Grand Quarantine

By: Shijin Fan

Narrated by: Dustin E. Walden

This is a novel about my story.

Living in our 21st century and feel embarrassed from time to time. Let me explain why I am making such a strong remark. In a modern society with extremely advanced technology, I find it difficult to recover the innocence of childhood memories. I remember well how my good friends and I used to hang out in a downtown park to play freely. For example, in my childhood, my friend and I were always obsessed with a cheap toy car and tiny amusements, and, at that moment, we were both childlike and innocent!

Today, people may have forgotten that sense of innocence. Nowadays, social groups are in a state of confusion with each other. Our society is more complicated than before, and hearts are fighting each other. In the past seven years that I have lived aboard, I have witnessed many miserable cases of cultural quarantine. For example, cultural quarantine in our society means that different ethnic groups usually judge each other based on the color of their skin. This type of cultural quarantine is tragic when people do not know each other's names and begin to dislike each other based on their ethnicity, country of origin, or gender. I realized that there is the phenomenon of prejudice, cultural division, and racism in society; but how can we solve it?

I have also seen that some people are looked down upon because of the color of their skin; some are discriminated against because of regional differences; and I have seen the reality of arrogance and prejudice. These examples of cultural quarantine come from my own experiences in North America and Australia. People are too obsessed with cultural quarantine, and this is perhaps the great quarantine of our 21st century! This quarantine is even more terrible than the COVID -19 pandemic; the cultural quarantine separates two strangers on a cultural level. But I believe that this situation is beginning to change. I hope you understand the importance of recognizing the cultural quarantine as you read my speech now. Let us work together as a community to overcome the effects of cultural quarantine!

If everyone tries to help every stranger with kindness and ignore some cultural stereotypes, the world will gradually become a more unified place where everyone lives happily without discrimination.

©2022 Shijin Fan (P)2023 Shijin Fan