The Cultural Politics of National Tragedies and Personal Sacrifice: State Narratives of China’s ‘Ordinary Heroes’ of the COVID-19 Pandemic

While the rest of the world is still battling the latest wave of COVID-19 and implementing lockdown measures to combat the spread of the virus, China has been celebrating its 'victory' over the pandemic since the end of February 2020, with Xinhua (2020) announcing a book praising the country's success in disease control to be published in six languages.Compared with the initial crisis being described as China's 'Chernobyl moment' (Shih 2020), at a time when criticism from ordinary citizens abounded, the current discursive space in China appears to be 24 MADE IN CHINA / 1, 2021