe and were buoyed by her comic, too. Her grandparents were particularly happy about the response, and Gao says they want to send their care and love to everyone in the U.S. as the virus spreads.
Meanwhile, back in Wuhan, the one she knows and loves, the streets are reawakening. “The city is opening up now,” Gao says. “They’re slowly getting back to normal life.”