After the outbreak of COVID-19 in late January, Podareva Anastasia and Semenyuk Anastasia, two Russian women (they are not relatives), opted to stay in Hangzhou.

Podareva Anastasia is from Ryazan, a city about 120 miles southeast of Moscow. Among her Chinese friends, she is Tang Xilan, a name given by her tutor at Zhejiang Ligong University based in Hangzhou. On the evening of January 30, she wrote a letter in Chinese at her dorm. The letter is addressed to Hangzhou, the city where she is.

What she says in the letter is as follows: I have been in China for seven years, but I wasn’t fully aware of China’s real power. Due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, I have been witnessing how the whole nation gets united to outface challenges in such a difficult time. I’d like to express my appreciation and admiration to the Chinese government and people. I have been studying as an international student in Hangzhou for six years and I am living in this beautiful city. These days I have been asked many times if I want to go home and I have been advised that I would run into many challenges if I continue to stay in Hangzhou. I will not flee out of fear no matter how tremendous the challenges can be and no matter what risks and dangers lurk ahead. Sometimes, fear dominates simply because we are not mentally strong enough. Sometimes we are not so confident simply because we are not calm. But we must have confidence and determination in the face of challenges. We must have a brave heart to confront uncertainties and anxieties. China is a great country with a history of thousands of years, with a powerful spirit that amazes the world and never gives up in face of trials and difficulties. China has a strong troupe of experts who are courageously battling the coronavirus. China has long since been my second home even though I haven’t lived long in the country. Like the Russian spirit, the Chinese spirit is now in my heart and soul. My dear Chinese friends, I believe the future is bright and the whole world stands together with you. As a Russian, I wish you success and hold fast to hope.

Asked why she penned the letter, she replied she made up her mind to write the letter after seeing some bad news in the circle of her friends. “Writing a letter is my way of communication. I believe a letter is a way to convey a warm and upbeat feeling. I wanted to write some encouraging words to express my support to China’s battle against the coronavirus. China will triumph with the support of the whole world!”

She had been invited to celebrate the Spring Festival in a village in Pujiang County in central Zhejiang, but she canceled the plan and decided to stay indoors at the dorm after international students on the campus were notified of the situation and city’s emergency response to the spread of the vicious contagious pneumonia. With a great quantity of food bought from a supermarket and now stored at the dorm, she and some international students now spend time in the dorm. She was a little bit worried at first, but after learning more about the situation, she is now calm. Pay attention to self-protection and everything will be okay, she firmly believes. Her family in Russia isn’t worried too. They watch China’s battle against the coronavirus on TV at home and know what is going on in China. They are sure she is okay in Hangzhou.

Semenyuk Anastasia

Semenyuk Anastasia has been in China for six years. After finishing a postgraduate course in journalism in 2018 at Zhejiang University, she now works in Hangzhou. The Spring Festival in January 2020 amended her previous impression of China. China is full of bustle, excitement, and noise, but this Spring Festival, China showed her another facet: empty streets.

She is from Irkutsk, the grand gateway to Lake Baikal, which is merely 70 kilometers away. She celebrated New Year’s Day with her family and friends in Russia and came back in early January to Hangzhou in order to celebrate the Spring Festival, which fell on January 24 this year, with her friends in Hangzhou. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus aborted the plan.

Semenyuk Anastasia has been studying the Chinese language and culture for eleven years. She majored in the Chinese language at Moscow State Linguistic University and studied journalism for three years at Zhejiang University from 2015 to 2018. She speaks Chinese fluently. And she reads Chinese poetry. Her favorite modern Chinese poets include Xu Zhimo and Wang Guozhen. Her passion for poetry blossomed while she was in middle school. Her favorite Russian poets are Alexander Pushkin and Sergei Esenin. She participated in many poem recital competitions. After she came to China, she began to write poems in Chinese. Both Russian literature and Chinese literature add a special touch to the poems she has written. In 2018, she took part in a poetry competition for international students on behalf of Zhejiang University. Her poem won first prize.

That explains why she has written a poem to support China’s epic battle against the coronavirus outbreak. The poem is titled. The last stanza of the poem reads: “I hope China will be back to normal soon, children go to school and elderly people can dance heartily in public squares, and I can have Jiaozi downstairs. And friends will see me again and say Anastasia how beautiful you are and I will happily agree and say thank you, my joy knowing no bounds.”