How Did Wuhan Residents Cope with a 76-Day Lockdown?

Wuhan, the original epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, was under strict lockdown for 76 days. The authors conducted 30 in-depth interviews to understand Wuhan residents’ lived experiences of lockdown life. This chapter showed that despite strong emotions initially, Wuhan residents quickly adapted to life under unprecedented lockdown. Three pre-existing structures facilitated the effective implementation of the massive lockdown: ready-made containment units offered by urban “gated” housing, a comprehensive grassroots governance network coordinated by shequ (community residence committees), and the ubiquitous WeChat app in Chinese daily life. The pre-existing structures provided space for uncontentious self-organizing, grassroots mobilization, and civic engagement that often dove-tailed with state-mandated measures. This study details the resources Wuhan residents drew upon to get by during the lockdown, and it illustrates that the feasibility of lockdown measures relies heavily on a society’s structural and institutional conditions.