Lessons in resilience from a Chinese labor camp survivor
Illustration by Irene Jiang The pandemic has felt like an unending nightmare and has tested the upper limits of our resilience. Reporter Irene Jiang asked her mother about how she got through her own hardship: the four years she spent in labor camps for dissidents in China. "Even though our material life was zero, that connection with other people gave us joy," Jingyu says. Before the pandemic hit last year, I was doing better than ever. I'd moved to an exciting new city and snagged a dream job, a vibrant social circle, a "Friends"-caliber roommate situation, and...