An ordinary Chinese observation and reflection of COVID response
Sorry - days have been a bit hectic since the new year with my new job. Here is my belated first blog post in 2021. COVID, as the single most thing that disrupted the entire world in all respects last year, seems to have caused me more anxiety than ever as the impact continues to permeation.
Reading the article China’s economy zooms back to its pre-COVID growth rate from The Economist, I feel surrounded of mixed feelings - surprisingly proud of the COVID response that China has executed, and deeply disappointed by the counter measurements that US has enforced to contain the pandemics, other than significantly amount of ridiculous talks on the television of blaming the fault.
I was in China last February when the virus started to unfold. My family was called inside a hospital by a friend of my mom, who is the head of a local hospital, informing us that a highly spreadable virus is crawling through the country. The government’s policy at the time is “internally tight and externally loose” - the direct translation of the Chinese words for lack of a better term - basically meaning that internally throughout the entire health care system is informed, while externally to keep quiet in order not to spark any public fear when unnecessary. Soon after, the entire country was locked down. My uncle as a police officer in the transportation department was called in to prohibit all out-of-province vehicles from crossing inter-province (remember it was the time during 2020 Spring Festival). We had to cancel the trip to Beijing but headed back immediately, and gladly we made it back one day prior to the US shutting down flights from China.
Now more than a year later since my China trip, I was still sitting at home and creeping on the world through the black box of a small device. Alright probably not that small given the Thanksgiving purchase of two gigantic 4K monitors to enhance my kind of new working-living-mixed condition. With said, I would never have thought that the pandemic would turn into a global public health crisis, and last for this long. I still remembered the fear from seeing empty streets in Beijing last February, and the relief in tears that I felt when our connection flight arrived in Dubai (while my boyfriend at the time felt the real relief when the flight finally arrived in US).
I would like to tell you the experiences from my family’s perspective, which could be biased, but it is the true experience that I have seen of responses to COVID. For the next 3-6 months after the virus outbreak, the entire nation was put on the emergency state. No one was going out, and no one wanted to go out. My mom said that every one voluntarily kept distance, as if the other person is contaminated. Everyone wanted to protect himself/herself, and to protect their family. Videos such as how to properly wear masks, how to dispose used face masks when arriving home, and how to wash your hand and ventilate your homes for health, etc. had gone viral.
Contrasting with the United States response, where a significant cohort of fellow American citizens are publicly against mask-wearing and social distancing, I feel the utmost frustration as science loses its power to politics. What concerns me even more is the amount of people that are backing the movement. I don’t know what it is, and why it is, but with more reflections it occurs to me that perhaps culture is one attribute, among some obvious or not others.
Chinese tend to work hard, but not playing hard. The culture advocates for “delayed happiness,” speaking to the belief of accumulating assets today and enjoy the perks tomorrow. Such lifestyle philosophy serves as a strong support for Chinese to be super diligent and work around the clock today, because to provide better future to kids or enjoy a chill retirement tomorrow. For this purpose, Chinese therefore place significant emphasis on health, to ensure that they would live long enough for that “tomorrow” they are fighting for. On the other hand, Americans advocate “carpe diem” - not only to work hard, but play hard. Let’s enjoy the moment and seize the day, and let’s talk about tomorrow when tomorrow comes. Leaning towards the opposite of delaying happiness, such belief perhaps incentivizes some Americans to throw away the acne-inducing, beauty-disguising mask and insist on going to that restaurant to cheer with friends and family.
I do not know what is wrong or wrong, and I have no intention to insert any value judgement. What I would like to share is that China seemed to have “lightened up” with COVID situation in mid 2020 and started to enjoy very close to pre-pandemic life in late 2020. Domestic cases are down to close to zero, and imported cases are immediately evacuated and quarantined in dedicated controlled places. Any discovery of positive cases would alarm the community, and everyone in the community and within proximity with potential exposure will receive health status update to RED, which not only “recommend” the person to be self-quarantine, but also ensure the recommendation by cutting the cord with any public services, effectively restricting his/her movement. With RED status on health code, one cannot take any public transportation, no access to restaurants or any other services, and is required to report health. Compromising personal privacy seem to be the national consensus in exchange for public health. Check out this study to learn more, COVID-19 and Health Code: How Digital Platforms Tackle the Pandemic in China, by Fan Liang.
As one might think, how is it possible to accept the digital surveillance by the government? But my friends and family are cool with it. This particular code creeping into everyone’s life is exactly what also ensures that any information can be shared instantly across the population, targeting at effective control. This code is also what ensures the safety of my dad when he was back on business travel again. At the end of last year, my family was able to back on badminton court with friends during weekends, and enjoy meetings with others every day. Entertainment industry continued to booming - shows have been taking place with real time audiences. Even though every one’s temperature is still required to be collected, life is very close back to normal with minimal disruption but precaution.
Maybe in the extreme crisis management, supreme digital surveillance is accepted as the countermeasure for greater good.
Daily change
“The Hammer and The Dance”
I am still in US, living the same as of the beginning of the pandemic in last year. The US response has really frustrated me for the past year. What’s even more depressing is that I can barely recognize the world hegemony that I dreamed of living as a kid. It has become something that it was not.
I really hope the vaccine roll out goes smoothly and quickly, and no more experiences have to be missed.
Photo from Upsplash
