Engineer ensures message of hope burns bright

WUHAN－At exactly 6:30 pm, a barrage of lights projects a rallying cry, "Wuhan will emerge victorious", onto the Second Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, a landmark in the central megacity.

Few vehicles or pedestrians are seen on the usually congested bridge as the city is being sealed off to fight the novel coronavirus, but Wen Rui sees the luminous words as a message of hope.

The 26-year-old maintains the nearly 200,000 LED units that help the cable-stayed bridge put up evening light shows.

The lights used to display flowers and meteor showers, but days after the city declared an unprecedented lockdown in late January, sentences were formed on the bridge's cables, including "Wuhan stay strong!" and "China stay strong!"

"The red characters and yellow backdrop," the young engineer says, pointing to the words, "these are the colors of China's national flag. They give us hope."

Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, has been at the front line of China's battle against the novel coronavirus.

Streets and roads have been quiet and empty after public transportation was suspended and residents followed official instructions to stay at home.

But at night, street lamps and residential communities are on full beam, suggesting that life here has just switched to silent mode.

Wen became the only engineer in the bridge's light-maintenance crew after all his colleagues left for the Spring Festival holiday before the lockdown on Jan 23. Wen, who's single, volunteered to stay at his post to allow his colleagues to spend the holiday with spouses and children.

For over a month, Wen lived in a container under the bridge and tended to the lights in the evening.

One evening in late January, a heavy downpour cut the lights out and disrupted the formation of "Wuhan stay strong!" Wearing a raincoat and a safety rope, he climbed over the guardrail onto the bridge's narrow edge, where he spent over three hours fixing the glitches while the river rumbled below.

As Wuhan fought tooth and nail to tame the epidemic, Wen says such shows of solidarity are important for raising spirits. In late January, the city on lockdown saw residents emerge from their windows and shout in chorus, "Wuhan stay strong!"

As the city's new confirmed cases have dropped from a daily peak of over 2,000 to around 200, the light formations have also changed from "Wuhan stay strong" to "Wuhan will emerge victorious".

"I believe my work is meaningful. Although communities have been closed, residents along the river can still see the words through the windows," Wen says. "Wuhan may be on lockdown, but the city is still running effectively, and many people are working hard to make that happen."