From Japan with the gift of civility

On Feb 9, a batch of medical supplies from Maizuru, in Japan's Kyoto prefecture, arrived at China's Dalian airport in packaging that carried a poem by poet Wang Changling from the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).

Roughly translated, it says mountains and rivers set the people of the two countries apart, but we share winds and the moon under the same sky, a way of indicating solidarity with the people of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, the city hardest hit by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The verse instantly went viral, sparking intense discussion among Chinese netizens. Earlier, other Japanese aid supplies had come packaged with Chinese poems.